Author Evans offers thoughts on economy, books

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 25, 2009 | by Cynthia Kimball Humphreys

DN: Are you still providing financial seminars? How are they being received and do you plan on taking them international?

EVANS: I do seminars (but) we're not pursuing it nearly as heavy as we were. I will probably this fall, start up again, but I'm in the middle of writing my next novel so I've had to slow down. No, I've had no reason to take it internationally. I would, though, like to do it in Taiwan someday because the book ("The Five Lessons" was) the No. 1 best-seller in Taiwan. In fact I just saw another version in Taiwan that they sent out; it's also a workbook or something. It seems to have quite a following over there, but with the exception of Canada, I haven't toured internationally with any of my books.

DN: Is the economy affecting what you do?

EVANS: You know what, not really, I've been incredibly blessed. My agent informs me that I'm one of just less than a handful of authors whose sales have actually increased over the last few years and so I'm very fortunate. Thank goodness for my fans and that people discover my books, but overall book sales are definitely down across the board.

DN: So, what's it like being a writer?

EVANS: Well, it could be a really nice easy life in a sense if that's all I did. My staff laughs when people ask if I just sit home and write all day. The truth is the vast majority of my time isn't spent writing and that's because of my own personality flaws. I have to be doing six things at once and that's too bad because it would be much more enjoyable to just sit down and write. If that's all I did I would have a very simple life. I could probably move to the country somewhere or move back to Italy and hang out and write because that was a very simple lifestyle and actually some days I really want to do that -- the solitude of it -- and someday I will do that because I can't keep up the pace that I've been doing for the last 15 years.

DN: What's it like for you writing at your ranch in Zion's? Is it a special place for you?

EVANS: The ranch is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It's the only place I've ever seen in the United States that seems to get the same sun as in Italy where in the morning it turns everything pink and blue birds perch on our front porch. It's the most beautiful place. I just long to be there all the time. It's the only place I can truly get out of the world and shut off my phone and not care.

DN: So, back to the financial seminars, are you going from state to state to recruit members?

EVANS: Yeah, but we haven't done the heavy recruiting yet. We'll probably wait until the fall to do that. We're just building slowly right now, getting our experts solidified and making all that work. But right now we're happy with 2,000 members. It's a lot of people in our community and our net worth is approaching $80 million.

DN: That's amazing, and when did it start? It hasn't even been a year old has it?

EVANS: No, we started it about February.

DN: Are you finding that woman are buying "The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me for Women" and are also signing up on your community.5lessons.com site as well?