In the book business, there are technical bestselling authors who manage to hawk anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of copies in a relatively short sales window. And then there are the bonkers successful writers who actually keep the lights on.

Sarah Janet Maas belongs in the latter, brighter category. Her “romantasy” (romance and fantasy) books are packaged together as multivolume doorstoppers and are widely available. They have enjoyed sales of more than 38 million copies “in English,” according to her website.