
There was a sign by the register. Five words, hand height, right where you'd see it while you were paying: WE SELL SECRETS; NO REFUNDS. Nobody ever asked about it until they needed to.
I worked that counter for 2 1/2 years and about 15,000 shows, in a magic shop inside Universal Studios. The owner taught me the whole business in pieces so small I didn't notice I was being taught. How a price gets accepted. What a person is actually buying when they hand you money for a secret. Why the customer who feels cheated is never angry about the thing he's naming.
23 short chapters, every one of them a scene from behind that counter. No lectures, no frameworks, no charts. You watch it happen and you take away what you take away.
It ships soon. Put your name down and I'll send you the date.