We know the author receives a one time fee of $2500. On top of that, the author will receive $1.50 per book sold. This is a constant rate and is linear because of this. We can use y=mx+b. M is the slope or rate of change. M here is $1.50. B is the starting value which is $2500 here.
We write y=1.5x+2500.
This equation will give the amount of money the author earns for x number of books sold. If y=7000 for the author earning 7000. We will use inverse operations to isolate and find x.