Strange Things are a Foot at the Circle-K

Ok, that's not my line, it's a line from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure but it's one I've always loved...I just don't want to be accused of being a plagiarizer. That would be bad. I'll be honest. When I published my novel in August I thought it would be successful. It still will, I believe that, I just thought it would have some success early. It has a good title, a great cover and it's a good story. The problem of course, was driving traffic. I didn't know how difficult that would be.

I knew that all my sales had been to friends and family and I'm forever grateful but I wanted more. I didn't just want a few sales to people I know so I could say look at me. I signed up for KDP Select through Amazon and with that program they allow you to put your book free for up to five days. I hadn't sold a book in four weeks so I thought what could it hurt and I set it to be free on Monday and Tuesday. I woke up Monday morning and forgot about it the first hour I was up. Then I looked up my sales page, hoping to have 5 or 10 downloads. I had 510. I couldn't believe it. I had things I wanted to do that day but I was rooted to the spot and I just watched the numbers all day, it was my first bit of success. All told in the 48 hours, it was downloaded 2246 times on the US site, 305 on the UK and 46 on the DE site. A shade under 2600 downloads when a day before, nobody cared.

I know most people probably download tons of free books every day, that's what happens when a kindle will hold 3000 books. People fill them up because they can. My hope is that 10% will read it. Further still, my hope is 10% of those will leave a review. The first of that 10% I was looking for left a review on Monday, a 1 star review. I couldn't believe it. It's the first negative I've heard about my writing from anybody and it was really rude. He admitted that he stopped after a couple chapters and asked if a 14 year old wrote it. To be honest, I wish I were still 14. There's a lot I would love a second chance at. I would love to find the girl I grew up with and haven't seen in 22 years. Not reaching for that brass ring is my biggest regret. I would like to do better in school. I didn't try in school because I didn't need to. I wish I had tried and I wish I would have cherished the time I had with my Father instead of being almost 40 and struggling to remember every moment as they slip further away over the past 15 years since his death. It was irresponsible to leave a review like that, especially when he didn't even read it but after I stared at it for a while, I went and looked at the 1 star reviews from my two favorite books from last year, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Help and I felt instantly better. I will admit though, every time I go to my Amazon page I'm waiting for another review to come in and treating it like a land mine that could go off at any moment. I would love to hear from somebody else but I'm praying it's not negative. I know the successful people don't pay attention to reviews, good or bad but I'm not to that point yet. I devour each one....and it devours me.

I was wondering what would happen after my book went back to $2.99. Would it go back into obscurity, only selling copies when one of my friends decided to buy it or would I start to see some success. So far, I'm thrilled it's the latter. In 6 months I sold 47 books, positive they were all to friends and family. Yesterday I sold 23 books and today already another 10. It's a modest start but a start nonetheless. My second book is done and once I get the cover and editing, I will publish it. I finally feel like maybe I have a chance and I couldn't be happier.

I DO still remember how to blog!!

So I haven't written a blog entry in a few months. Partly out of frustration because I'm having difficulty driving traffic to my book but also because I knew I was the only one seeing it. With that I figured anything I had to say I could just do it in my head a la Kevin Arnold in The Wonder Years or John Dorian in Scrubs.

Now I look up and things have changed. I actually have some followers now and I'm extremely grateful. So much so that I thought I should stop in and say hi. Hopefully it will give me the motivation to do so more often. As none of you know, I was the 15th employee at eBay, it was an amazing experience. I say was because in October they decided after 14 years that it was time for me to move on...it's a long story. At any rate, I moved back to California from Utah, which is a major improvement and I'm currently taking some time off to focus on my second book.

Sun, Surf, Suicide, the second book in the Topper McMullen series should be out by the end of the year and I'm excited about the direction it is taking. It's proven to be a little harder to write then the first book but I'm working through my blocks and I'm better and it's a better book for it. Anyway, I just wanted to drop in and say hi, show that I'm still alive. To my followers, thank you again and if you ever find time to read my book, I promise you'll be surprised....and in a good way.

Blah, Blah and more BLAH!!!

I am coming to you from my living room, I have NCIS on mute because I'd like some quiet but I don't really want to be alone. I just thought I would give a few musings about my first two weeks as a (self)published author.

I guess the first musing is amusing. It's amusing that I thought I would have more success than I am having. I've sold 20 books so far, which is amazing, don't get me wrong but I'm 99.93% positive that those copies are all sold to family and friends. The title is intriguing, the cover is amazing and I'm really proud of the book. I've posted and responded to a handful of posts on the kindle boards but that hasn't garnered me anything. So I've tried to find book bloggers who will review my book. Most will not review self published work. To be honest, I can't really blame them. I'm sure a lot of the stuff that gets self published isn't worth reading. I did email three book bloggers and sent them my book but I haven't heard back from any of them. It's possible that they will/are reading it and I'll find a Christmas present of a review in the near future but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I've done a lot of reading and a lot of studying about self publishing and the number one thing people say is that the best publicity is to write a second book. I'm doing that, I'm happy with the direction but my question is, if nobody is finding the first book, what makes you think they will find the second book? That sounds like a fair question. I think my next course of action is going to be to try and find out about getting my book listed at goodreads.

I guess I will keep plugging away. I keep thinking if I can find that magical blogger to read my book and review it I might gain a little momentum. It's not that the brass ring is just out of my reach, it's that I don't know where it's located.

So if anybody is reading this and my best guess says there isn't I hope you have read or will read my book. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm going to keep plugging away. Right now, I'm that tree falling in the forest and I don't seem to making a sound. Hopefully someday soon, somebody will hear me.