Yesterday afternoon, I turned on my computer to check sales for my novel, Life is But a Dream. The novel was published a little over three months ago, and I am thrilled to write that I have been averaging between 20 and 30 sales per day for this month. So, I was expecting to see about 12 or so sales for the day since it was early in the afternoon. Instead, the numbers indicated that I had already sold 73 copies for that day. My ranking was at 590 for the Kindle Store (all sales out of a million titles on Kindle) and 40 in Kindle Literary Fiction.
I would like to tell you that I pumped my arm into the air and yelled, “Right on!” or “Woo Hoo!” or some other celebratory exclamation. But, honestly, my first thought was – This must be a mistake! I called to my husband (we both work from home) and he ran into the room. We sat together, watching the sales number increase and my ranking drop. Before the day was over, I had sold 152 copies (in a single day!). The next morning I woke up to find my novel listed as #3 on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers list. 20 Years Younger: Look Younger, Feel Younger, Be Younger!, which had just been featured on Oprah, was at #1. And there I was at #3. Actually, I almost expected all of those sales to disappear overnight. Some sort of crazy Amazon accounting error. But, no, there they were. And even more sales happened while I slept!
How do you deal with that? Well, I took screenshots of the Movers and Shakers page and of my rankings (#262 in Kindle Store and #19 in Kindle Literary Fiction) and sent them to my kids and some of my friends. I went to my writer’s group on Facebook (Indie Writers Unite) and shared the news with them. And that just might have been the very best part – all of those writers giving me a virtual slap on the back and sharing the kind of joy that only another writer can understand.
I wish I could tell you exactly what happened to make the sales go crazy, but I just don’t know. I did a guest post the day before on Mark Edward’s site IndieIQ. Mark is the author of Killing Cupid and has a really nice site, but that cannot explain all of these sales. Many of my writer friends are saying the book has just “hit its stride” and maybe that is true. Or maybe God is giving me a little wink. I don’t know.
All I know is that I am grateful. Grateful to all of those readers willing to take a chance on an unknown author. Grateful to my family and friends for putting up with the silly emails and text messages with updates on my rankings. Grateful to Amazon for giving so many new authors a platform to publish on Kindle. Thank you.
Hi Cheryl!
I just found you via Kindleboards on the thread “Ss your book in the “top 100”. So, being the “student” of other independent authors! (which is what I will be in like THREE short weeks! 🙂 ), brought me to your blog/website to see your books, and hear your story.
First, I’m so much like you in the sense that I cringed at the thought of having a website! I took a 2 year sabbatical from all social networking. For TWO years! No facebook, (except occasionally getting on my hubby’s since we practically share)! But, like you, I’m finding the powerful connection and “tool” social networking is for being a writer! I just put up my site two weeks ago, and about to launch twitter and FB again. (Although, I really DO NOT want to get on facebook! But, I have to if I want to join the independent writer’s network 🙂
Anyway, just want to let you know that it’s awesome to see how God is blessing you! 🙂 I’m a christian, as well:) Anyway, just wanted to “virtually introduce” myself, haha. Best wishes and congrats again!
Lacy Camey 🙂
Thanks for the kind comment, Lacy. I sent you an email. 🙂