I was a little shocked when I came to write today and saw that it's been nearly a year since my last post. There are a couple of reasons for that. 1) I wasn't sure if I had anything to say. 2) I was trying to get my 2nd book finished and build a business.
Well, this weekend all that changed.
I did finally finish my 2nd Custodian Novel. It is called The Emerald Staff and there's a picture and some links in the sidebar. I released it as an e-book at the end of April this year and decided to do a free promo with The Amulet. Lots of other authors do this and I thought I'd give it a go. The Amulet at the time was sitting around #80,000 in the Amazon rankings and had probably been there since it was released in 2009. Writing I can do, marketing, despite my best effort, not so much.
So on Tues 5/10/11 I got an email from Amazon telling me the book will be free by Weds afternoon. Thursday lunchtime I was curious to see if it had shifted at all, maybe to #79,000 :-) I nearly fell off my chair.
Overnight The Amulet was torn from total obscurity to #22 on the Top 100 Bestseller list for free books. By Friday it was at #14 overall and #1 on the Children's Top 100 Bestseller list for free books, where it stayed for 3 days.
Ecstatic could not describe my feelings appropriately, but it just keeps getting better. After a couple of days, sales of The Emerald Staff started coming in and today it debuted at #25 on the Children's Hot New Releases list and broke onto the Children's Top 100 Bestseller list for paid books at #93.
And that, my friends, is the "power" of Amazon.
It has been a roller coaster ride and I'm still a bit dazed. For all of you who are now curious to find out more about me, firstly, I thank you sincerely for your interest in my work and secondly, you're welcome to stay right here and join me on this journey.
I was surprised yesterday to find that I would be your first "follower" via the Google Friend Connect. But now that I'm here, I feel the need to stop "lurking" and speak up. :-)
ReplyDeleteFirstly, thanks for sharing The Amulet for free! That is actually how I discovered your work... I subscribe to Pixel of Ink on facebook and your book was featured recently. I love free, but I also love good stories and good writing. I enjoyed your book so much that I really couldn't put it down, and immediately purchased the sequel once I finished The Amulet. That was probably 2 days ago?
Well I just finished The Emerald Staff last night (stayed up late to finish it) and loved it too! :-) As with the first, I couldn't put it down! I found them both fun and exciting, and so refreshing to read through a good adventure/love story without having to wade through a lot of trash. Your characters are "real" and entertaining as well as respectable.
Thank you for sharing your world with us! :-) I wish you all the best and look forward to more!
Hi Mandy, Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I'm getting my thinking cap on for the next one, so if there is anything you would like to see more of please let me know.
ReplyDeleteps, thanks for being my 1st follower :-)
Alison