20,000 eBooks sold!

And I still feel obscure ...

Comment

Comment by Benjamin Sobieck on June 9, 2011 at 11:37am: I think they rely on word of mouth. Earlier this week, my e-book cracked the Kindle Top 100 for free e-books (they divide the paid and free sides). As in "all of Amazon" Top 100. Guess what the average rating was?

2.0 stars

The thing is, review sites really liked it. Reviewers read a lot and could probably appreciate the experimental elements of the crime stories (it was an anthology). Joe Reader could not.

That was a cool run while it lasted. Now I think it's at #200 or something. That might've been the only time I'll have something in THE Top 100.

OK, I'm done tooting my horn.

Comment by Eric Christopherson on June 9, 2011 at 10:31am: And then there's the sleep deprivation, to which my typos attest ...

Comment by Eric Christopherson on June 9, 2011 at 10:30am: Apologies for the late responses. Two and a half weeks ago I became a father for the first time, and suffice it to say thing have been crazy round here. :)

Comment by Eric Christopherson on June 9, 2011 at 10:27am: Jennifer, it really does feel great to get a lot of positive feedback from strangers all over the world. I think this self-publishing revolution obtained via the digital revolution is a great thing. Now what we have in essence is a Pro-Am, to use a golf metaphor, and Pro-Ams are a lot of fun. I've got another book making the rounds in New York with my literary agent, and previously I'd be on pins and needles waiting for the decisions from various imprints. But now the pressure is off, and if the books doesn't sell in NY I know it'll sell everywhere else when I self-pub it. Just a completely different experience psychically.

Comment by Eric Christopherson on June 9, 2011 at 10:23am: Ingrid, I've sold a lot of books and yet my fortunes are so at the whim of Amazon that it's uncomfortable. For several months Crack-Up was in the top five or six hundred in the rankings, selling excess of 100 books a day, and then Amazon fiddled with their algorithms to favor newer releases (I know this from an acquaintance who is a search engine optimization expert) and suddenly the book dropped like a rock due to decreased visibility. I'd really gotten attached to selling without marketing. Now it looks as if I'll have to market to get my ranking, hence sales, back. But I won't. I'd rather finish the WIP and hope Amazon fiddles with their algorithms in my favor again ...

Comment by Eric Christopherson on June 9, 2011 at 10:18am: Glad you enjoyed Crack-Up, Dana. That's my best seller, and the feedback from readers has been great by and large. In fact it's in the top 100 among all suspense novels available for the Kindle based on reader reviews. I know this because Amazon recently experimented with a "top-rated" category for a few weeks but abandoned it. I guess not enough people rely upon ratings to make their purchases. I wonder what they do rely upon.

Comment by Benjamin Sobieck on June 6, 2011 at 12:11pm: So long anonymity, hello frustrated obscurity.

Comment by Jennifer Thomson on June 2, 2011 at 12:10pm: Way to go. How does it feel to be a bestselling author?

Comment by Dana King on June 2, 2011 at 9:22am: That's me and 19,999 of your closest friends. I enjoyed the book, liked the idea of your unreliable narrator, and that's all I'm going to say about it, as spoiler potential abounds.

Comment by I. J. Parker on June 2, 2011 at 12:11am: What? Details please. It sounds very impressive.

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