It’s now 3 days after my “official” release of Alluring Turmoil and I am completely blown away by all that transpired this weekend.
I imagined I would do well, but I never in a million years imagined I would do what I did in sales, the charts, and rankings.
I had a couple of “freak outs” this weekend (ok, more than a couple) and there “might” have been an instance when I needed to breathe into a paper bag to calm down. But the weekend was amazing and the experience was surreal.
I have had numerous people question what I did to get the sales and rankings I got and I even got a mention in USA TODAY. Yes, USA TODAY.
The honest answer is… I have absolutely no idea.
I wrote my book.I made friends with authors I admire. I promoted the hell out of myself. I contacted every book blog I could think of and offered an ARC. I sent out 62 ARC’s and I received less than a handful of reviews from that though, so I don’t know that it affected my sales very much. But the main thing I did was I SOLD myself.
My editor and my formatter both contacted me this weekend about my rankings and sales and stated they had never before seen a new Indie author with their debut book break into the top 500 sales on Kindle. I am a little bit shocked by this. I didn’t do anything really spectacular, I just SOLD the hell out of myself and my book.
Things I did:
I made Chapter One free and available as a teaser on my Blog about a month before Alluring Turmoil’s release.
I posted photo teasers with quotes from the book.
I posted reviews as they came in from ARC’s and Beta’s.
I made a “Cast” folder with photos of who I would cast as my characters.
I posted my Book Cover and had a Cover Reveal with a lot of blogs and author friends as soon as it was available.
I made and shared Alluring Turmoil’s Playlist.
But the main thing I did was just keep at it and promote, promote, promote myself and my book.
I’ve had multiple people ask me about my sales, but I don’t want to tell exact numbers. I don’t want people getting resentful and I think that’s kind of private, but they have been amazing. Far greater than I ever imagined and I am so blown away.
I have had so much support and people have truly been amazing. I’m so humbled and grateful.
I’m a small town girl from Louisiana. I’m not “Hollywood” and I never want to be. Even if I do “make it” as far as it goes, I pray that I will always be true to myself and where I came from. I never want to take for granted the people who helped get me to where I am and to where I pray I’m going.
I have very passionate “fans” (and you have no idea how strange that is for me to say that) and that amazes me.
I don’t have amazing reviews from everyone, but I’m ok with that. Some people hate my book, and that’s ok. I don’t write for those people. I write for myself and for the people who do love my work and my characters.
I don’t love every book I read either, but one thing I do make sure to do is be kind in my criticism. And if I can’t leave a decent review, I try not to leave one at all, but that’s just me and maybe it’s just the way I am.
Main point of this post is to thank everyone who’s made my release so amazeballs. Y’all have truly blown me away and I am eternally grateful. I appreciate you all!
I can’t wait to being you Book 2 and more!
Here’s to many years of books! 🙂