Tuesday, September 13, 2011

One Success at a time.

One of the nicest things about being self published, is the fact that your success is directly related to the effort you put in.  It's also not tied to anyone else's time tables or agendas.  When I look back to March and remember the things I had in mind for The Eternal Gateway trilogy, having my book for sale in a book store was a listed goal.  Knowing that I would be taking the eBook route it wasn't very high up on the list.  When I made the paperback version of Requiem, I went with Lightning Source.  I liked that it was tied to Ingram and they were the POD company cutting out all middle men like Create Space or Smashwords.  Well, over the weekend after a few weeks/months of hard work and social engineering, Requiem is for sale at Barnes and Noble.  Not the web site.  The brick and mortar store you have to walk into.



It's not the best photo of me, but that's not the point.  No major publishing contract, no years of rejection letters.  Just hard work and my book is right there, on the same shelf.

This coming Saturday I will be having my second book signing in Hagerman.  There is an Arts and Crafts show and a Car Show going on at the same time so hopefully the increased foot traffic will result in more exposure and sales.  Vista Print offered 100 postcards for free (I had to pay for shipping).  I had them made up to sign and hand out to people who own eReaders and would still like something signed from the author.  They look great with the cover on one side and the back has the blurb, isbn, website, email etc.


Last week I made good on my writing goals as well.  Guardian more than doubled in size from 16,000 words to 35,000 words.  It felt really good to see it grow.

Congratulations to the following winners of the September Requiem eBook a day give away.  The month is almost half over so if you haven't signed up yet. There is still time.


Sept 7, Philip Brennan
Sept 8 Luis Stands
Sept 9 Jaime Winterwerb
Sept 10 John Russell
Sept 11 Bart Webber
Sept 12 John Leavitt
Sept 13 Steven Black



7 comments:

  1. I just discovered this blog and I'd like to get where you are at one point in my life. Do you have any suggestions for a young writer like myself?

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  2. That's brilliant news. I was so busy looking at the book I didn't even notice you in the picture at first, sorry!

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  3. @Cedric- Write, write, and write some more. Then edit, edit and edit more. Read up and study how the industry works, how it is changing and take notes.

    @Sarah- It's so awesome, it's hard to notice anything else!

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  4. Congrats, SB. It's fun watching your progress. Keep up the hard work!

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  5. Great job! Sounds like a success story to me--the kind we writers want to hear. Keep up the good work.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  6. Congrats..its great to see your publishing success and journey. Its truly inspirational for other writers.

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  7. @Aron- Thanks, it's been a fun ride so far.

    @Arlee- I mark it down as one. I also secured a book signing at B&N in November.

    @Rachna- Thank you. I think a lot of people wait for things to happen instead of making them happen.

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