A Glance Back – A Great Deal

Tuesday of this week was the day after all our Labor Day company left for home, and I began the mundane work of washing bedding, cleaning, and generally getting back into a routine. I sat down at the computer and buzzed through the 103 emails that had accumulated and just happened to notice that one of them was from my aunt, Ruth Danner. Ruth and I grew up together, we’re both writers, and she’s actually younger than I am, even though she is my aunt. (My grandmother was a very prolific woman!) Ruth’s message said that she’d turned on her Kindle and up popped a very nice ad about my novel MOTHER EARTH FATHER SKY.

I immediately did a little sleuthing, found an email from my publicist Laura at Open Road Integrated Media (my Ebook publisher) and discovered that MEFS had been selected as the Kindle Daily Deal. Wow! Was that a shocker.

The rest of that day, I was pretty much involved in watching the numbers (I know that’s vain.) and learning all about national ranks for Ebooks and even for authors . Wednesday was more of the same. Although my novel was back to normal price, people were still buying it. During those two days, MOTHER EARTH FATHER SKY rose to #3 nationwide for Amazon Ebook sales, and my author ranking rose to #4 nationwide . That author ranking lasted only a few hours, but I have to admit that it was heady to see myself ranked higher than Stephen King and Clive Cussler and some of the other  big name writers out there.

(Photo by Pinguino)

I’m aware that those rankings are simply reflections of immediate sales. And even now as I write this on Friday, I’m dropping fast through the 200s, but I’m still delighted, especially when you consider that a few months ago (according to the Amazon chart I discovered last night) my author ranking was coming in at around #20,000. I’m also aware that it will eventually drop back into those less lofty places.

Despite all this talk about fame, please know that I know fame is a very brittle, unstable foundation for a life, for self-worth, or for happiness. I’m so grateful that I don’t need accolades to tell me that I’m loved. My Bible tells me that. My family tells me that. My friends tell me that. I don’t need high author ranks to motivate me to work each day in whatever way God intends. But I did enjoy my 15 minutes of fame, and this is my opportunity to thank all of you for your support, for your help, for your kind words.

And for a couple of absolutely lovely days!

Blessings,

Sue