It's official - My Novel is Officially Published!

I just had to post this, as I am in complete and utter shock:



This is War and Military, a category I didn't even put in when I published my book. And I'm ranked higher than Tom Clancy?!?

Current stats - top 1915 overall, No 22 in Post-Apocalyptic.

I. Just. Cannot. Believe. It.

Oh yeah, the interactive chat with my friend's class went very well - what an intelligent and engaging group of students in that class. I can only hope some of them are able to follow in my footsteps someday.

Update: My book is still charging like a rhino through the ranks - top 10 in post-apocalyptic, #1358 overall as of this writing.

But with success, there's always a downside. I just got my first 1-star review....(sheds tears). It's over on the UK site, but still - it's a dagger to the heart. (cries some more.) The reviewer stated he was "very disappointed" and that it read like a "low budget 70's disaster movie."

Oh well, I didn't write this to be a literary masterpiece. It's the modern-day version of the dime novel - pulp fiction to be read for light entertainment - just like those 70's disaster movies I loved so much as a kid...lol. Of course, my UK ranking jumped 200 points (from 2700 to 2500) after that review came in - I guess people don't like being told what sucks and what doesnt....lol.

Hopefully I'll do a bit better with my writing for Book #2 - you gotta start somewhere, huh?

A_Read said:

I still think that's amazing that you've only had the one negative review, considering how many negative reviews nyt bestsellers and even literary classics usually get! I'm terrified of that sort of thing whenever I get published (if), so I think you're brave for even checking up on that! By the way, when I checked about ten minutes ago, all that came up on your main page were five star ratings (though I am checking from the usa).

Congrats, good luck, and thanks for sharing how you made your dream a reality--it's inspiriring!

Click to expand...

Thanks To see the UK page, you have to type in amazon dot com / uk and search for Winter Fall there. I just happened to check it early this morning to see what the ranking was, and I checked it again a bit later, and that's when I saw the 1-star. Ouch...lol. But in a way, it's a relief too - now that I've scored a onner (sic), I can relax...hehe.

But yeah, I'm totally floored with how well my book's done - I sure hope other authors on this site are able to enjoy this kind of success someday.

Note - just checked my US page again, and I've bagged a new 5-star:

"This novel was well written and has great character development, natural dialogue, and excellent narrative. The globe spanning scale of this apocalyptic tale fascinated me. The author's vision was so imaginative. I'm recommending it to my friends."

Talk about a salve for a wounded soul...

Update

In the beginning, when I was writing this thing, I entertained lovely thoughts of selling a 100 copies a month. But I checked myself, thinking I'd be lucky to sell 10 in a month, considering I was a nobody, sticking his toes into the big pond for the very first time.

And then I published, and people started buying my book. Just a few at first, from family and friends, and then a few more. 10 books, then 20. When I hit a 100 books, it was time to pop the cork....lol. But it didn't stop there...little did I know things were just getting started.

10,000 ranking, 5000, 2000, and after long period of nail-biting, I finally broke the 1000 barrier. This is where I stood this morning:



Sales ranking of 713 as of this writing. Is this the peak? No way of knowing. But never, ever in my wildest dreams would I make it this far - not on my first, and admittedly imperfect book. But I must be doing something right...lol.

I hope this will serve as an inspiration that a "nobody" with zero (yes, zero) publishing experience can reach the sky in the self-published world of Amazon KDP. I know this won't last long, since I don't have a big-name publisher backing me, but I sure as heck am going to write more books...lol.