Selling books? It’s got to be done. No, actually, it HASN’T got to be done. It’s something I’m doing.
Caroline pauses to examine her motives, but not for very long.
I DO really need to recoup my financial investment. I DO want people to love my writing and want more of it – which necessitates getting my book out there and selling it and people actually reading and enjoying it. And I DO want to be taken up by an agent or traditional publisher. And, of course, it WOULD be Quite Nice (British understatement) to be fabulously wealthy and famous!
Selling books is a swings and roundabouts world, though.
Mostly swings…
A selling books UP swing:
Last night, I looked on Amazon (to check if Of Night and Light is available on Kindle yet) and there was a notification next to the paperback…
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
WOW, I thought!
Immediately followed by the reality check that I don’t know how many they had in stock initially and it might only have been two copies.
A selling books DOWN swing:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 132,902
A little lurch of disappointment. SERIOUSLY? My book is ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND TWO-TH in the best sellers’ list?
Immediately followed by hoots of laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of taking any of this in the slightest bit seriously!
In the world of selling books, let me never cease to be amused.
It’s a huge game, isn’t it? Games are meant to be FUN.
Your “it’s meant to be FUN!” comment put me in mind of an incident many years ago in Africa. We were on holiday, camping near lake Rudolph and it rained in July (which it isn’t meant to and we found ourselves almost cut off from the road (dirt track) by rising water. We were wading the vehicles across the (new) river and one of our missionary friends’ young children started to wail from the back of the vehicle. Quick as a flash his mother responded (in a firm but friendly voice), “Shut up Jeremy. This is FUN!”