It's pretty fun pretending to be one of the bigwigs. Because truthfully, I'm so far from it.
When I list my book free for a day on Amazon -- and every self-pubbed author can attest to this -- you turn into this "top-selling" author ... but only temporarily. When a book is free, people tend to take it. Great. That equals thousands of "sales" for me. (Unpaid sales).
But the hours and days immediately after the book is free are filled with stragglers. They're the ones who check to see if the book is still free, see it isn't, and still buy it.
Those stragglers make me a super-author, because their purchase turns me into a "Top 100 paid children's book" in the classic, or social situations category, in which my book sits on Amazon.
Where else can my dinky, little book place next to the top rankings of Bridge to Terabithia, or The Yearling, or Because of Winn-Dixie? Never, usually. But, when I sell more than enough, I'm right up there with the best-sellers. All of them. Newberry Medal winners and Honor Books too.
This is all so hilarious and surreal.
It's funny because:
1. I'm so not a top-selling author. Really I'm not.
2. I published this book ... not a publisher. How the heck did my book get on this list? The reader did it.
3. I am the agent, editor, book-formatter and publicist. Again, how did I do this? The reader did it.
4. I offered the book for free, just to get this ranking. Sounds a little wrong, but is a lot right.
5. I haven't read half the books in the top 100 list I'm in. So lame. That needs to change.
6. I really feel like a fraud. No really, I do. Who am I again?
7. I love being up there with authors who write amazing stuff. That's a good funny, but still funny.
8. Just like the Sesame Street song, "one of these things to do not belong here." Oh yeah, me.
9. I did this all on my own. Wait, didn't I already say that?
10. I will only stay on that list for a couple of days at best. Really hilarious, because best-selling authors stay on this list for years!
So, it only lasts for a few days, but to be a pretend "top-selling" author sort of makes me actually feel like an author. And heck, if that's not enough motivation to write, then I don't know what is.
Keep writing!
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| Really hard to see, but my book is # 57 between The Yearling and The View from Saturday. |
But the hours and days immediately after the book is free are filled with stragglers. They're the ones who check to see if the book is still free, see it isn't, and still buy it.
Those stragglers make me a super-author, because their purchase turns me into a "Top 100 paid children's book" in the classic, or social situations category, in which my book sits on Amazon.
Where else can my dinky, little book place next to the top rankings of Bridge to Terabithia, or The Yearling, or Because of Winn-Dixie? Never, usually. But, when I sell more than enough, I'm right up there with the best-sellers. All of them. Newberry Medal winners and Honor Books too.
This is all so hilarious and surreal.
It's funny because:
1. I'm so not a top-selling author. Really I'm not.
2. I published this book ... not a publisher. How the heck did my book get on this list? The reader did it.
3. I am the agent, editor, book-formatter and publicist. Again, how did I do this? The reader did it.
4. I offered the book for free, just to get this ranking. Sounds a little wrong, but is a lot right.
5. I haven't read half the books in the top 100 list I'm in. So lame. That needs to change.
6. I really feel like a fraud. No really, I do. Who am I again?
7. I love being up there with authors who write amazing stuff. That's a good funny, but still funny.
8. Just like the Sesame Street song, "one of these things to do not belong here." Oh yeah, me.
9. I did this all on my own. Wait, didn't I already say that?
10. I will only stay on that list for a couple of days at best. Really hilarious, because best-selling authors stay on this list for years!
So, it only lasts for a few days, but to be a pretend "top-selling" author sort of makes me actually feel like an author. And heck, if that's not enough motivation to write, then I don't know what is.
Keep writing!