My brother recently e-mailed me some questions for a friend of his who is trying to get his novel published. I am happy to answer any questions I can related to publishing. I wish there had been someone there for me to pose questions to at the beginning of my journey.
I'm considered a newbie to the world of publishing myself, because other than some newspaper and magazine articles, "Once in Every Generation" was my first published novel.
I think I have spent more time promoting this book than writing it. That is the big problem with publishing today. Even well-known authors must promote themselves. So, to my delight, the very last question I received from this man was the following:
There is one final burning question I have for Lauren. How did she get enough ebook sales to drive the book into the browsing territory? My sales rank is so low the only way anyone can find them is if they already know the title or my name. Only the top couple hundred thousand are visible via browsing. Another catch-22 that drives me crazy.
Imagine my surprise when I read that. There is a site which tells you what your book's ranking is on Amazon. Not too many people attach any true importance to it (unless you hit #1), because it changes second-by-second - it depends on the time of day or night you look it up. When my novel first became available, I believe I was ranked around 1,958,658. Which meant there were 1,958, 657 books being bought before mine.
As I wrote, the number fluctuates and I was tickled to see when it ranged below 200,000. I was dancing when I saw it ranged below 40,000. Imagine that. Only 40,000 other available books were being bought before mine.
My elan didn't last very long, as the next time I looked I was back to over 100,000. Okay, but I did have my moment in the sun ... if for only a few seconds.
AMMENDMENT: The ranking hit 24,654 ... YIPPEEEEEE!
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND SOMEONE TO PUBLISH A BOOK THAT NOT ONLY HAS THE STRUGGLES OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS FOR 21 YEARS, BUT LOOSING MY HUSBAND AT THE TENDER AGE OF 43, LEFT TO RAISE A 16 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. I HAVE BEEN TRYING SINCE 1993. I GOT AS FAR AS AN ARTICLE IN A DISABILITY MAGAZINE OUT OF BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS. I HEAR SO MANY PEOPLE BEING ABLE TO TELL THEIR STORY, BUT I CAN'T FIND ANYONE WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED. I EVEN RECEIVED A RESPONSE FROM DOUBLEDAY PUBLISHING SAYING THEY HAD A SIMILAR STORY TO MINE. REALLY?? I DOUBT THAT. ANY SUGGESTIONS. SO FAR I HAVE EXHAUSTED ALL OF THEM. IT'S NOT EVEN ABOUT MONEY, BUT ABOUT A SINGLE MOTHER DEALING WITH DEATH AND MS. I LIKE TO CALL IT A DOUBLE WHAMMY. I JUST WANT TO GET MY STORY OUT.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU, LEXI GARGANO