A Little Lift

I'm in a weird in-between phase of launching a book and watching the sales number dwindle. Oh, that first week was so exciting! Poison ranked pretty high on the Amazon Bestsellers Rank...and then it started to fall. That can be discouraging to an author. (I was smart, though. I took a screen shot of my high Amazon rank to capture the moment.)

So today, as I'm trying not to think so much about my book sales, I found my name mentioned in a Speculative Fiction blog dated February 14th, 2014. I cannot tell you what a boost that gave me! Here's a small portion:

So, that was it. Boredom. Didn’t find the quality up-to-snuff when I compared it to what I was reading in the ABA.

I was not alone. I found that out later, though.

This week I asked some simple questions and some readers of CSF answered. Here are snippets of their responses to me on this subject:

“Up until just a couple of years ago (maybe 2010?) I had pretty much given up on Christian speculative fiction. Christian fiction had lost my trust.

It is only recently that it’s starting to gain it back. And not because of anything I’ve seen in the CBA. It’s because of solid storytellers like Mike Duran, Ashley Bazer, Kat Heckenbach, Jill Domschot and Robynn Tolbert. Even some of the more overtly Christian stories, like ones by Kevin Newsome and Ellen C. Maze, I really enjoyed.

The Christian fiction establishment (CBA) isn’t changing enough to really impress me.”

Wow! For my name to be among that list of authors, I am blown away! I am honored and most blessed.

This brings to mind another topic I've had on my mind lately. As I've been promoting my book through various groups on Facebook, I've been trying to come up with catchy one-liners that will pique interest.

Those one-liners are more than just snappy words, though. They are promises that I must make good on throughout the story. As a reader, you're entrusting me with a block of time that you will commit to reading my made-up plot and characters. That's precious and valuable, and I can't take that without giving something in return.

So with that, I do pledge to give you the very best story I can craft. I'll work with a team of editors and beta readers to make it as flawless as possible, given that human (and programming!) errors can occur. And I'll thank you, repeatedly, for the gift of your time and the emotional investment you're making to take in my characters' stories.

The reader makes the writing all worthwhile.