Tag: stats

Progress – Naheli’s Sacrifice

After three weeks of being a published author, here are the facts up to date:

  • I’ve sold three paperback copies of Naheli’s Sacrifice — one to my mother and two to good friends. 🙂
  • I’ve sold eight e-book copies, one of which went to my mum again. 😀 The others were mostly bought by other writers I know via Holly Lisle‘s forum, but I think there are one or two that are unaccounted for, so they may have been actual sales, no telling.
  • I have 900 Kindle pages read via Kindle Unlimited, which makes for two people who read the book completely. Or ten who read a fifth each. 😀
  • I have five reviews on Amazon, two four-star and three five-star ones! Which is fantastic, I think.
  • I’ve been able to give away a total of 51 free copies via Amazon KDP Select, using two of my five free promotion days.
  • I’m doing another free promotion this Sunday.
  • I’m getting really good feedback from people who are reading Naheli’s Sacrifice right now. Better than I’d hoped for, actually, which makes me happy. The story has been described as tragic, stark, beautiful, hopeful, with an ending that might bring a smile — sums it up very nicely, I think!
  • I’ve earned too little money to even pay a tiny bill with it, and sales will very likely go down next months since my friends now all have a copy. 😀 I don’t mind, though. A writer friend just told me it took her six months before the first unsolicited sales started showing up, and I’m fine with that. It’s still grand to see my novel out there and to have the paperback right in my hands!
  • Also a fact: My best friend cried because she was so moved by what I wrote about her in the Acknowledgments. Isn’t that sweet?
  • Last fact: I’m SO going to do NaNoWriMo again this year! My eleventh time. Looking forward to November and 50,000 words on Darklight Rest. 🙂

nanowrimo_2016_webbanner_participant

Naheli’s Sacrifice is live!

Oh. My. God.

It’s so much. There’s so much! I don’t know where to start, I don’t know how to catch up, there’s just so much to do and tell and brag about! (This is me grinning here!)

Last week, I finally published Naheli! I ended up settling on Naheli’s Sacrifice for the title, and I’m so proud of the cover. It may not be the final one, because there’s always room for improvement, but I think it’s okay for now, and good enough to be out there. I can’t image Naheli is actually being looked at, being read by people!

Of course, the big crash came already a day or two later. Two copies sold: to my wife and my mother. 😀 I was prepared for that, though, so it’s all right. It takes time to get the book out there, to even get people to realise it exists. This self-publishing business is IMMENSE. There’s so much to learn, there are so many resources out there, and I’m excited and so enjoying the process. Finally I am working on my big dream for real!

But for now, just for today: I’m happy. Naheli is out there, it’s gone to about 20 people for free when I ran a one-day promotion last Sunday, and I’m excited to see if there will be any feedback at all. It feels strange, knowing that the story is there in the hands of people I don’t know. I’m so curious to know them. I want to know what they are like, why they decided to download it, what they usually read. If they are like me or completely different, where in the world they live. So… if you are one of them, one of the 20 people who own Naheli’s story right now… please leave a comment and tell me who you are. I always imagined myself as the kind of writer who would actually talk to her readers. 🙂

The latest days, I’ve worked on putting together a free e-book containing some bits and pieces of notes and pictures I’ve collected during the whole Naheli-creation-process. Amazing, the things I found! Maps that are four years old, things I hardly remembered planning to put into the story. I had time travel planned, of course! 😀  Along with alternate dimensions, dark angels (those still fascinate me — I may go back to them one day), the mainland, a fanatic sect called TRUTH… oh, it was exciting. 🙂 But I do think Naheli’s story turned out better this way.

I’m working steadily on a new project. Will post more about that later. AHHHH, I’m so happy and proud! Talk to me, treasured readers! 🙂