Just Amazing!

Amazing! Just when I thought my writing career was over; just when I started to slip into a deep, dark hole of despair; a spark of opportunity reignites it. It started months ago when I realized that pumping out twelve novels in a three year period can sometimes create immature and unseasoned work. So, after I finished my last novel I decided to take time off from writing and take a fresh look at my large collection of work.

I began by re-reading and editing my entire three book sci/fi series. Reading these books after a two year absence was like opening up an old home and seeing what needed to be dusted. Although the stories were fundamentally sound, I noticed many areas where I could improve on the stories and make them non-stop page turners. I spent three months in revisions before finally being satisfied with the work.

I started on my other books, gradually tightening each one until I, other writers, and my critique group, deemed them perfect. The aging process with manuscripts is much like the aging process of fine wine, being away from it for a while you notice subtle intricacies. This process took another six months and during that time I gave up the notion of becoming a bestselling author, being satisfied in the knowledge that I had written what I believed to be fantastic stories and if nothing else I would be respected for that.

A few weeks ago, I put SILENT INVASION the first sci/fi in the series up for free on Amazon. I placed a few promo spots and let my social network and author’s platform know of the promotion. To my utter astonishment and surprise, the book quickly went to #1 in the free store for children’s and YA science fiction and stayed in that position for six days. This sparked an increase in sales in my other books, both sci/fi and literary thrillers. I also noticed my Amazon prime page counts were soaring. Not only were the books downloaded but they were actually being read!

Fueled by the renewed interest in my material I decided to put my bestseller, DROP OUT on somewhat of a virtual promotional tour. I let my social media network know that the book was going to be featured on several sites and sent notice to my followers. Low and behold, the book shot up to #22 in all of literary fiction and went below the 1,000 mark in the entire paid Kindle store. More pages are being read and more of my books are selling.

I’m still riding that wave right now and last I checked I was still hovering @ 40 ranking for literary fiction. My sci/fi stuff continues to sell and I’m just finishing the last of the editing for one more of my older books and then I am going to start a new one, my thirteenth. I want to thank my readers and let aspiring authors know that with the interconnectivity of the world today there are always opportunities to be exposed and just when you think there’s no point to it all, with a little perseverance and drive, good things do happen.