MILESTONE: 25,000 Books Sold!!

I am so excited to post that I have officially sold 25,000 total copies of my ebooks since I first self-published BEAUTIFUL DEMONS back at the end of October, 2010. In less than 8 months, I have become an author with a small but growing and dedicated fanbase. It's truly a dream come true!

Back in March when I hit the 10K milestone, I made a prediction that if I was lucky, I would hit 25K sold in June or July. Here I am, right on time, and so excited I can't see straight.

This week, Amazon announced that self-published author John Locke was the eighth author ever to join the Kindle Million club. In order to get in, you have to have sold one million copies of your ebooks in the Kindle store. The names on the list were sales giants like Nora Roberts and James Patterson. Now, the list includes an Indie author (with, I might add, no intention of signing a contract with a legacy publisher). I would love to someday be a member of the Kindle million club. Hey, I figure I've only got 975,000 copies to go!

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has bought the books and supported me throughout the past eight months. Your messages of support through my website, blog, twitter, goodreads, and facebook have kept me going even when I didn't feel like writing or when I doubted myself. Thank you to everyone who has read the books, then told a friend about them. A very special thank you also goes out to reviewers and book bloggers who have taken time out of their busy schedules to read a book by an unknown Indie author like me. Your reviews have helped me get where I am today, and it means the world to me.

There is still a long way to go to get to that Million sales mark, but the path there is paved with one sale at a time. As for the future, SHADOW DEMONS, Book 4 of the Peachville High Demons series, is very close to being ready for publication. I am turning in my edited manuscript to my critique group tonight and we will discuss it and critique the entire thing next week. As soon as I have those final edits complete, I'll upload right away. I'm guessing an estimated upload date of July 1st, then give it at least 24 hours to actually go on sale in stores. After that, DEMONS FOREVER, the fifth and final book in the series, will be released sometime this fall. But I promise that won't be the last of me! My second series, PANDEMIC, should also begin in the fall (I'm shooting for an October release date right now).

As long as you keep reading my books, I'll keep writing them. I have never been so happy or felt so blessed as I do right now. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Top 1000 in the Kindle Store!

Yesterday, BEAUTIFUL DEMONS hit another milestone by breaking into the Top 1000 Kindle Books. That's the entire Kindle store, which includes traditionally published books as well as self-published. In December, I hovered around 20,000-30,000 sales rank. Last month, I was up between 10,000-16,000. So, seeing those numbers, you can understand my excitement at finally cracking the Top 1000!!

According to Novel Rank, my highest sales rank to date occurred yesterday around 6PM. It was 916 in the Kindle store. Right now, it's at 949. I'm so incredibly excited that my sales in the Kindle store have picked up this month. I've already sold more books through the Kindle store in 9 days this month than all three previous months combined.

I think one of the most exciting aspects of this success is that even though it's relatively slow, it's all my own. I worked hard and I did this. I accomplished something I always wanted to do by writing a book and publishing it. Some people diss those of us who self-publish - saying that we're not good enough to be published traditionally and that our novels must be lesser quality if we're selling them so cheap, etc. There are a million arguments out there in defense of traditional publishing. I say it's not a competition. These days, there's room for both. If you don't believe in self-publishing, don't do it. But for some of us, self-publishing is the most exhilarating, life-saving, dream-making opportunity out there for writers.

Thank you so much to all the people out there who have bought my books. I appreciate every single sale, and hope will all my heart that you are enjoying the Peachville High Demons series. Currently, Book 2: INNER DEMONS, is at 1900 in the Kindle store (with an all-time highest rank of 1319). That's huge progress for me, and I'm so incredibly grateful. I can't imagine what it might feel like to actually get into the Top 100. That must be one of the best feelings in the world. For now, I'm extremely happy with this latest milestone and the opportunity to continue doing what I love most.

First 100 Copies of Beautiful Demons Sold!!

The 100th copy of BEAUTIFUL DEMONS just sold! I am so excited about how well the book has done in its first month. Honestly, I had very modest expectations since I hadn't done any promotion for the book. I was expecting maybe 25 copies in a month, possible up to 50 by the time Book 2 was released. If things continue at this rate, though, I may hit 150 or 200 by the time the second book comes out next month.

I want to say thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy, retweeted my promotional tweets, or told a friend about the book. It feels so amazing to finally have a published book out there that people are actually reading! This is truly a dream come true for me. At 100 copies, no one is going to put me on the NYT Bestseller list, but everyone has to start somewhere, and as an Indie author, I think 100+ sales in the first month is not too shabby. To me, it feels like the first sales milestone - with many more yet to come!