Being an Indie.. Author that is!

I just found out that I have a new name, category, label. I am an Indie Author. Doesn't that sound sort of cool? It sounds cooler than self-published anyway! So, I'm going to claim it and picture myself in the midst of indie film makers who do it all their way and wear Fedoras and have a just enough facial hair (scratch that- I don't want the facial hair) to look artsy and hip.

In the past, there's been a stigma attached to self-publishing. It's fading with the popularity of ebook readers and the success of J.A. Konrath, Amanda Hocking, Karen McQuestion, and others. But, it's still there amongst the die-hards in the publishing industry. I had the honor of being featured on New York Times Bestselling Author Laura Munson's blog this week where I talk about why I chose to self-publish and put myself in the indie author category. You can read it here.

As an indie author, I am my marketing team and this week was phenomenal. I took advantage of KDP Selects Free Promotion Days yesterday and today. These are days when books are listed for free to give them more exposure. I was featured on Pixel of Ink, and my dear friend Amy's blog here (she's the one who read Her Nowhere on the cracked screen of her iPhone love her as I mention in Laura's interview) and today I'm Free Book of the Day on Indie Author News.

All of this free exposure coupled with the KDP Select Promotion had pretty amazing results. The promo started at midnight Thursday night. By yesterday afternoon at 2pm, I was excited about (note- I had the numbers in this post but heard Amazon does not want you to share numbers so now there are x's to give you an idea) x,xxx downloads. By around 1am, my book had been downloaded over xx,xxx times! I am totally floored by this.

This morning I woke up and I was #6 on the Free Kindle Store Bestseller List. That's out of all the books fiction and non-fiction offered free on Amazon. I was also #1 in Drama, #2 in Contemporary Fiction and #5 in Fiction. Yee Haw!!!

My takeaway from this experience so far is this...  I think I just might like being an indie author.

The Week of Publishing

What a week!

I was a nervous Nelly to publish this book, to allow others to read what I'd written, to open myself up.

But, that's gone now. 

And really, it all disappeared when I got a text from my sister.

Her friend read my novel- Her Nowhere.

And she said this-

It's my favorite book of all time. I want a signed hard copy. If it was in print, 

I would give it to everyone I know. It is so healing with all the loss I've endured in my life.

And I said- That is my hope. So if it's just for her, just for one, then that's enough. 

And I meant it. 

What an honor!

But, then there was more...

Hot and #1. I mean, who doesn't like that? 

This Saturday, the book will be free on Amazon as part of a special promotion they do to increase awareness about new books. Please get your free copy and if you are so inclined, share it on your blog, Facebook, Twitter... 

And as a special bonus to this post, here are some photos of my biggest fan club.

Actually, they really aren't that interested and have no idea what I'm doing. As long as their baseball uniforms are ready and they have food, it's all good.

xoxo-