PIRATES, KARMA, AND MY UNLIKELY RISE TO #1

            In the last three weeks I’ve experienced more personal accomplishments than I ever could have imagined. First of all, “My Temporary Life,” became available as a free download in an Amazon promotion. The idea is that folks download it for free and with the momentum that has built, when it becomes a paid download, it sells. Well-IT WORKED! It became the most downloaded ebook in North America for one day, a few Sundays ago.                    

            “My Temporary Life,” built up momentum like a rocket taking off, there was nothing gradual about it at all. By the second day, it was second overall in free downloads. On the third day, well you know what happened, because you heard me. You heard me screaming. Yep, doesn’t matter where you were, you probably heard me. We hit #1 overall.

            So, then, “paid” day happened. It changed over at midnight on Sunday and paid sales slowly started to trickle in. The next morning I expected to see 15 or 20 sales. We had over 200. Over 200 folks pulled out their credit cards and took a chance on my self-published book, that over 120 publishers and agents turned down (oh, did I forget to mention that part).

            Sales continued all day, and the days after. We peaked in the overall rankings at #9, but it didn’t stop there. An independent website emailed to tell us that we were the #7 most downloaded independent ebook of the week; we did a bunch of online interviews, emails and reviews stacked up like crazy, the momentum was deafening.

            We hit 60,000 downloads, 51,500 of which were free There were so many requests for information that we issued a press release. Yep, we issued a press release talking about the book that I wrote in the spare bedroom of my house, and emails kept coming in. A Dallas, Texas television station ran the story. They were interested in the fact that over 120 agents and publishers had rejected “My Temporary Life” yet all these folks were downloading it. We were on the Movers and Shakers list. We were one of the top 10 self-published ebooks on Amazon. We were #2 in Romance/Suspense. We were #2 in Mystery/Thriller. And more 5 Star reviews kept coming in every day.

            At dinner one night, Jacquie and I sat and read the newest reviews. Two of them made us cry. It’s an amazing experience to read about how your work, your characters, can touch another person. The sales figures are amazing, and they really are amazing, but the almost overwhelming part is that you have an opportunity to touch so many people. Our current numbers as of this day are over 67,000 people have downloaded “My Temporary Life.” Now, while all this momentum was carrying us through, it was also getting a little help-I was spreading the word. You see, although, I do trust in Amazon, I was helping it along. I was posting interviews, sales figures, anything I could. I was on Amazon discussion boards, Kindleboards, KDP’s Community site, Facebook, Twitter, even Craigslist! All I wanted to do was tell people about my book. And, in doing all of this, not a lot of other things were happening, including writing. And, you see, there are several things that I have to do in my life to feel good. One of them is running. I need to run long distances. The other is-I need to write. I was running a little bit, and sleeping four or five hours a night, but not writing at all. That was the first problem. The second problem was when the pirates showed up.

            “My Temporary Life” showed up on a piracy site. Someone had taken my work and changed some things, and was giving it away. So, we quickly sent a letter to them, and the owners of the site were kind enough to take it down right away. I remember years ago, sitting in front of my computer and playing with Napster, and I felt karma kicking me solidly on my rear end.

            Our sales have tapered off a little lately, but folks are still buying it every day. And, oh yes, the sequel has been started. “My Name Is Hardly” is underway, and I’m very excited about it. I’m aiming for a December release (gulp), and as you can tell from the title, Hardly’s story is going to be told. So, thank you everybody for Facebooking, and Tweeting, and emailing your friends. Every time you’ve told someone about my book it made a huge difference, and the book that over 120 agents and, oh never mind, that doesn’t matter now, the word is out there, and people are enjoying the book. Thank you all, it’s truly appreciated!

Martin Crosbie
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