Discoveries
I discovered something fascinating the other day, discoveries that shocked me, and made me very happy. It has to do with sales of my books, specifically, my printed versions.
Amazon had sent me an email regarding the royalties for my sales for the past month. Usually, I just delete them as they do not contain any specific information that I am interested in, other than a payout is coming. However, the format of one of those emails was different than the rest. I was intrigued.
Upon opening it, I realized that it was different than the standard fare, and denoted sales from an unfamiliar source. Digging deeper, I logged into my Amazon account and checked. Nothing. Huh?
Investigations
After following sales channel after sales channel, I was stymied. I couldn’t figure out who generated these sales. Amazon is good at identifying transactions. They just don’t offer the seller information on who the buyer is, that is without paying for it. They know how to make money.
After investigating all of the sales channels my books are available through, I checked one last source. A source where I don’t expect many sales, as it prices my books reasonably high, considering the costs of producing the book.
I realized that this email had to do with sales of my paperback versions. WhooHoo!
Findings
People are buying the hard copies of my books. What’s more, I dug deeper, finding that I had a spike in paperback sales back last January. I missed that.
What an honor. Sure, it’s easy to purchase and download an eBook and read it on your favorite eReader. But holding a book in your hand, smelling the paper and ink, and feeling its weight as you turn the pages, well that is entirely something else altogether. I know many a reader who prefers holding a real book as opposed to the electronic version.
Most sales were people buying the book ‘The Trafficking Consortium.’ I suspected that. However, I noticed that someone bought every one of my books on the same day. I’m astounded, pleased, no, happy. This one person is not the only one. I noticed several sales of all of my books over the course of the month. To be honest, I’m shocked but very pleased.
Gratitude
Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to read my books, including ‘The Taste of Honey,’ ‘Broken Steele,’ and ‘Her Client Trilogy.’ You don’t know how much that means to me. What can I say? You, my fans, are fantastic.
And, oh, by the way, thank you Amazon.com. None of this would be possible without you.
I’m sitting at my desk, trying to figure out what to write to you today. I’m at a loss, and frankly, I may do bad things. Not really of course. I’m a bit tired and off my game. I went to a party Friday night, and of course, got home late. Slept well enough but as usual, my body woke me at it’s appointed time, as if I had to go to work. Rolling over, I finally fell back asleep for a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, life changed once again between those hours when a lone gunman sprayed thousands of high-powered bullets on a crowd of 22,000 people enjoying a concert on the strip in Las Vegas. He killed at least 59 at last count and seriously wounded another 500.
Having just recently attending a concert in a sold-out venue of 49,000, I could only relate by imagining what I would do if the same happened at my concert. I was on the floor of a multi-purpose arena surrounded by tens of thousands. After the concert was over, it took nearly a half hour to get off the floor and approach a nearby exit. That was when everyone was leaving in an orderly way, still high on the positive vibrations of the performer, Paul McCartney by the way. I can’t even begin to imagine the chaos of what would have happened if those same thousands tried to run and hide, in panic. All of us trying to get out of the killing field I where I found myself.
However, writing is what I’m doing, as well as catching up on email, social media, connecting with friends and, of course, day dreaming. I’m feeling better, and while my left over concussion headache is still with me, like a squatter who refuses eviction, I have my creative steam back. Ideas are appearing in my head, creating scene after scene that I want to capture, whether for this new book or another. It’s maddening sometimes, I can’t catch them any faster, so I lose them before I can write them down. Damn! I wish I could type at the speed of light.
Here in the United States, we are having our unofficial last week of summer. For those that know our holidays, next week we celebrate the holiday known as labor day, a day set aside to honor the workers of the country. Workers who get things done, often at the behest of others. I count myself in their ranks, never reaching the heights of the one percenters.