A funny thing happened yesterday afternoon…
May 28, 2010 – 2:22 PM
I had just finished reading a rather scathing review of Waiting For Spring (How could this person not care about Rachel??? Seriously, hate on Tess all you want. Brian’s predictable? Okay, whatever. But not caring about Rachel? Come on!) and checking my Kindle sales page to see if the negative review had made an impact (it hadn’t) when I decided to head over to Facebook to soothe my wounded soul (okay, maybe it was my ego that was wounded) by starting up my long-neglected Farm Town farm. Before I could don my virtual work gloves, I noticed this item on my news feed:
I’ve been a fan of (or “liked” in the new Facebook terminology) the Kindle page for several months now and always enjoy the snippets of news and links they post, but was (very pleasantly) shocked to see they’d linked MY book. I hadn’t paid, bribed – or even asked anyone very, very nicely – to plug my book there, and yet there it was. Being plugged. I decided to check my Kindle sales page once more, to see if it had had an impact. It had. I’d sold 43 ebooks in twenty minutes. A few minutes later my friend Steve Anderson (who is not only a hottie, but a very good writer) let me know that author J.A. Konrath had used my book as one of 20 examples of why writers don’t need a platform in order to succeed at e-publishing. This surprised me even more because…well, because of this. And this.
I’m not sure if the Kindle page plugged my book because of Konrath’s mention or if it was a coincidence. Either way, the result is that Waiting For Spring is currently ranked #50 on the Kindle bestsellers. I know that a big part of it is the price (.99 is less than a cup of coffee, after all), but I’d like to think the writing has something to do with it, too. I mean, a shitty .99 book is gonna fizzle pretty quickly. But I know that the biggest reason it’s doing so well is reader word-of-mouth. Because of you. Right now I’m a little bit closer to being able to live every writer’s dream, of actually being able to make a living doing something I love so much (although there are quite a few more steps to go before I can Quit My Day Job). And for that I am truly grateful to all of you.
R.J. Keller 
Congratulations on getting to #50 – very exciting. There are plenty of other books at 99 cents so your book is definitely selling well because of the writing.
WE are grateful to you. And for you.
At the moment your book was posted at Kindle fan page the book was ranked #840 and just after few hours hit top 100.
Now when in top 50 I hope you can climb up to 25 and support that snowball effect.
Congratulations, RJ! Well-deserved.
I had no idea about the Kindle page!
Congratulations! You are on your way to big fame and recognition! You’ve worked plenty for this and it was to be expected, but still, it’s a good moment to enjoy.
Congratulations! Of course it’s the writing, you ninny!!!!
(Wow. I really liked saying “ninny”. That was fun.)
R.J.,
I’ve purchased Waiting for Spring, and once I get through a few other novels, I’m looking forward to reading it, and I’ll definitely leave a review.
RJ,
Congratulations, I hope your book sales climbs up the charts. You are a very talented writer and I can’t wait to read more books authored by you in the future.
I stumbled on your book by accident. I’ve just recently downloaded the kindle app for my blackberry, and I was going thru the titles list, seeing what books there were to read at an affordable price. First of all the title “Waiting for Spring” caught my eye, then I read the brief description, and it intrigued me. I downloaded, thinking I would only read the first couple of screens, stop and pick it back up at a later time when I’m on vacation.
Not so! I couldn’t put it down. I spent the entire Saturday (yesterday) clicking away on my blackberry and risking eye-strain! The characters were well developed, and each one touched me, especially the character of Tess. There were times when I hated her for being selfish in not giving her husband a child, but later, as the story unveils her past, I came to understood how she got that way. As I got towards the end, I ran thru a box of tissues, eyes all red and puffy and sniffling nose. My husband got so worried and wondered what was wrong. I told him that I just read a poignant, well written book that touched my heart!
Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much J! I so appreciate you not only taking the time to read my book, but for taking the time to track me down and let me know you liked it. It’s what this whole writing thing is all about.