A Writer's Week #62: England's Green & Pleasant Land

It's been another quiet week here at Deliverers Publishing Headquarters. Work was hectic, and I've been fighting some form of illness that has left me tired and listless. Thoughts of Lyme disease were floating in my head until my wife came down with the same thing later in the week. While I'm sorry that she had to live my pain, I was strangely happy because it meant that what I was experiencing was just a bug.

Anyway, me being out of sorts made for a dull time on the marketing front. Narrator Jimm Singer and I are working on publicizing the audio version of Sharky and the Jewel. We've got a few reviewers listening to it, including Audiofile magazine, which has put us in their "review queue", so that's exciting. There will be more reviews on the way in the next month or so. I'll keep you all up to date when they appear.

One very nice and slightly surprising development this week were my first two overseas sales of the paperback version of Sharky and the Jewel. I check Amazon's UK store very infrequently, basically because I rarely sell anything (who knows I exist in England?). I've sold a few Kindle editions there, but I had no sales rank at all for the paperback version--that is, until I checked on Sunday. Lo and behold, I was ranked something like 525,000 or so. That meant I must have sold something! Could it be? I logged in to my CreateSpace account and sure enough, I had. In fact, I had sold not one, but two copies! I know that does not sound like much (it isn't), but it was just the idea of breaking new ground. Hopefully, I'll sell a few more going forward.

Of course after that little bit of success, I started check Amazon UK every day, hoping to see more sales. On Wednesday, I was pleased to discover that one reader had posted a 5 star review. Hey, I'm off an running. It's very exciting to have started selling at least a couple copies of my book in England, because I really regard that country as the cradle of great middle grade/YA fantasy. If I could ever manage to gain a following, even a small one, in England I would be one happy caballero.

In spite of being tired and having a couple nights of after hour events this week, I still managed to almost hit my writing goal. I wrote 1,822 words. That means The Golden Dragon of Ang stands at 27,922 words, 122 pages and 26 chapters.

To be honest, I probably would have surpassed my goal if it  had not been for a plot decision that I simply did not feel up to making. Eric and Kate are escaping from a bad situation. It became apparent that they were going to bump into someone surprising. I had to stop, because I really wasn't sure that it was the proper time to reveal that character's true nature. So, before I continue I have to sit and think about it a bit. I don't think it will be a difficult decision once I run things through my head, but it was just one decision too many for this particular week. Oh well, I'll let you know how that turns out next week! Have a good one!