What's your best day?

2087 Views 30 Replies 26 Participants Last post by anniejocoby, Feb 23, 2015

Micah Ackerman

Discussion Starter · Feb 20, 2015

So I love reading all of the sucess stories no matter how big or how "prawny"

My question is: What's the best day you've had as an Indie Author (sales or otherwise)?

For me the answer is: It's actually not related to sales. My book "Wormwood" is about a character who suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder ( as I do). I had a reader go out of her way to email me and say that the book inspired her to get help for her anxiety. She had always been told that the symptoms are just in her head and to just "Calm Down." She said that the book helped her feel "not so alone."

The story is also about a nuclear war, but that's besides the point.

To know that something I wrote actually impacted someone like that made my week and it was the best feeling I've had (among many others) as an indie.

So what's your best day story?

Thanks
Micah

1 - 20 of 31 Posts

Janeal Falor

· #2 · Feb 21, 2015

Micah Ackerman said:
I had a reader go out of her way to email me and say that the book inspired her to get help for her anxiety. She had always been told that the symptoms are just in her head and to just "Calm Down." She said that the book helped her feel "not so alone."

That's awesome! Definitely a good day making!

My best day as an author was when I was at a conference. I had a girl come up to me totally fan girling over my Mine series. She'd read the ebooks and loved them so much she searched me out to buy the paperbacks and have them signed. She was so enthusiastic about them that she convinced another person to buy them as well. It was super awesome to be around someone that not only got my books so much, but radiated excitement over them.

MonkeyScribe

· #3 · Feb 21, 2015

Three years out, this story almost sounds like something I dreamed up, but on March 18, 2012, my Kindle Daily Deal for the first three books of The Righteous series was upgraded to a Gold Box Deal. The three books were on sale at 99 cents apiece. On that day, they sold 115,000 copies in total, and the scope of the visibility was such that I sold several thousand copies of my unrelated books and pushed two other books to #20 and #22 in the overall store. There might have been one other in the top 100 as well, but the day was kind of a blur.

Incredibly, the three books topped out at a ranking of 2, 3, and 4. 60,000 copies of the first book wasn't enough for the top rank in the store. #1 that day was The Hunger Games. This was the week of the release of the first Hunger Games movie. And of course Hunger Games was at full price and #1 in every store everywhere. I'm guessing Suzanne Collins had a pretty nice royalty check that period.

Mine was pretty good, too.

I've never had a day remotely like that, and can't imagine the circumstances where that could possibly happen again.

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naughty kim

· #4 · Feb 21, 2015

A gentleman who purchased one of my stories showed up last week, during our version of the ICE AGE (I live in upstate New York, near the St. Lawrence river) and asked me if I could take him for a walk. He was wearing white underwear briefs, socks and brown penny loafers. He handed me his leash and indicated that I should attach it to his neck collar and proceed with the walk, being that it was so cold. I looked at him and asked him if he was insane. He said he was inspired by my story and would consider it a personal favor if I could treat him like a dog and walk him on my yard.

What could I say? I walked him three times around the house until he couldn't take it no more. My best day so far as an author.

MonkeyScribe

· #5 · Feb 21, 2015

naughty kim said:
A gentleman who purchased one of my stories showed up last week, during our version of the ICE AGE (I live in upstate New York, near the St. Lawrence river) and asked me if I could take him for a walk. He was wearing white underwear briefs, socks and brown penny loafers. He handed me his leash and indicated that I should attach it to his neck collar and proceed with the walk, being that it was so cold. I looked at him and asked him if he was insane. He said he was inspired by my story and would consider it a personal favor if I could treat him like a dog and walk him on my yard.

What could I say? I walked him three times around the house until he couldn't take it no more. My best day so far as an author.

I hope you carried one of these things with you. It's only polite to the property owners in the neighborhood.

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Wayne Stinnett

· #6 · Feb 21, 2015

I wrote Fallen Pride to help a friend out of his PTS shell. It turned out that it helped us both. A few weeks after it was published, I started getting emails from Vets with similar problems, all of them thinking they were the only ones fighting those demons. I even got an email from a psychologist who does pro bono work for Vets. He thanked me for writing it and asked if I would send him a copy for his office. I sent him a case and restock him every few months. Now, I donate half the income from that book to a Veterans' charity in my home town. So far, I've given about $8000.

Best day, sales wise? August 1st, 2014. Over $2400 in one day.

Daniel Dennis

· #7 · Feb 21, 2015

Two years ago I emailed an old Composition instructor from ten years ago when I began college to thank him for being such a hardass. It helped improve the quality of my writing. My novelette was dedicated to him because i began writing it in his class. His widow informed me that he had passed away. I was able to provide her with a free copy over Thanksgiving, which she said made her holiday a little easier.

Colorwheel

· #8 · Feb 22, 2015

Totally un-salesy, and I think I've told this story before, but:

Like a lot of people, I come from an undermining (extended) family. They prefer to think of it as "tough" and "competitive", and sometimes it is, but sometimes it's just undermining. And since I've had a lifetime of, for instance, grown-ass adults stealing my middle-school self's story notebooks to read out loud at holiday events... I was not planning to tell them about this.

One info leak was unavoidable, since I needed cooperation from a family member to do some promo at an event coming up this spring. Nobody said anything after that. I thought the gossip had actually stopped before full broadcast for once, and breathed easier.

At Christmas, a family member / friend of the family-close-enough gave me a gift that made clear that they knew, and were proud of me. Without even reading the book; they don't have an ereader, and it is not in print yet. I still kind of want to cry. I'm going to lose my head when I eventually, ultimately turn over a print copy. I can't even begin to tell you. No pressure, kid.

Meanwhile, the gift is front and center on my desk while I write. It'll stay there.

So file that one under "support you never thought you'd get."

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John Ellsworth

· #9 · Feb 22, 2015

When the chemotherapy patient wrote me to say one of my books helped her make it through a bad night. Just the idea, every day, that someone somewhere is reading something I made up is humbling. I never forget it and I'm forever grateful to all of them for making it possible to support my family with my macbook and my imagination.

Evenstar

· #10 · Feb 22, 2015

Boxing Day, every year

David VanDyke

· #11 · Feb 22, 2015

As I've never had anyone tell me my books changed his or her life, I suppose it was the day I quit my soul-sucking corporate job and went full time, followed in rapid succession by relocating to the Mountain West near family and being able to control my own schedule.

CesarAnthony

· #12 · Feb 22, 2015

JanealFalor said:
That's awesome! Definitely a good day making!

My best day as an author was when I was at a conference. I had a girl come up to me totally fan girling over my Mine series. She'd read the ebooks and loved them so much she searched me out to buy the paperbacks and have them signed. She was so enthusiastic about them that she convinced another person to buy them as well. It was super awesome to be around someone that not only got my books so much, but radiated excitement over them.

WOW!
That sound so cool!!! Must have been very exciting.

When it comes to sales. My best ever is $450.00 in one day.

going going gone

· #13 · Feb 22, 2015

It didn't come from my published work. About seven years into my writing career, I wrote a long letter full of reminiscences to my tough-as-nails grandmother, full of funny memories and bringing to the text all I'd learned about narrative writing. She later said I "must be a good writer because that made me cry." I realized, if I never sold another story or book, all the work at getting better at writing was well worth it for touching someone who was hard to touch and who had been a wonderful influence in my life. That was many years ago, and she's gone now. I don't think anything else will ever come close.

Robert Dahlen

· #14 · Feb 22, 2015

It was the time - I think it may have been the same day - that I found out that my book had done really well in a promotional campaign, and I got my first review on Goodreads from someone I didn't know (and it was a good one, 4 stars). Even though I'm so prawny they could legally slip me on the barbie in Australia, that was the day that still gives me hope that maybe someday I'll have a fanbase, that people would look forward to and eagerly read my books. And that's what I want more than anything from my writing.

But really? I hope and dream there'll be days to come that I'll look back on someday as being the best.

JumpingShip

· #15 · Feb 22, 2015

Micah Ackerman said:
So I love reading all of the sucess stories no matter how big or how "prawny"

My question is: What's the best day you've had as an Indie Author (sales or otherwise)?

It was early June, 2011. Before free books were common, but I had managed to get No Good Deed free for a week. This was also before KDP separated the free books from the sold books, so it was harder to tell how many I sold that day as it went from free to back to paid at 2am, and so I could only guess how many were sold in the five hours or so before I noticed it was back to paid. So, anyway, it reached #15 in the Kindle store and sold somewhere around 2400 copies that day. (at 99 cents). The best part was, my second book, March Into Hell, sold around 300 copies, and it was priced at $2.99. It reached about 220 in the store. Altogether, earned about $1300 for the day. *sigh*. Now I'm happy to earn that in a month with three times as many titles.

For me the answer is: It's actually not related to sales. My book "Wormwood" is about a character who suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder ( as I do). I had a reader go out of her way to email me and say that the book inspired her to get help for her anxiety. She had always been told that the symptoms are just in her head and to just "Calm Down." She said that the book helped her feel "not so alone."

The story is also about a nuclear war, but that's besides the point.

To know that something I wrote actually impacted someone like that made my week and it was the best feeling I've had (among many others) as an indie.

So what's your best day story?

I had an email from a lady who was in chemo and read my books. She said she was on a fixed income and had gotten No Good Deed for free, but went on to buy the next on in the series, which she never usually did. I was so touched, I sent I gifted her my next book. Months later, I received another email from her thanking me for the book, but she had already bought the next one herself! She hadn't seen the email from Amazon and didn't discover it until later. (since she never bought books). I said she should use it for whatever she liked and hoped she was doing better.

Thanks
Micah
[/quote]

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JumpingShip

· #16 · Feb 22, 2015

MichaelWallace said:
Three years out, this story almost sounds like something I dreamed up, but on March 18, 2012, my Kindle Daily Deal for the first three books of The Righteous series was upgraded to a Gold Box Deal. The three books were on sale at 99 cents apiece. On that day, they sold 115,000 copies in total, and the scope of the visibility was such that I sold several thousand copies of my unrelated books and pushed two other books to #20 and #22 in the overall store. There might have been one other in the top 100 as well, but the day was kind of a blur.

Incredibly, the three books topped out at a ranking of 2, 3, and 4. 60,000 copies of the first book wasn't enough for the top rank in the store. #1 that day was The Hunger Games. This was the week of the release of the first Hunger Games movie. And of course Hunger Games was at full price and #1 in every store everywhere. I'm guessing Suzanne Collins had a pretty nice royalty check that period.

Mine was pretty good, too.

I've never had a day remotely like that, and can't imagine the circumstances where that could possibly happen again.

I remember seeing your books there in the top five slots. Awesome.

Joe_Nobody

· #17 · Feb 22, 2015

I published my first book in June of 2011. Over the next few months, sales continued to increase, but oh-so gradually. I didn't know how to check the reports on Amazon, had no idea what Author Central was. I couldn't remember my Amazon password. Small checks came in the mail and it made me smile. I'd written a book. A handful of people found it helpful. All was well.

Toward the end of October, my friend call me up and said, "Dude, have you looked at your book on Amazon?"

"No. Why?"

"Just go look at it. Go look at your sales, and call me back."

I went to .com and did a search. Nothing special. No big deal.

Wait. Is that rank correct? Is it really #76 in books? Does that mean... could it mean...

To this day, I have no idea why. I sold 1700 paperbacks in one day. That book remained in the top 100 (all books) for 29 days. During that period, I sold almost 22,000 copies. Those were paperbacks, as I hadn't even thought about doing ebooks at the time.

I had been having trouble finding contract work. I was getting to old for tier 1 gigs, the wars were winding down, contractors were no longer vogue at Department of State. Day-rates sucked.

What the heck (not my exact words), I can write another book if people like that one. I informed Mrs. Nobody at the end of October that I was going to do the "book thing" full time for a while.

"Better get your resume updated - just in case," she advised. "That was probably just a stroke of luck."

I never did the update, let alone apply for a job. But don't tell her that.

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EllisaBarr

· #18 · Feb 22, 2015

I was reading an author bio on an Amazon imprint book and wondering how to be noticed by Apub. I decided I'd have to write a new book, query that author's agent and if she didn't like it, research all agents with Apub connections. I started making a list of authors, agents, and what they were interested in but it was such a long shot, and so exhausting. I had chores and homeschooling to get to, so I closed all my research windows and checked my mail and there was an email from an editor at Skyscape, Amazon's YA imprint. She wanted to talk about re-releasing my first book this May. The timing of that email was insanely perfect. (My kids were thrilled too because I was too excited to teach school that day.)

My best day financially was a couple of weeks ago, when my second book in the series was a Kindle Daily Deal. When KDP approached me about scheduling it, they wanted Book 1 and had no idea I'd signed it with Skyscape. I told them and asked if we could do book 2 instead, to avoid stepping on any toes. They agreed, and it was a $1K day.

I am loving all these stories. Great thread!!

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67499

· #19 · Feb 22, 2015

Tomorrow.

Jordan Rivet

· #20 · Feb 22, 2015

Last time I was in the states I went to a book club discussion of Seabound (full disclosure: it was my mom's group). The women were so enthusiastic about meeting me. They asked sharp questions about publishing and made me feel like a million bucks. The woman who led the discussion (not my mom) is probably my first genuine super fan. She wrote an awesome Goodreads review in which she called the book a 'showstopper.'

Later that afternoon, I also got to speak to a high school writing club about being an author. That was a good day.

1 - 20 of 31 Posts

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