Thanks For A Wonderful 2011!

I decided to seek publication for one of my books last January.  By April, I knew that the route I'd chosen for my first book was a mistake.  I'm of the mindset that you live and learn, so since I knew I wanted to continue writing and wanted readers to have the chance to read my books, I turned to indie publishing.

When I published my first indie book on June 1 of this year, I never believed that in just over six months I would sell 15,000 books, but I hit that mark sometime overnight. When I reached 1000 sales in the first week of August, I was thrilled, but this has nearly made me speechless (you'd have to know me to understand that nearly is as close to speechless as I'll ever get LOL). 

I have to be honest.  When I began this indie publishing adventure, I had no definite sales goals. That's just who I am.  I don't think small as much as not at all when it comes things like that.  Don't get me wrong.  I want to be able to do this for a living someday, hopefully soon, but I never thought about how many I hoped to sell.  I just wrote what I loved and made sure it was solid and polished before I put each book out.

I sold 150 copies of Vampire Dreams in June, and for me, that was great. By the end of the summer, all three of the novellas in the Victorian Erotic Romance Trilogy were on more than one Amazon Top 100 list and I thought, "Maybe I can sell 5000 books by next June 1."  For the first time, I put a number on the whole thing, but it wasn't something I obsessed over.  It was just a nice, round number, and I thought it would be a nice bar to reach. A good friend of mine told me that when I mentioned it to him, he secretly wasn't sure I could  do it, but he certainly hoped it would happen.  When I told him that I reached 15K, he smiled and said, "This might just be something." I think so too. :)

Thank you to all the readers out there who have been so supportive this year. To the bloggers who have been so wonderful in hosting me and reviewing my books, I can't thank you enough.  And to my cover artists, Elaina Lee and Talina Perkins, you're the best. You make readers take that first look and give me the chance to convince them to buy my books.

So what's in store for future goals?  I still don't know.  All I know is that I'm going to continue to write what I love and make sure it's the best product it can be when I put it out there.  I've begun the new series, The Sons of Navarus, with Blood Avenged and I'm aiming for the first book, if not the first two books, to be out in the next year. I hope you stick around.  The fun has just begun. Bring on 2012!