Ranking

Even though this week has been mostly consumed by either work crazies or the lingering effects of the terrible, awful, most-painful ear infection ever, there have been a few days of complete excitement. I’ve been bouncing by proxy for Gayla, as one of the books I edited for her (Arcane Solutions, which I reviewed here just because I enjoyed it that much!) has flirted with reaching top-100-seller status for several genres.

The big day came Friday, when she broke into that coveted list for both Paranormal and Urban fantasy on the Amazon UK site. The book has continued to sell decently, though it appears rankings are more competitive this weekend for similar sales rates, as she hasn’t gotten back into that groove.

It reminded me that early in the year, another book I edited (Shadows of the Realm)–this one for Dionne–also broke into genre best-seller-dom. She made it for two categories of children’s books and teen literature and fiction on January 9th.

Discussing all this with Gayla, I realized a few things: It’s unusual for an indie author to make it into that level of sales success (which I already knew), but also the corollary that it’s unusual for an indie editor to have contributed to that level of success twice so early in her career. So I’m feeling the glow of “I HELPED!” in a huge way. (It helps that both Gayla and Dionne have unique voices and tell very strong stories, so I feel privileged that they trusted me to help with the final steps of the book-birthing process.)

🙂

All that, and I really only managed to keep up with schoolwork this week. I didn’t walk at all because the combination of seriously cold weather with an exercise-style walk would have turned back my already slow recovery. And that same slow recovery meant that just making it through a day at the office was already its own triumph and didn’t allow for any additional mental capacity to actually finish that final short story.

I did manage some editing time today, as well as a walk, and feel much less foggy for it… but also see this bug is nowhere near done with messing with my systems. This sad truth means I don’t know how much more productive I’ll be this week. Still… I’m only a few hundred words from done, and would like to finish “Root of All Evil” sooner than later, to at least vaguely honor the triptych’s Hallow’s Eve naming.

Maybe, with enough of my stories out in the wild, it will eventually be my turn to dance for some crazy sales numbers to help offset the editing and production costs associated with having taken them to a professional level. I’m crossing my fingers for that day. 😉

In the meantime, check out how the other ROW80 participants are doing on their goals this week.