A Writer's Journey Continued

An interesting thing happened this week. Well, let me back up and fill in a little background.

After the release of Mom Needs Chocolate a few weeks ago, I tried to dream up new and innovative ways to promote my book. It came to my attention that the Amazon ranking of each book (found in the "Product Details" section on your Amazon page) is of interest to book buyers and industry people in the know. The more books sold, the lower the ranking becomes.

Hmmm. How to boost my rather anemic ranking of 57,000? (#1 would obviously be the best, so higher numbers are not desirable; "good" is considered less than 10k).

I came up with the idea of an Amazon Blitz, where all sales would be concentrated into one 24-hour period. Would that - could that - really make a difference?

I chose April 18 as my target date because (a) it was after tax day (whew!) and (b) it would allow plenty of time for books to arrive in time for Mother's Day. I e-mailed the 2,000 good folks on my contact list about the Amazon Blitz and breathed more than a few heart-felt prayers.

I was advised (by my savvy co-author Suzanne Fisher) to check the rankings frequently (it takes around 2 hours for new sales to show up) and print out proof if it dropped below 5k. Lo and behold, by mid-afternoon Mom Needs Chocolate's ranking had dropped to 2,500 and by evening it hit 1,700.

Whoa, doggies!

My publisher went wild. I went wild. My dog went wild (well, he already was).

Of course, longevity of low ranking is important to industry eyeballs, and it's yet to be seen if a one-time cannon blast will turn many heads, but it was awfully fun. Plus it proves what can be accomplished with a little stone, a slingshot, and a lot of faithful readers.