I Shipped My Pants! Let's Review!

~ Ok, so I stole that pants line from an old K-Mart commercial (yes K-Mart... and yes, really), but I did ship out the first big batch of paperbacks today. I know I keep saying this, but I'm blown away by the responses I've gotten so far for In The Dark. People are really enjoying it, and I'm really enjoying that. If you ordered a copy of my book (and if you're follow my blog, I'm guessing that's a good possibility), I'd first like to thank you for your support. The feeling of accomplishment came, for me, after I finished the book. As I've mentioned in previous posts, selling it wasn't even really something I had given much thought to. Having said that, now that it's starting to sell, I feel a great swell of gratitude, and the reviews that have starting coming in only increase that feeling for me. I'm sometimes humbled by the awesomeness of people. This would be one of those times. Although I feel a bit like King Midas in saying this next part (and I'm sincerely the furthest thing from a greedy person), aside from buying the book, the biggest favor you can do for me (or any independent author) is to write a review. Places like Amazon, iBooks, GoodReads, Barnes and Noble, and such are great places to start. People love word-of-mouth, especially, it seems, with it comes to books. Personally, I'm known to read countless reviews before buying stuff. Even really mundane stuff.....like... a toaster (true story).

The things is, hardcore book nerds seem to have a sort of camaraderie. No matter how different our social or economic backgrounds are, we (generally) listen to each other about what books to read. Especially if previously liked or recommended books hit the spot. Throughout the process of writing this book, and then learning to market it, I've learned the importance of this. It's also made me commit to reviewing every single book I read from now on (on Amazon and GoodReads at very least). This post isn't meant to sound like panhandling for reviews (I'm hoping it doesn't sound like that), but rather, to outline how great they can be for authors. In any case, whether you take the time to review or not, I hope you all are enjoying the book at least half as much as I enjoyed writing it. Until next week, read on!