Breaking Into Category Best Sellers on Amazon

So yesterday I wrote up my nice, sane, state of sales/end of tour report, telling you all about the modest gains I’d made since releasing Forsaken By Shadow.  Then I went to check my stats and got a good, hard, kick in the pants.

I’d made it onto the Best Seller List for the Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost category in the Kindle store.  Holy paranormal critters, Batman!  It was just 100, the very bottom slot, but it’s what I was hoping for by the end of June, so it was enough to spark off a supreme excitement banana dance.  So of course I kept watching, obsessively refreshing at each new hour and watching it climb. It got all the way to #78 on the list before starting to slide back down and fall off before bed last night.  It was back in the 90s this morning.  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

I was totally on top of the world yesterday.  I was also completely stats obsessed and entirely useless on any other front.  I wrote literally 9 words of fiction yesterday.  And even that wasn’t a complete sentence.  I was excited.  I figure I’m allowed.  😀

I have no idea what’s sparked this sudden surge in sales.  I’ve already sold 10 copies this month and it’s only first thing in the morning on the 2nd!!!  One thing that is most certainly helping me is the one line plug my pal Zoe makes at the end of her OWN product descriptions for her three novellas.  She just released the last two within the last two weeks and has had an explosion of sales.  I’m definitely seeing some traffic from that.  I have, of course, reciprocated but I don’t think she needs nearly as much help being found.  😀

Anyway, I need to get back to work today.  I’ve gone off on some emo, thoughtologue relationship trip with my hero and heroine and I need to take a fresh look at the story through eyes of ACTION.

But first, it’s a new hour…I gotta go check my stats.  …oooooo #87….