I've been compiling statistics concerning my readership, particularly of the Markhat books.
How do I collect this data, you ask?
Nosey, aren't you, I reply. But since you asked, I managed to crack Amazon's mysterious book-ranking feature, so I now have access to some data not available to the public.
Here's how my readership breaks down, ranked in descending order of total impact:
- Readers chained in my basement.
- That guy who's been stuck in the Dakar airport in Senegal since 2010.
- Mrs. M. O. Feinstien, of Flushing, who still disapproves of the name 'Markhat.' Sorry, Mrs. Feinstein, it's too late to change his name now.
- The pair of NSA analysts who started compiling a dossier on me since I searched 'airports in North Africa' just a few minutes ago.
- The students of Miss Krieger's fourth-year World Cultures class, who despite being in Liechtenstein were assigned 'Brown River Queen' as required reading material. I think this was a clerical error, kids, but my no-refunds policy is still in play. Deal with it, or, as they say in Liechtenstein, 'komm damit klar.'
- The Dalai Lama. Thanks for all the fan mail, dude, and yes we've totally got to 'throw back a few suds' one of these days. You party animal you.
Armed with this vast array of data, I can now fine-tune my marketing efforts. And by 'marketing efforts,' I mean increase the frequency of the beatings down in the basement.
Way Out West has already garnered reader reviews on Amazon. My favorite of these is the one below, which is a direct quote from the book:
Well done, RedHerrin, well done! And thanks.
Seriously, book marketing is hard. I really have no idea what to do -- blog tours? Tweets? A barrage of 'Hey read my book' posts (like this one)?
I've decided against pretty much all of those avenues. My plan is to just work on a new book and hope people like Way Out West enough to talk about it.
So this is probably the last time I'll mention the book, unless there is an actual need to discuss it. I will announce the availability of the print edition, which should be ready in a few days. It will be priced at $9.99, which is about as low as I can price it without actually losing money on each sale.
That said, here's one more link to the book, and one more picture of the cover, for anyone who missed the previous blog, which announced the book's release.
WAY OUT WEST for Kindle
WAY OUT WEST for Nook
And the cover, which I love with a love most unseemly:
