The Highest Compliment I've Ever Been Paid

The Highest Compliment I’ve Ever Been Paid

by wlancehunt, April 26, 2024 in Books, Chicago, Marketing, Soundtrack

It’s me again, Lance. I wanted to give my characters a break. After all, one is from the 80s, and the other is from the early 2000s—circa the iPhone. Not iPhone 1 because there was no iPhone 2 yet. Just the plain old iPhone: the wide-screen iPod, telephone, and internet communication device as Jobs once described it.

Plus, frankly, I want to brag.

About A Perfect Blindness. APB. My first published novel.

You see, it hit #1 best-selling title in three genres and #4 best-selling in a fourth.

(In the background: the sounds of corks blasting from bottles, some fireworks, cheers. Perhaps Enthusiastic applause.)

But I also hear some muttering in the back. “Come off it, Lance. That’s only on Amazon. Hardly the New York Times bestseller list or even Today’s.”

The numbers

Snear all you care, but the numbers speak the truth. Amazon has over 32.8 million titles for sale. Of which 52.44% are in English. That’s roughly 17.2 million titles.

Certainly, that includes many titles that don’t sell. But it includes every title on the New York Times bestseller list, Today’s bestseller list, and the Washinton Post’s bestseller list, et cetera.

A little-known fact outside of the publishing world: most books, including those by the big five publishing houses, sell fewer than 500 copies.

Let that settle in. Most books picked up by Penguin/Random House, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan sell FEWER than 500 copies.

By the way, That also means most books never earn their advances back. I.e., most writers never see any royalties.

Swimming with Sharks

Going alone and publishing on Amazon is putting yourself into the largest ocean there is, which is full of Great White Sharks and Orcas like Zafon, King, and Koontz, as well as minnows and krill.

Undestanding all that, let me tell you that during a five-day promotion ending on March 31st, APB was ordered 638 times. More than most books ever sell in their lifetime. In a single day, March 26th—499 copies were ordered.

Number One

Swimming alone in that Ocean, without the backing of a Big Five or even a small publishing house, A Perfect Blindness did this:

Screenshot of day APB hit 3 number 1 spots.

On the third of the 5-day promotion, it added #4 in US Historical Fiction.

It peaked on the Best Sellers Rank at #257 of the roughly 17.2 million titles, including every book on the New York Times, Today’s, and Washinton Post’s bestseller lists.

Paperbacks

To my surprise, I also sold two paperback versions, which weren’t included in the promotion.

Reviews

Of the 638 ebooks and two hard copy orders, APB has received two new reviews on Amazon: a four-star and a five-star rating. Only a third of 1%. But…