Hey Reader,

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 called 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 don’t 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, and 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:

​

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 were not 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…

The Highest Compliment

The 5-star review mentioned above came with the highest compliment I’ve been paid as a writer. Kris L, who I believe is now a subscriber 😉 read the novel in a day. APB is a sizable novel, weighing in at over 129,000 words and 424 pages (in the paperback version). Kris also enjoyed the style, my “way with words.” To Kris, I doff my hat. [No, I do not know Kris L., which makes this review shine even brighter for me.]

🥂

Cheers and thank you all.

Department of High Fantasy

A quick update on Walking the Darkmaker’s Way, one of the books where Gary and Menno live. I’ve finally gotten to the place in the narrative where I’m starting to use previously written chapters—i.e., putting everything in the correct order and touching them up, vs. cranking out rough draft chapters—so the progress to the end is starting to accelerate. The Beta version is still a way aways, but I can, at long last, see the end of the Alpha version. Bodes well for everyone who’d like to help finish the book by giving it a Beta Read. More on that closer to time.

Department of Discounts

For anyone who missed the ebook promotion, let me know. I might be running another one late summer.

For those who prefer physical books, I’m trying to figure out how to run a promotion on that. It’s trickier as there is shipping involved, so if you want to hang out and wait to see what might happen, if anything, cool.

For those who don’t want to wait, I do have a limited number of Advanced Reader Copies I ended up not using. These are on sale for 60% off the list price and can be found on my Amazon Seller booth. Store. Whatever that digital spot is called. I’m not making any $ on that after Amazon takes its bite, so it’s a giveaway for me.
Go here: www.amazon.com/shops/wlancehunt​
Look for “Other Collectible from $9.75.” You might need to click on “paperback” first. I’ll autograph it. See, Collectible…

Department of words

Today has a theme—what having a best-selling book, making me a bestselling author makes me feel

​Stoked—Something I am often these days: Being in an enthusiastic or exhilarated state

​Fired up—something I’m like recently, though mostly the first: inflame with enthusiasm, anger, or other strong emotion.

​Reinvigorated— a feeling that applies to both me and the book A Perfect Blindness: to give new or renewed strength or energy to (something or someone)

As always, thank you for reading.

Lance

Don’t be afraid to let me know if you’ve a question. wlance@wlancehunt.com