June 17th was Quantum Zoo‘s official release day.
I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d never participated in a book project of this magnitude with 12 enthusiastic contributors ready to do whatever was necessary.
The day started quietly with a sprinkling of sales, and Quantum Zoo crept sedately onto the science fiction anthology bestseller list at rank #84.
“Well, that’s nice,” I thought. “At least we’re not starting with a big fat nothing.”
Of course, we’d done considerable preparation for this day.
Several readers had agreed ahead of time to review the book.
I’d approached 19 book bloggers to look at Quantum Zoo and consider featuring it on their blogs.
I’d been posting about the anthology on this blog, on my Facebook page, and on Google+ as we got closer to release.
I know my 11 fellow authors were doing a lot as well. But still I did not know what to expect.
After my first check of the Quantum Zoo Amazon page, I went on about other business. Strangely, I can no longer remember exactly what I was doing. I was busy. I remember that. But whatever I was doing was washed from my memory when I checked Amazon sometime after noon.
Quantum Zoo was #21 on the fantasy anthology bestseller list!
#16 on the science fiction anthology bestseller list with a 5-star review!
!!!
Wow! Readers were buying our book!
And it just got better from there.
When Quantum Zoo hit #11 on the SF list, it was sitting smack in between two Wool books by Hugh Howey!
Those of you who write and indie publish will understand what this means. Readers who have read Mr. Howey’s books will also likely understand how mind-boggling this is. For those of you who haven’t read Wool, go pick up a copy!
Hugh is a masterful storyteller who took the reading world by storm roughly 3 years ago. He’d been writing for a long time, so he knew what he was doing. But, like many writers, his early readership was modest. Then he released the first novella in the Wool series. It proved to be the story the whole science fiction world was waiting for. He’s sold millions of copies and continues to be popular with readers world-wide. Rightfully so. Yes, I’ll confess to being a fangirl. 😀
Having our book sandwiched by Hugh’s for an instant in time means a lot to me!
As the evening rocketed onward, the news just got better and better!
Quantum Zoo went to #6 on the science fiction list.
And it closed out the night as #2 on the Hot New Releases list.
I was over the moon!
I awoke to even better news. Overnight our book had climbed to #4 on the science fiction list.
While I wrote this blog post, Quantum Zoo hit #3 on science fiction anthologies and #1 on hot new releases.
#1
I am blown away!
We owe it all to readers. To you!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy the stories tremendously.
And if you haven’t yet bought a copy, what are you waiting for? 😀
Quantum Zoo Amazon.com I Amazon UK I Amazon DE I Amazon ES
