The Gift of Death is finally published and out there to be purchased! I’ll spare you the trials and tribulations that I had to go through to get the paperback published but I learned a lot and I will be better prepared for the next book I publish (which will be the 2nd book in the series of The Gift of Death).

I titled this blog Nerve-racking because publishing a book is just that…at least for me anyway. It was a surreal feeling when I got a proof of the paperback. To be able to see what I created in print was an awesome feeling…one I’ll never forget. Once my book finally went live on Amazon, I was excited, but I was also nervous. What if people hate it and I get bad reviews? That was all I kept thinking.

Now, it’s been out there for almost two weeks and my nerves…are still racking! I’m trying to figure out the whole marketing thing as I go along but I’m not seeing much success. When I ran a promotion for two days to get the kindle version for free, I got a total of 17 downloads from that. I have no idea if they were friends/family members or just complete strangers. Either way, it was cool to see since I didn’t really promote that other than to the people who have signed up for my newsletter…which is way less than 17 people I’m embarrassed to say.

I can see how many I’ve sold but what I can’t see is who bought them/downloaded them and so I have no idea if it were family/friends or strangers. I do know some family and friends who bought it. I’ve gotten 21 kindle downloads and only 4 paperbacks purchased. That’s 25 books total…and that’s okay because I’m just starting out. Also, I know of 9 more paperbacks that have sold that just isn’t showing up in my sales yet (I don’t see them until after the books have been shipped, which takes a few days). What’s nerve-racking is not having any reviews on my book yet. That’s driving me crazy! So if you’ve read my book, please leave a review on Amazon! Those good reviews could persuade someone to purchase the book who isn’t totally sure. I do have two family members who finished reading The Gift of Death this week and told me how great it was. That’s so nice to hear…but I’d love to be hearing that from strangers! Some day, hopefully!

Like I said….this shit is nerve-racking!