The Whirlwind...
Wow has today been a whirlwind! So I woke up this morning. A normal day. Get up. Get dressed. Check social media. Go to work (yes I work - you think that everyone earns millions off the back of one book!) and then... then I checked my emails. In fact I had to check and then Google just to be sure. Nope. There it is in cold, hard, black and white, size 10 Arial - WHSmith is taking pre-orders on Drau: Blood.
No - It Can't Be True!
So there it was, no doubt about it. I have to say part of me couldn't help but think "damn! I was in there an hour ago. How did I miss that?!" Of course, I wouldn't have seen it on the shelf but still. In my frenzy of excitement, I immediately wanted to go back! Maybe I could talk to the manager, convince him of my legitimacy, and land a book signing right here at home so soon. Alas work didn't finish till 7pm and by then the shops would all be closed. Still that didn't stop me from just checking that I hadn't missed on anything else. Oh boy!
“How did I miss that?!”
The Red Carpet List
I did the one thing that they tell you NEVER to do. I googled myself. If I'm honest I was waiting for the blog (we all know the one) that says your work is trash and then goes into fine detail about how they could do it better. I was not prepared for to be informed that Drau: Blood was now available not only at Amazon and WHSmiths but at 3 other large vendors across the globe!
Amazon was listing availability as far as INDIA! Honestly, I almost keeled off my chair. Thriftbooks supplied the USA. Infact thanks to Google Books there was a suggestion Waterstones might be pre-ordering it (no confirmation on that as their website was down or apparently experiencing too much traffic).
Keeping An Eye Out
Naturally, my brain went immediately into overdrive. What happens now? Does this mean I am a success? Will my publishers check reach three figures or more? Well... no. The reality is that even though these stores have taken on my book, without a handful of positive testimonials at my back I'm unlikely to achieve much more than I already was. Still for a few hours I felt I had officially hit the red carpet and that really was a massive boost. So onwards and upwards. The show must go on and I'll remember to keep a much closer eye on the media in future.
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