You folks rock!

I'm very grateful to all of you for your help and support in making the launch of my latest book, 'Stand Against The Storm', a success.

I'd expected relatively slow sales at first, because it's been nine months since the publication of my previous book.  Most 'indie' authors find that their sales numbers depend at least in part on their visibility in the market, so if there's a long gap between launches, that tends to impact how many people will look for their next book.

It seems I needn't have worried. As of the time of writing, 'Stand Against The Storm' ranks #671 of all the paid books available in the Kindle Store (which offers well over 2,000,000 volumes in all).

That's the highest sales rank I've ever achieved with any book, and it appears to be still climbing at this time.  Naturally, I'm over the moon about it.  The book's currently at #5 on the 'Hot New Releases' list for the military sci-fi genre, and at #3 on the same list for space opera sci-fi.  Those numbers are particularly pleasing in the light of the long-drawn-out process of writing this book, and all the difficulties and delays I experienced.  They make it all worthwhile!  Initial reviews of the book (20 of them so far) have also been very positive.

What's even more encouraging is that most of the circulation is taking place in the form of sales.  I'd been wondering what impact Amazon's relatively new $9.99-per-month subscription library service, Kindle Unlimited, would have on my sales.  It pays substantially less to an author per 'borrow' than for a sale, so if it had dominated among my readers, it would have led me to reconsider participating in the Kindle Select program (which offers several benefits, but carries with it automatic enrollment of your book in KU).  However, at the time of writing 'borrows' of the new book are running at about 25% of sales volume, or 4 sales for every 'borrow'.  Even though it reduces my income, I think I can support that ratio in the interests of gaining readers and market visibility, hoping that will translate into higher sales in future.  However, if the ratio of loans to sales grows any higher, I may have to change that approach.  After all, authors like myself depend on sales for our daily bread, so we can't afford to lose too many!  We'll see what happens.

If current trends continue, 'Stand Against The Storm' will move more than 1,000 copies in its first week on the market - the best performance of any of my books so far.  For this genre, and as an independent author, that's just amazing!  Thank you all very much for your support.  I couldn't have done this without you;  or, to put it another way, we did this together.  You rock!

I'm already a third of the way into the second volume of the Laredo Trilogy, 'Forge A New Blade'.  It's flowing nicely.  Look for it in May.  The fifth volume of the Maxwell Saga, as yet unnamed, will hopefully be ready in August, and the third and final volume of the Laredo Trilogy, 'Knife To The Hilt', in November, if I can keep up the pace.  I do have to stop now and again to eat, sleep and tell my wife I love her, you know - and not necessarily in that order of importance!

Peter