The Galactic Mage Climbing Amazon Top Ten Lists

by | Mar 4, 2012 | Blog | 4 comments

What an amazing ride this has turned out to be. What was just a leap of faith has turned into a wild ride that is fun and fascinating. I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out; in fact, I have been afraid to say anything or do anything for two weeks now, so sure that the least mention, the least anything would somehow curse it.

But, the marketing part of me has been telling the artsy-fartsy writer part of me, “Don’t be silly. It is what it is, and it will last exactly how long it will last, good or bad, regardless of what I blog about or whether I change my lucky underpants.”

So, I struck a deal with myself and told me that if The Galactic Mage hit Amazon’s top ten lists for both Kindle Science Fiction and for Kindle Fantasy, I’d say something on the blog. So, here I am. I’m writing this. My wife says that the cats are going to eat me in my sleep if I don’t change my lucky boxers anyway, so, I guess I might as well just throw karmic caution to the wind.

This is The Galactic Mage on the Amazon science fiction best seller charts for Kindle:

I still have trouble wrapping my head around it, but there it is. And people seem to be really enjoying it. It’s getting great reviews on Amazon from readers, and not just from my mom! But real people (not that my mom isn’t real, obviously), real people who have no reason not to say what they mean. The worst review I’ve gotten compared the love story part to Romeo and Juliet. I mean, how can I complain when the person who hates the story most uses Shakespeare as his example of what really bad love-story writing looks like.

So next is The Galactic Mage on the Amazon fantasy books chart. As a point of interest, check out how many spots George R.R. Martin has for his books. He’s got books at #2, #3, #5, #6, #7, and #8. Sheesh! How many spots does one guy need? (And to answer what you just thought: Yes, of course I am consumed with envy.) Anyway, here’s the fantasy screen grab:

I have a few others I was going to put up screen shots of, but I guess I won’t. I’m already starting to get that oogy self-promoter gross-out feeling. I know, “You have to promote yourself because nobody else will.” I’ve literally read that a million times on writers’ boards and marketing blogs. But I still kind of get that wrinkly lemon-eater face when I do it. So, I want you to know I’m all puckery right now and have decided with great effort to stop with just the two I put up. But there is other cool stuff happening on other lists, all science fiction and fantasy book lists (not just Kindle e-books) and even some Top Rated lists on which the novel is doing well. So, I’m stoked. That’s my point.

Beyond being stoked, I am also so grateful to everyone who has been so supportive, and to the readers who even take the time to stop by here and say nice stuff in comments or emails. It’s just such an amazing, even surreal time right now. I hope it keeps going, but, well, it just is what it is.

Maybe I won’t change these socks, though. Just in case.

4 Comments

  1. John

    This is great John! I happened to be checking out The GM on Amazon today and saw this as well: “#251 Paid in Kindle Store”… dude that is getting close to the top 100 for all of Amazon Kindle books! Oh and BTW, the market is begging for you to raise your price on the Kindle edition. It’s not greed (I know you would say that), its just listening to your market and responding appropriately =)

  2. John

    LOL, you know me well, my friend. But you know, the way I see it is that it’s not broken, so I’m not going to fix it. I’m selling books. People are reading them and enjoying them. It’s my first book. Could I get more? Possibly … maybe. But why? Everyone is happy? I’m happy. I’m elated. It’s selling. People are reading it. Readers are leaving nice reviews on Amazon which only helps me sell more. They’re saying nice things here. I’m getting fan mail. Can you imagine? Why would I want to raise the price. To me, that seems like giving providence the finger.

  3. Candace

    Your blog post says it all, and I can’t say congratulations big and loud enough, John. I’m on p. 354 & having a hard time putting it down. One consequence is that I’m neglecting piles of student papers I should be grading. I’ll make a stab at writing a review somewhere when I finish, and then I’ll spend some time longing for the sequel.

  4. John

    No pressure on the review. I’m just glad you are giving my story time in a very busy universe that you live in. I mean, sure, the selfish me says, “Hey, those kids’ papers are probably boring… just give them a B and call it good.” But, that would be wrong. The fact that I had teachers who took the time to be honest with me means literally everything… I gave Dr. Doug Rice props in my acknowledgments, and I can’t say enough about how straight up he was with me. If my stuff sucked, he told me. I mean, he didn’t say, “You suck,” but he had the courage to be honest and actually try to help me. He didn’t baby me. I am so grateful. What you do as a teacher is so much more valuable than probably anyone ever tells you. Rock on!