I don't know how these authors do it. Perhaps it's the first book jitters or the desperation to know that someone liked my story; I just started looking at those Amazon numbers. I was immediately hooked. At first, my stalking was somewhat subtle, checking on my numbers every other hour on Amazon and checking on Goodreads for a review.
For a few days, nothing. I actually thought my book sucked and was pretty bummed out. So I just kept on writing; then I got a great review! and another and another and those numbers on Amazon was getting smaller and smaller. I found myself looking at these pages every hour to see if the numbers change. Wondering why I was getting great reviews on Goodreads, but none on Amazon and I was trying to figure out why and this stalking was reflecting on my fourth book of the Masked Emotions series.
Then came my first criticize review and I was like "OH JOY! Someone gave me a backhanded compliment!" Then it became my obsession. I was Googling my book, promoting my book on Facebook groups to the point that FB told me "Hey, buddy. Back off. I'm grounding you!" It felt almost compulsive checking out my book and patiently waiting like an eager little puppy from the book reviewers.
This morning my second book came out and after I submitted copies to various reviewers. I felt so embarrassed by the hours I've wasted tracking meaningless social media ephemera, but at the same time, I met so many awesome authors. Take the good with the bad I guess.
I was able to conversate with Stevie J. Cole, MJ Fields, Selena Kitt (That one made me so giddy!) and Shayla Black. Through them, I was advised to join the RWA, which I did. I'm hoping that I could meet my three favorite authors in this genre someday which are Roxy Sloane, Sylvia Day and CJ Roberts and thank them for inspiring me to become a writer in this genre. Their way of storytelling really captivated me and propelled me to become better. Knowing me, if I eventually meet them, I'll act like a fanboy and my kids will make fun of me for the rest of the day, bringing it back up whenever they need a good laugh.
I hope I am not alone in this. I love the idea of admitting the messed up things we do and realizing that we are not alone.