The Day After THE ‘Sale’.

The first day and one sale.

Before I could celebrate, I check to make sure no one I knew had bought it without me knowing.

Satisfied that I haven’t breached the ‘contract’, I have glass of wine (I’d have had one anyway, but this one tastes better).

Promising, and this morning, on first check, my wife points out I am 12,000 odd in the rankings. This may well be ten times the number a normal bookshop should stock, but I am quite pleased.

And secretly, I am reminded of a tale an old teacher of mine — Mr Weeks: cheers and nevermind the headmaster telling my mother I was responsible for your heart attack — told me when I was seven.

It concerns a courtier who did some enormous favour for the potentate with whom he played chess.

“What can I pay you?” the potentate asked, “Whatever you want in my kingdom.”

The courtier, a wise man, said: “I shall have a penny, place it on the first square of the chess board.”

“Is that all?” asked the potentate.

“Not quite.” Said the courtier. “Tomorrow, you shall double it. And the day after it shall be doubled again, doubled for each square on the board.”

I shall leave you to do the maths, but by the sixty-fourth square, the potentate was broke and the courtier the richest man in Christendom. I have been looking all my life for someone to put that one over on. No takers so far.

However, one sale today, two tomorrow and who knows?

Except there are no sales tomorrow and as I type my ranking has fallen to 32,000 and it is only my pessimism that is doubling.

The doubts creep in: do Amazon ’buy’ one copy of each book, just to keep their selling customers happy? Note that royalties are not payable until they reach £10, and they could always say it was ‘refunded’.

So, a new strategy? Already, you say. Well, I need to get a review. There are sites, though the only one I have seen so far that will consider ‘self-published’ works requires a’ reading fee’. No thanks.

So, while I research on, I am looking for new ways, some other way of getting it out there.

Please, ideas on a postcard…

….alternatively leave a comment.