My expectations for Impossible

When I decided to publish Impossible, it was sometime in August. I'd written over 20,000 words in two weeks and I decided that I wanted to publish it in October because October sounded like a good month.

My reasons for wanting to publish Impossible were simple. I thought it was a good story and I wanted other people to read it and enjoy it. I didn't have any other expectations. I wasn't concerned about sales or rankings. I just wanted readers to be taken on a journey, enjoy it and have fun. That's the only thing I've ever wanted as a reader: to be taken on a journey and enjoy it, whether the story has ups or downs.

When I first published Impossible, it debuted around #24,000 on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller List and shot up to #14,000 in a few days. What can I say? I have great friends! It quickly went down in rank and kept hovering between #19,000 and #40,000 for the rest of the week. I was pretty happy with that. I was making a couple of sales every day and it was great knowing that people were buying my book. In Week one I sold 40 copies of Impossible.

Week two began and nothing remarkable happened until November 2nd. I distinctly remember my book being ranked #19,000 in the morning. Around 1 pm, my mum asked me to check the ranking, so I did. My book was ranked #9,467. At first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me, so I refreshed the page.

"What's wrong?" my mum asked from beside me.

"Um." I think I stopped breathing at this point. "My book broke into the Top 10,000 on Amazon, but I think it's a mistake."

*My mum looks over my shoulder* "How can it be a mistake? Check again."

So I refreshed the page again and the number stayed the same. I really felt like I'd accomplished something at that stage and rang up my husband at work and gushed. Then I gushed to one of my friends and we both smiled and thought it was cool. All day my book stayed around the #9,000 mark.

Around 9 pm it had reached #7,835. I actually gasped. There was no way this could be real. How could MY book be ranked that high?

A week later, Impossible is floating around the #1400 mark.

This post isn't to brag; it's just a post of disbelief, as if putting it up will make it seem more real. I know I haven't broken any records or achieved anything amazing, but I want to make my self-publishing journey as transparent as possible. I won't talk about money, but I will mention sales. Currently, I sell between 40-60 books a day. In the last 8 days I have sold 300 books. I don't expect this to last. I don't expect anything, actually. I went into this with no expectations at all, so anything and everything is an achievement for me.

What I will say is that I was happy the day I published Impossible. That's what I've always wanted. To have a published book and to publish a book that readers could enjoy. All this rankings stuff is you guys; the readers. Thank you for spreading the word. Thank you for reading. Thank you for enjoying Impossible.

I couldn't thank you enough if I tried.