I'VE NOW SOLD FIVE HUNDRED BOOKS ALL BY MYSELF. THAT'S A LOT OF BOOKS.

Can I have a proper publishing deal now please already ffs?

[NOTE: There were at least two mass shootings on Valentine’s Day in America, so it might seems wrong to celebrate an achievement like selling some books. It feels wrong to celebrate anything when there’s still so much Trumpfuckery going on. But fuck guns & fuck the GOP, I’m celebrating this milestone]

When I finally decided to self-publish my rock and roll love story/ultimate meta-fanfiction The Sound of Settling back in September, I had no idea what to expect. After more than fifty rejections from agents—yes, despite the Cameron Crowe blurb and Dave Grohl backstory—I worried that maybe it just wasn’t any good.

But then the first reviews—the real ones, not the obviously fake ones from MAGA jerks—started coming in. “A fun, sexy, page-turner of a book!” raved my old friend Rebecca from high school.

Soon, more five-star reviews followed. Readers were connecting emotionally with my lead characters, Lila and Grady. Men tweeted to me that they were crushing on her. One fan tweeted that they “missed” Grady and Lila.

I sold 100 copies in the first three weeks it was out. And then I kept selling copies while racking up plenty of raves, which all were saying the same things over and over.

They couldn’t put it down. They stayed up all night reading it. They loved it so much, they read it twice.

They also wanted to see a streaming series and a sequel, because The Sound of Settling ends with “a doozy of a cliffhanger,” according to one rave.

So I wrote a sequel. I’ve gone through the draft a few times now, but I promised to announce the title on a TikTok Live, which hasn’t been scheduled yet.

I kept querying agents, showing them the raves and the sales. I got one amazing rejection that told me I had something worthwhile, even if I’m the only one with the energy to push my book uphill until I get a proper deal.

In the meantime, I hit sales milestones on the regular. And then I hit a big one, and on Valentine’s Day, which is only perfect for my rock and roll love story.

500 fucking copies. ALL BY MYSELF.

I have friends who are traditionally published who haven’t sold 500 copies of their books, so now I really need to take it to the next level after proving I can move a product. I sold the last ten copies in less than 36 hours, don’t tell me I don’t have value here.

I had to deal with font issues, but prevailed over those. I’m currently having similar problems with IngramSpark, which does pretty much everything differently than Amazon, and a PDF I submitted of the text (which is long enough at 390 pages) comes out to 731 pages. And NO, I’m not releasing a doorstop that will cost more to print than what it’s selling for on Amazon. If any of you have tangoed with IngramSpark, let me know in the comments.

So ANYWAY! If you still haven’t gotten a copy of my beloved book, PLEASE DO SO. It’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited. If you can’t afford it, which I will forever understand, I’ll ask you again to at least rate it 5 stars to keep the MAGA assholes at bay while I’m waiting for Amazon to finally pay attention to the obviously fake accounts I’ve been reporting since September. If you could please share it on your socials/with book groups you might be in, that would be amazing.

Finally, if any of you know a literary agent or producer, please let them know that you know an untapped writing goldmine who’s more than ready for her big break please.

@taradublinrocks#thesoundofsettling #signtara taradublinrocks.com

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