THE NUMBERS GAME

I might not be great at math, but I know what numbers mean

Friday night, my friend Wendi became the 400th person to buy my rock and roll love story, The Sound of Settling.

I am very proud of myself, just like Henry Winkler told me I should be.

Four hundred books might not seem like a lot when compared to real bestselling authors, but if I put 400 copies of my book on a table in front of you, it would look like a whole lot of books.

Sixteen thousand pages have been read on Kindle. I don’t know how many people have read the full paperback, but the reviews are raves upon raves.

Despite all the issues I’ve had with Amazon and this book—the font, the font, the font, ffs—people are in love with Lila and Grady.

So agents should be knocking each other out of the way to rep me because I clearly have something here. I’m doing all I can to be as visible to them as possible, but I remain in the 300 Views Hinterland of Booktok, no matter how many TikTok trends I try.

By now you know me as someone who won’t give up, mainly because I don’t have the luxury to give up. I’m also now deeply committed to the sequel, having knocked out the first thirty pages in the last three days.

As I said in my last post, it’s pouring out of me.

While I keep waiting for the Yes Person to show up, I’ll leave you with another unexpected delight showing up in my Twitter feed Saturday morning.

My book is finding its way out into the world and I’m kvelling like a proper Jewish mother over here.

If you haven’t met Lila and Grady yet, you can join the growing number of fellow readers and writers who have already gotten so attached that they’ve read The Sound of Settling twice. Or tweeted me that they have a crush on Lila, or how they miss Lila and Grady.

I’m in love with them too, of course. I didn’t realize that I also missed them a little until I got hit with the Idea Mallet and the sequel has been essentially writing itself.

Here’s a promise from me to you, Dear Reader: When I sell The Sound of Settling, I’ll reveal the title of the sequel. The more I can share it on social, the better chance I have of really getting somewhere with it. It could all change with one retweet from a huge account. If I knew how to get my tweets about my books to get even half the views my tweets about my homemade Oatmeal Scotchies got, I might have a deal in place already.

But ANYWAY, no one understands better than I do that money is tight for a lot of people, so if you can’t buy my book, please share it because YOU NEVER KNOW who might see it and be that Yes Person.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! (PS, #TrumpSmells)