A word of advice to first-time authors from a first-time author. Don't follow the progress of your book sales on Amazon - that way madness lies.
Even my editor says she doesn't understand why one minute you are sitting pretty at 1,234 in the ratings, the next you are in the pit of obscurity at 198,853, the next you're up to 13,107.
How does it work? How many actual book sales equals respectability? Or is there just some bloke at Amazon randomly generating numbers? Keeping tabs on your rating for any length of time is a gut-wrenching emotional rollercoaster where you imagine yourself to be a best-seller only to be flung back among the dead men. Avoid at all costs.
Having said that, this week I was on the Simon Mayo Book Panel where BAIT received some extremely generous reviews.
Within minutes of the show ending, my rating had rocketed from 174,000 to 238, and the book had cracked the Top 10 Thriller chart.
Quite how many sales that equates to only Amazon can tell, but there's a lot to be said for the Mayo Bounce.
By now I'm probably down to 170,000 again. But, whatever it meant, it was nice while it lasted.
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