300 Sales and counting

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Elseerian has been available on Amazon for just over 7 weeks now. In that time it has had far more success than I could have hoped. Each week its ranking has improved, until currently it is ranked about 7,000. Last week I even got as high as 2,500 and made it to two best seller lists. I am grateful for all the support from friends and family, and especially grateful for whatever is driving the growth. As of now, I have sold over 300 books, and hope to crack the 500 mark soon. Thanks again!

60 sales as of this morning!

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Elseerian has officially sold 60 copies as of this morning. It's current ranking is under 20,000, and it has even sold abook in the UK. I am astounded that it has done so well in just 3 weeks. With the exception of 4 sales on smashwords, all of them have been on Amazon. For that reason, I dropped Smashwords so I could enroll in the KDP select program. It will allow me to do free promotions of my book, and allow amazon prime members to borrow it for free. I will post here when I put my book up for free.
For any Twitter or facebook users. You can connect with me and follow for additional updates.

I have now e-published

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I finally did it. Elseerian is e-published on smashwords and Amazon. I posted both about a week ago. So far I have sold 19 on Amazon and 4 on smashwords. Now would probably be the appropriate time for me to express my complete suprise that anyone besides my family has bought my book. (I know of at least 4 of those purchases were family.) For anyone interested, here is the link.

I am off to prepare my second novel. If possible, I want to e-publish my second and third books by christmas this year. We will see if I can do it.

Oh, and for any twitter users, I finally joined. My name is BenHale8. Send me a tweet if you would like!

Elseerian Book Cover

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I am still moving towards epublishing as I wait for traditional publishing. Today I recieved the final design of my book cover. It is exactly the way I pictured it. The image of the assassin behind Taryn is perfect. The artist (Kendall Hale) did an amazing job. I hope you all enjoy it!

Oh, and for anyone curious, the seal on the bottom left has a special meaning, but I am leaving it up to my readers to figure it out . . .
Good luck!

Smashwords

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One of my readers recommended I check out a website called smashwords. Although I have been skeptical of using self-publishing in the past, I was impressed with what the site had to offer. After my preliminary research, I feel like my mind is coming to accept the idea of epublishing. There is a great deal I would have to do if I decided to follow this route. I would need cover art, another review of my first book, and several other things.
To be clear, I am not giving up on being traditionally published. I am confident my books will be accepted and published, someday. The question is when. Currently, I have little time to write, or edit, my novels. Querying agents also takes time. At a guess, I would say I am at least a year or two out from being accepted by an agent. In that time frame, IF I epublished through smashwords, I can only improve my book. Reviews from new readers will help me continue to improve my writing. In addition, if (on the slim chance) I actually sold a lot of books, I could justify taking time off from my other business endeavors to work on my novels more.
Either way, It’s definitely something to consider . . .

I received a second request from an agent!

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Over the last year I have worked on sending query letters to agents. I will be the first to admit that my first attempts lie somewhere between abysmal and wretched. As I have improved my skill at writing query letters, and learned a great deal about the industry, I have shorted and condensed my query letter with each attempt. Recently I carefully selected 5 agents to query. I studied each agent and revised the letter to be specific to them.  It is now a week later. I have received 2 rejections, and a partial request to read the first 50 pages.
With no small amount of effort, I quelled my excitement and sent the fifty pages. As much as I hope for more, I know the odds are against me. To date, I have sent around 100 query letters. (About 10-30 per round) Although I doubt I will be accepted by the first person who requests my work, I see this as a sign that my query letter is improving.
Of course . . .  I will more than happy if she decides to represent me.

My editor has finished reviewing Book 3

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My editor has just finished reviewing Seven Days. As a less  . . . biased opinion, I appreciate her feedback. She particularly enjoyed the final action sequences, and said that my character development has improved greatly. I am also grateful for her insight as she noticed several minor holes in the plot hat I hadn’t noticed. Now I get to edit the book again with her perspective in mind.  
3rd draft here we come.