Whew!

What a wild ride. It really was exhilarating to go from nowhere to the Top 100 on the Amazon Kindle bestseller list – even if it was just for a moment in time.

To those of you who have been following the trials and triumphs of R. Bruce Walker a.k.a. Author Boy since I began my indie writer odyssey last summer, obviously this past week has been a high point.

What happened? I signed up for the Kindle Direct Publishing Select Program to promote The Last Canary and found a valuable new channel to distribute my work.

The result? Overnight I jumped nearly half a million places up Amazon’s ersatz leader board to enjoy a cameo near the top of the heap (#92 in fact). And I mean it … literally overnight.

Imagine going to bed on a Wednesday night and waking up to find that the book that you were hoping might eventually be discovered actually had been.

All it took was to offer Jesters’ Dance FREE for two days.

Now I know some of you are going to say that I’m getting a little soft headed with regard to giving my hard work away for nothing.

In quoting Samuel Johnson during my promo i.e. ‘Only a blockhead would write, except for money,’ obviously I chose to flout conventional publishing wisdom.

But lets be clear, Sir Samuel penned his famous words in the middle of the eighteenth century. There’s been a lot of water and virtual ink pass beneath the proverbial bridge since then.

Besides, remuneration isn’t what my writing journey has been about. For me, it has been all about self-expression and needing to capture some of my life’s experiences before a faltering memory relegates them to the land of the long forgotten.

And to occasionally shake an angry author’s fist at the behaviors of an increasingly confused and troubled world.

Certainly, the best way to fulfill this latter goal is by cultivating an audience. If you’re reading this, I believe you’re a part of mine.

Whether you’re sincerely interested in my stories … or just watching much like the many who view NASCAR … with the nascent desire to see a horrific crash … thank you, just the same.

Audiences are why elephants dance for peanuts; tigers jump through flaming hoops; and late middle-aged men taking up writing fiction instead of playing golf.

An audience is what I appear to have acquired this week. Beyond, of course, the loyal support and interest you have given to my venture to date. And that is what is truly exciting about what has occurred.

Oh, I know I have ‘rented’ my popularity this time. But I am hopeful that once readers have a chance to familiarize themselves with my writing style and my approach, I might be able to induce them to sample my new novel, The Last Canary.

After all, it is not as though the risk is high. $2.99 for my e-books? Some of you have already chastised that I am giving my work away.

Don’t fret. This is a conscious marketing decision on my part. It allows me to earn almost as much per book sold (e-book or print) as most other bestselling authors get once everyone’s been through their pockets.

More importantly, it gives me a chance to impress some new readers … and garner some potentially new and loyal fans.

I’m not sure where this desperate desire to please ever came from. You’d imagine if this whorish desire to pleasure others were part of my DNA, I would’ve stayed in the ad game. Or become a masseuse.

It is, I have to say, nonetheless, quite thrilling to get a taste of what it might be like to actually pen a best seller.

After all, isn’t the dream of bestsellerdom the ubiquitous goal of every author? I believe I have confessed to as much in my very first blog on this subject.

Where do we go from here? Good question. I know that I am greedy for even more success. Hopefully, it will be earned with my writing and the satisfaction of my readers after you have labored your way through my latest.

Until then, I am content to be exhausted – both by the excitement of the last forty-eight hours … and the potential for further success.

Thank you to all of you who bounced an e-mail, tweeted, or posted a message on Facebook in support of my latest promotion.

I think I really do owe this success to you.

My next goal? That’s really quite simple … #91 or bust … of course.


THE LAST CANARY is author R. Bruce Walker's second novel. It was published in June, 2012. It follows the release of his debut novel JESTERS' DANCE last year. Both works are available in e-book or trade paperback format at Amazon.com and other leading on-line booksellers.