Published author Andy Crouch posted a letter he wrote to soon-to-be-published author Adam McHugh, saying it’s great that your book is coming out, but don’t think anyone will care about it for a while.
“What will be a big deal,” he writes, “hopefully, over the coming months, are individual letters, emails, conversations and even (we hope!) reviews from grateful readers. This is what makes it worth doing, in my opinion—the amazing chance to meet people for whom your words were genuinely, even dramatically, helpful.”
And avoid your book’s Amazon ranking. It’s pointless.
Excellent piece. Couldn’t agree more.
I think checking one’s blog stats would fit with the Amazon ranking advice, even though blog stats actually mean something. I think I check on our too often. I wonder what it is now.
You’re right about Amazon rankings. For example, books by Barbara JOhnson, the “Spatula Ministries” lady, are rated right down the middle, because they’re averaged between glowing reviews by those who find her books encouraging & hilarious, and low ratings by those offended by her stand against homosexual behavior.