The Big Sleep (Dreamwalkers): One Month Post-Release

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has read or downloaded The Big Sleep (Dreamwalkers). I am doing everything I can to make sure you all feel rewarded for taking a chance on my work.

I am an unestablished writer. In fact, I’m one of many brand new, self-published authors joining the ranks every day. So, I need lots of reviews if I hope to draw readers to my work. To obtain some, I started by emailing several review blogs and Goodreads reviewers who were accepting indie submissions and reviewed similar genres. Of the over one hundred that I contacted, about ten responded, and a couple have posted reviews.

Additionally, I have a couple Goodreads friends who have reviewed and/or shared The Big Sleep (Dreamwalkers), and some of those reviews have been cross-posted to Amazon, as well. As of writing this post, the book has a 4.8 star average rating on Amazon from 6 reviews and a 3.73 average rating on Goodreads from 11 ratings and 8 reviews.

Next, let’s look at downloads. I say “downloads” and not “sales” because The Big Sleep (Dreamwalkers) is a free book. Again, as an unestablished writer entering the world of self-publishing so late in the game, appealing to readers is a struggle. Introducing my work for free is one way that I am working to encourage readership. Along with a free price, newsletter exchanges have been an extremely helpful tool in connecting with more readers, specifically BookBoast. I believe that it is working. Approximately 2000 copies have been downloaded so far and I am quite satisfied with these numbers, though I am unsure where I fall on the curve. As of writing this post, that puts me at an average of just over 60 downloads/day.

Finally, I want to talk about Wattpad. The Big Sleep (Dreamwalkers) has been a featured story on the site since April 3. As of this writing, the story has just under 10,000 total views from all parts and is ranked #88 in the Science Fiction category. Wattpad has been great. I have no idea what impact it has had on my downloads from retailers, but it has allowed me to connect with other readers and writers on a more personal level. It’s also a great online community for discovering what sorts of things readers (especially younger readers and genre fiction fans) are really into at the moment.

That’s all for now on The Big Sleep (Dreamwalkers), but if you want to know more, feel free to ask in the comments. The Big Sleep (The Masters) is nearly complete; expect an announcement soon. Thanks for stopping by!