The Missing Story of the Reader

Now that I have 2 published works out there, I have started seeing a trickle of sales. I really do mean a trickle, too. I only eclipse 10 and near 20 due to freebies. This isn't something I'm sad or worried about. Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm surprised I sold anything at all, really. Not because my writing isn't good, but because, other than on a few select sites, nobody knows who I am. Nobody in the mainstream market has ever seen or heard of me until now.

With that in mind, it was both exhilarating and surprising to see my first few sales. It was a sort of pervasive but calm, giddy feeling in my abdomen that stayed there for over 2 hours. I had sold my writing! No refunds! People like my stuff!

Of course, once that first, quiet rush of my initial 2 sales wore off, I started to wonder. Who bought my books? Who was the person, or the persons, that did? How did they find the books? Did they like them? All the things an author usually asks themselves about their readers. Except this time, I wasn't posting on a forum. There were no quick ways for them to contact me and say what they thought. Reviews, of course, or the addresses to my twitter account or this blog, but that is a commitment to communication that I don't expect many, if any, readers to have.

I suspect that this is something that will never really be resolved. The disconnect between reader, sales report and author. I also suspect that it will get easier, that I will get more comfortable with the disconnect, but that it will never really go away.

To close this entry, I will say that if any reader should ever stumble across my blog, I would love to hear your comments on my work, if you've read it. While writing is cathartic for me, something that makes me calmer and better off as a person, I'm also an author. I want my work to be liked, or at least to be read. So... Comment. And if you haven't read any of my works, I'm usually up for giving it away for free with a Smashwords code. All you have to do is ask.