Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

A *lot* has happened since my last blog post.  A *LOT*.  A lot, a lot, a lot.

MAYHEM released two weeks ago, and you guys got made it *skyrocket* to the Best Seller lists on Amazon.  You put it in the Top 20 Coming of Age books.  You put it in the Top 20 New Adult & College books.  You put it at a mind-blowing #193 on the Paid Kindle books rankings -- out of over a million titles.

January 20, 2015 will forever go down as one of the best days ever, and I bawled so many times that day.  Because things like this don't happen to debut authors.  And I never thought they'd happen to me.

That day, in the eeearly hours of the morning, the release-day madness all started with this:

First dream come true: my book was published.  It was on a Kindle.  People could buy it.  People could read it.  I was already on cloud nine.

Then, seventeen hours later, this happened:

And I wasn't lying.  I did cry.  A lot.  I'd gone into this publishing venture with next to no expectations, so to see my book -- my book, that I'd worked so hard on -- climbing up the ranks... to know that people were reading it, that a lot of people were reading it... it was overwhelming.

Then, MAYHEM made the New Adult list, and I got to see its cover sitting pretty on lists next to some of my FAVORITE books.  My name was next to names like Jay Crownover, Jennifer Armentrout, Cora Carmack.  I was overwhelmed to the point of tears once again, because looking at my computer screen and seeing that with my own eyes... it felt too big -- too big to have even hoped for.  And yet here it was, really happening.

And still, MAYHEM kept rising, rising, rising, until, on its second day, it made the Top freaking 20.

I still can't truly describe that feeling.  I felt like a fucking rock star.

As time passed and MAYHEM's ranking got better and better and better, this is what the email chain between me, my editor, and my agent looked like:

We. Were. Freaking. OUT.

At its highest point (day 2), MAYHEM ranked #193 of all paid Kindle titles.  And this pretty much sums up how I felt (except imagine a lot more screaming, bawling, and flailing):

And you know what?  This blog post hasn't been nearly mushy enough.  That first week of my debut, I started getting messages from readers, real readers who loved my characters, my story, my writing.  And every single one of those messages was the best thing ever.  I had a reader actually tell me that I made *her* day when I responded to an email she wrote me........

UM, GUYS.  You make my day every time you message me!  When you freak out and talk about your ovaries exploding because you fell in love with one of my characters, I laugh my ass off and FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU.  I'm a total fangirl over my fans.  You guys are AMAZING.

In the two weeks since MAYHEM has been out, you've kept it on the Best Seller lists.  You've reviewed it over 600 times on Goodreads.  You've gotten your friends to read it, your friends' friends to read it, your friends' friends' friends to read it.

I know that eventually, after I've released a lot more books and have had a lot more experiences like this, these feelings might start to fade, and release days might start to seem less magical.  But dear god, I hope not.  And if they do, I hope I never forget.  I hope I never forget what it felt like to get my first message from my first reader about my first book when it came out on its first day.

That's part of why I'm writing this blog post right now -- because yes, I want to say thank you, but I also always want to remember to keep thanking you.  I owe MAYHEM's success to every single person who read it, to every single person who reviewed it, and to every single person who told a friend.  A lot of hard work went into the book by a lot of people, but all of that work would have been for nothing without you guys.

So..... even though this blog post still hasn't been nearly mushy enough, I'll end it by simply saying thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You guys are the real rock stars.