Yes, that’s right, folks, my short memoir “Detention” has beat out eight – count ’em, eight! – other FREE short memoirs to rise to the top of the Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 15 minutes (1-11 pages) > Biographies & Memoirs category.
Although technically can you call it a bestseller if it’s free?
I know better than to attach too much importance to these rankings – particularly on a brand new release – but I’m actually quite pleased. “Detention” is a self-contained excerpt from my forthcoming memoir On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six Years After It Happened, and I’m hoping that the free eBook will drum up some interest in the book itself. And while being number one out of nine isn’t all that impressive, holding the #81 spot in the far larger category of Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs means that some people may actually read my book. Yay!
If you would like to read my “Detention” eBook, you can find it here:
Amazon U.S.
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany
This eBook – and several others that are still working their way through the system – are currently available through Lulu.com and will also shortly be available on ITunes, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. You can find the full list on my “FREE EBOOKS” page here, which I will update with the proper links once I have them.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and do my little happy dance while I fold laundry. Those shirts won’t know what hit ’em…
Lori Schafer's Short Subjects I Feel Like Writing About 
Congratulations! That’s awesome :)
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Thank you! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it continues! :)
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Every step forward counts! Congratulations on the best-seller, and yes, free or not we can call it that! Every boost in ranking matters to the host site. In this case, ranking matters to Amazon. Thus it does matter to you as it is a part of your marketing and every step forward, every notch in ranking will help your platform as a writer. I’m happy for you that this is going well for you! :-)
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Whatever they bode for the future, I actually find these experiences very valuable mathematically. Tracking rankings and comparing them with actual sales is giving me a very good idea of how the two relate to one another – and my preliminary impression is that it doesn’t actually take very many sales to produce a significant increase in rank. Given how important having a good ranking is to maintaining a good ranking, this is strategically higly relevant to the independent author. I will be very interested in watching to see how it plays out. :)
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Hey that’s great Lori! Congrats! And I am picturing you doing that lil jig as I type! ;))
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Thanks, Anjali! I’m picturing doing my jig to the rhythm of your typing :)
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Congrats! One of my books actually made it to 14th for 60 seconds or so. I forgot the category but it was something bizarre. Anyway, enjoy the moment!
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I really think the bizarre categories are the way to go. I know I can’t compete with the thousands of works of “Literary Fiction.” But if I can do well in “Dysfunctional Family Relationships,” then that’s good enough for me :)
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Very Cool! Congrats Lori!!
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