Sunday, August 07, 2011

Please donate to help the families of fallen Navy SEALS

I'd be grateful if you'd consider making a donation to the Navy SEAL Foundation, to help the grieving families of the incredibly gallant members of SEAL Team 6 who died this week in Afghanistan.

I just donated and I hope that you will, too.

And I hope you'll repost this message and the link on your own blogs and social-networking sites.

Thank you.

I'm interviewed on "Kindle Author" about "HUNTER"

I've just been interviewed by "KINDLE AUTHOR."

Here is stuff you may (or may not!) want to know about HUNTER, about its hero and its genesis, and about me.

Enjoy!

UPDATE, 8/7/11 1:30 pm.: Based on sales, HUNTER is currently (1:45 pm Sunday) the #56 ranked bestseller in Kindle "Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue" and the #90 Kindle bestseller in "Romantic Suspense."

UPDATE, 8/9/11: Based on customer ratings, HUNTER is now the #26 "Top Rated in Fiction" -- that's ALL fiction -- on the Kindle, which includes over 286,000 titles. It's also #9 "Top Rated in Genre Fiction," #3 "Top Rated in Romance," #2 "Top Rated in Mysteries & Thrillers," and ...

#1 "Top Rated in Thrillers"
#1 "Top Rated in Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue"
#1 "Top Rated in Romantic Suspense"

Thank YOU, dear readers, for this incredible response to my debut novel.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

"HUNTER" hits an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller list

On the afternoon of August 3 -- after just six weeks of release as a self-published novel -- HUNTER, my debut thriller, entered the Kindle Top 100 bestseller list in the "Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue" category. As of 7:30 p.m. Eastern, it reached as low as #82, ahead of the following bestselling authors and titles on that list:

James Rollins ("The Judas Strain"), David Baldacci ("Absolute Power"), Clive Cussler ("Atlantis Found"), Tom Clancy ("The Teeth of the Tiger," "Patriot Games"), Jack du Brul, Ken Follett ("Lie Down with Lions"), Daniel Silva ("Mark of the Assassin," "The Marching Season"), Stephen Hunter ("Time to Hunt"), Robert B. Parker ("Night & Day: A Jesse Stone Novel"), Nelson DeMille ("The Charm School," "By the Rivers of Babylon"), William Gibson ("Pattern Recognition"), M.H. Sargent ("Operation Spider Web," "The Yemen Connection"), and Jack Higgins ("The Eye of the Storm").

Also today, HUNTER received its 40th Amazon customer review -- the 39th that rated it with "5 Stars," the highest possible ranking. As a result, the novel is now customer-ranked #1 on the Kindle list "Top Rated in Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue," #1 "Top Rated in Romantic Suspense," #2 "Top Rated in Thrillers" (that's among all thrillers available on the Kindle), #4 "Top Rated in Mysteries & Thrillers," #8 #5* "Top Rated in Romance," #19 #14* "Top Rated in Genre Fiction," and #45 #40* "Top Rated in Fiction" (again, that's all fiction available on the Kindle, over 285,000 titles).

If you would've asked me even two months ago if this would have happened -- let alone so soon, and even for an hour -- I would've laughed in your face. Nonetheless, I'm grateful to my readers.

* These revised rankings as of 8/4/11.

UPDATE, 8/5/11 -- As of 10:45 a.m., HUNTER is down to #75 on Kindle's "Bestsellers in Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue" list, another new low ranking. It's also well under the #5,000 ranking in sales of all Kindle titles -- #4,460, to be precise -- out of almost a million ebook titles. In addition, several online interviews with me and reviews of the book are pending, which will only accelerate sales.

UPDATE, 8/6/11 -- HUNTER sales ranking fell to as low as #60 on the "Spy Stories" bestseller list, and continues to hover in the low 60s. It's overall Kindle sales ranking is down to the low-to-mid 3,000s.

UPDATE, 8/15/11 -- HUNTER has fallen periodically to rankings as low as #55 on the "Spy Stories" bestseller list and has appeared repeatedly on the "Romantic Suspense" bestseller list, too.