My New Best Seller: Cora Lee

This is what happened on April 4, 2014 that put me on top of the world.

“Cora Lee” made it all the way to #6 on the Amazon Top 100 Best Sellers Literary Short Reads List. Yikes!!!

Best-selling short story

OMG, I was riveted to my laptop.

I watched my humble short story rise up from #81 to #15 to #10. Then it got really exciting.

I was part of a book promotion lead by Jacqueline Diamond, author of more than 90 novels of suspense and romance. The promotion was called “Twenty books for less than $20.” The night before the sale, working with marketer Tobey Crockett, I sent an email flyer announcing my two new short stories–”Cora Lee” and “Falling for the Prosecutor“–to about 1300 of my students.

Once my story started creeping up the Best Sellers list, I emailed my current students and my extensive family. Both groups supported me beyond my expectations, buying “Cora Lee” and even writing reviews, that all-important step to support an author.

I Tweeted to promote my story as well as the books and novellas of the Twenty. I Facebooked (love the verb) till my followers were probably sick of hearing from me. But hey, this was exciting news and I wanted to share!

Once “Cora Lee” hit #6, right behind stories by Lee Child, Jodi Picoult, and Stephen King, it stayed there over night. At 8:30 the next morning, I was shocked to see it still ranked #6.

Later in the day, of course, as sales slowed, it began to drop in the List (As of this writing, it’s still in the Top 100). But the excitement of the ride remains.

I feel grateful to my friend Jacqueline Diamond and the others in the Twenty, and I adore that my students and family members got behind “Cora Lee” on the exciting ride up the Best Sellers list.