The past four days have been a bit of a whirlwind for me. On Saturday, A DANCE OF DREAMS was finally released and we began the process of getting the word out, spreading the happy news through social media, emails, and general word of mouth. Friends and family have been wonderful about helping to spread the word and congratulations started coming in from all over. I’m astonished and humbled by it all.
When I was young, I rarely showed anyone the poems I wrote. I was 40 years old before I started sharing my writing with others on a regular basis, and it was a long time after that before I started to believe that what I wrote was any good. I never dreamed I’d have one book of poetry published, let alone three of them. It’s more than a dream come true; it’s a dream I never dared to dream come true.
Today, when I logged onto my computer after work I was greeted by an email from my publisher with the subject “Congratulations!” informing me that as of today A DANCE OF DREAMS hit #25 on Amazon Kindle’s list for books by women poets! And it also made their top 100 for print! I must tell you I was floored by the news. It’s a good thing I was alone at the time because I was speechless. (Those who know me, know that’s really saying something.) My first thought was, boy, poetry must be an even slower seller than I thought if my book is ranked that high. I don’t mean to downplay it; I honestly think it’s very cool, it’s just that young girl’s insecurity coming back and rearing its ugly head. As my Brit friends would say, I’m delighted but gobsmacked by it all.
Who knows where the book will rank in a month? We’ll keep spreading the word and hope sales continue. We’ll give you some time to read your copy a time or two, then it will be time to nudge you to write reviews, because as everyone knows, in this brave new world we live in, audience reviews can make or break you.
But for now, I’m going to take a deep breath and float for a bit in my happy little bubble.
To quote an old Bartle’s & James’ commercial–
Thank you all for your continued support!
Elise Skidmore
October 13, 2015
Awesome news Elise!!!!
Thanks so much, Evelyn. It *is* pretty awesome. I can hardly believe it myself. Now we just have to keep people buying it so it stays in the top 100.
🙂
Great news, must be an inspiration in itself- congrats! Looking forward to reading this.
Thanks, Deb! I hope you’ll enjoy it!
I received my copy. Beautiful book Elise- felt emotion just fanning through it. I know I’m going to read this again and again- it’s that kind of book.
That is music to my ears! Thank you so much.
If you have a chance, maybe you can write at review over at Amazon (or Goodreads or any books site you may frequent) to spread the word.
Well deserved! Inspiring and brave to share those thoughts and feelings. So very glad that you did. Slainte!
Thanks, Denise. I think when you’re a poet (or a writer of any kind) you have to push yourself to be brave, or you’d never share any of your work with anyone. It gets a little easier with time, but there’s always the voice in the back of your head asking, “Should I?” But the older I get, the more I realize you can’t let worrying about what other people think get in the way of following your heart.