B-b-b-bestseller
The word still kind of sticks on my tongue in the way things do when you are afraid that giving voice to them will be a jinx and make them untrue, but after making the bookscan bestseller lists for hardback fantasy in both the UK & US, I suppose the term is apt. My agent certainly thinks so.
The Warded Man made it up to # 8 it’s first week on shelves, and held a respectable # 10 its second, and # 11 its third. Hopefully I’ll keep hanging on when I get last week’s numbers tomorrow. Even if I’m not making the London or NY Times like my new friend Brent Weeks did last week (Congratulations, Brent! Time to set a new life’s goal.), it’s not too shabby. Brent had a head start, anyway, putting out all three books of his Night Angel Trilogy in one year. I’ll be lucky to publish three books in five years.
Across the sea, things are going even more spectacularly, with the paperback of The Painted Man selling over 200 copies the week BEFORE it went on sale, and blowing through the entire Amazon.co.uk stock in just under 18 hours when it went on sale last Thursday. If it had been a day earlier, I would Have thought it was an April Fool’s joke. TPM has been sold out all weekend, but it looks like the stock is finally back. It is also the paperback book of the month at Waterstones, which is awesome. The first printing of the hardback is sold out most everywhere, and the second printing has become scarce as well, with limited availability on the internet and only a small quantity scattered in bookstores throughout the British Isles.
The Painted Man was also apparently was nominated to the longlist of the British Fantasy Awards. We’ll have to see how that develops.
Between this and my beautiful, healthy baby girl who is starting to walk and say “Dada” at only 8 months old, I feel like I am using up all my good karma for the next decade.
You can see Cassie (left) going through daddy’s comics for the first time this morning. Granted, she is more interested in eating them than in reading them, but hopefully it is a sign of more good things to come.
Congratulations and wow! That didn’t take long. The advance buzz from releasing in Great Britain first must have helped. I know that by the time your book came out, I REALLY wanted to read it!
Your little girl is so adorable! Watch out; before you know it, she’ll be eight years old–like mine is.
AWWW she can talk now??! 😀
She can step on your belly right after you’ve just eaten. She’s very good at that. The awesome part is that she’s so cute that you really don’t mind.