Hitting the Top 50 in an Amazon Category

Gaslight Carnival broke the top 50 in Juvenile Steampunk this weekend under the Children’s ebooks -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Scary Stories category. I am so psyched that readers are enjoying my first foray into the big world of publishing.

Another Wonderful Review

I also received another lovely review on Amazon that I want to share with you:

This is a promising first offering from a new writer. I loved the premise of the Gaslight Carnival, the machinery, and the fascinating human experimentation and augmentation that are part of her world. The alchemy rings both true and magical, the characters interesting and sympathetic. I read it straight through, enjoying all of the twists and turns as night after night our heroine returned to face the challenges. Lovers of steampunk and mysteries will enjoy this adventure. – Lisa N.

Switching Categories on Amazon

Switching into the Juvenile Steampunk category was a recent change for me.  Because Gaslight Carnival is also novella length at 30,000 words, I listed it in the 2 Hour Short Story category.  It makes sense on paper, but was not a good fit in reality.  This is when knowing what kinds of stories are in a category would be useful for to know.  While there are some literary and genre fiction stories in the Short Story category, it is currently composed of approximately 70% shapeshifter erotica.  This isn’t a judgment of the other genre, merely an observation that readers go to that category for the hot stuff, and my story with a grand total of two kisses isn’t a good fit. xD

Photograph by Rebeca Sarray

I briefly worried about the level of violence in Gaslight Carnival because I do chop off some limbs (tastefully) and do bad things with acid (tastefully).  But once I realized that the same audience reads books like Divergent with gang initiations and City of Bones with terrible experiments on babies, I didn’t worry about the violence further.

This is another great learning experience for me.  If something isn’t working, take a look around and figure out why.  (Sometimes there isn’t a reason why, but I hope I never have to bang my head into that brick wall.)  Changing categories on Amazon is fairly simple, even if researching them is often convoluted.  I wasn’t getting any buys in the Short Story category, so there wasn’t anything to lose.  I’m so happy now to have found some new readers. :D

I think this deserves a celebration with a cool beverage on my back deck… for at least five minutes before I get back to my next work in progress!

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