Make a List

It's official! I'm a best selling author. I went onto amazon.com today just to see how I'm doing. I do that from time to time, when I'm wishful thinking. But today I saw something I've never seen before. I made a list! Amazon makes these lists. In every category imaginable, they make a list. It might be "Best Selling Books by Black Authors of Children's Books of Non-Fiction," or "Best Selling Fiction Books Written for the Elderly." Mine is "Top Rated Motivational Self-Help Books in the Kindle Store." Its sort of like saying "customer favorite book written by authors living on Duncan Avenue and sold at Jakes Newsstand." It's a bit specific. Still, I've never been on a list before. It felt pretty good to see.

I have always dreamed of the day when I'd make a record that gets onto the Billboard charts. I really wouldn't care which chart. Billboard top 12,000 jazz records. Billboard top 4 trillion pop tunes. If they printed my name, that would be good enough for me. When I started writing the book, that dream changed a little. I started dreaming of the New York Times. Even if its just for one week, I wanna see my name on that best seller list. Of course Amazon.com has a best seller list too. Its updated hourly. Every book is on it. That's why I always check the site. You can tell that someone bought my book if my number changes. When you sell a very very small number of books, one or two sales drastically changes your place on the list. You go from #1,342,291 to #71,908, or something like that. The really fun part is if a few people buy in the same day. I think I reached #16,000 at some point. But I still dream. I dream of the day when I reach the real list. Those top 100 books are considered "Best Sellers." One day....

So today I made a list. It might very well be the "My gramma's favorite books written by one of her grand children" list, but it's a list none the less. I've gotta say, it feels just like I thought it would.