So How Are "WHY: A Memoir" Book Sales Going?
So How Are "WHY: A Memoir" Book Sales Going?
l don't know, but I am sure I am not on the New York Times Best Seller list... yet. :) This article is about what success looks like to me for WHY.
Recently, one of the wonderful people who endorsed my book asked, “So how are book sales going?” I responded, “Well any author would love to have higher book sales than they have at any given time because it means even more people want to read what the author has poured their heart into. I am getting great feedback and questions from people who have read it and that’s always been my goal; to make a positive impact on anyone who reads the book.” I will explain more later in the post.
Truth is I do not know how many have sold :). I have given away and personally sold signed copies to around 100 people. The one online source I have seen reporting on your normal book sales doesn’t show much and doesn’t report the ebook version sales of WHY. Plus, I don’t see anything about any other bookstore sales outside of Amazon or Allstora (like Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, etc). So… I am sure we will get a better picture once we get further down the road and my publisher keeps track of all that.
To be clear, this isn’t a song and dance to avoid saying I haven’t sold many books. I may not know the overall sales numbers but I am sure it’s not anywhere near putting me on the New York Times Best Seller list or tempting Oprah to come out of retirement to interview me because she is fascinated with my incredible ping-pong in a clothes-drier kind of life.
I might have daydreamed about that Oprah scenario… once… fine… ok, once and a half.
I would love to be proven wrong and end up having wine with Oprah discussing my book after becoming an NYT best seller because of her book club, but that has never been the goal.
This is going to sound hokie but it is my heart and passion. I wrote WHY to:
Help raise awareness of LGBTQ+ Youth in a crisis like I was to know they are not broken and condemned but instead loved and a treasure. We need to raise more awareness and resources for these beautiful young people.
The LGBTQ+ Person is being held hostage by religious stigma; specifically ex-gay conversion therapy groups to find the exit ramp on what seems to be a closed loop of pain.
I survived all manner of abuse and want anyone else who can relate to know that they can survive and thrive beyond the abuse and their abuser.
I want to help change hearts and minds to reject the religious stigma against LGBTQ+ people and embrace the truth that we are not broken, we are human like everyone else and worthy of being treated as equals in every way.
I want to ban conversion therapy in all its forms everywhere (ex-gay ministry is only one example of conversion therapy).
To tell my story.
Plus, this is a big one, I want people to enjoy massive teased-out hair/wigs and pancake make-up, learn about the granny who smelled like toast saying we were kindred spirits because I passed out on top of a bus in my youth, and so many other funny stories. In other words, I want to hear that people laughed at the funny stories in the book. Humor in the same context is SO important when discussing difficult and sometimes painful topics.
One of the reasons I love my publisher so much is because they understand that I consider my book a success if it helps to save one life, inspires a current ex-gay leader to stop the ex-gay ministry abuse, changes a preacher’s heart to embrace God’s LGBTQ+ children just like God does, or helps someone leave the cult of ex-gay ideology and other things along the lines of the bullet points above. I don’t care about money or infamy. I care to help the reader not make the same mistakes I did and reclaim their power.
… and laugh.
More about Randy…
WHY: A Memoir
Helpful resources…
