Am back to Scribbles after ages- and you have my tooth (or rather what used to be my tooth) to thank for it. After several weeks of excruciating pain, finally gave into the inevitable and went to the dentist today to have an errant wisdom tooth taken out. Suffice to say, it wasn't much fun, and has left me looking a bit like the elephant man with a swollen face and in a fair bit of pain. To add insult to injury, the doctor informed me that at my `age' (hey, I insist that I refuse to grow up, even if I happen to grow old) the operation would be tougher since the roots would be more difficult to take out. Not wanting to add antibiotic and painkiller addled thoughts to my WIP novel, thought I'd at least write a bit here.
So, what's up? In real estate, they say that location is everything, and pretty much the same goes for books. If your books happen to be displayed or shelved near a bestseller or a big name, chances of it being noticed grow exponentially. Now whether a reader just notices it, or goes ahead and picks it up, and ultimately buys it (or in the digital equivalent, clicks the book's page and then clicks the 'buy' button), depends on the stopping power of the cover and how well the book's contents lead to closing the same, but being in the consideration set is half the battle won.
So my agony (real and also admittedly exaggerated to express what I consider very well-deserved outrage at having my mouth poked, drilled and cut open and at being called old) was considerably soothed when I found who my neighbours on Amazon are. In my last post I had mentioned my upcoming books, and one of them is the science-fiction thriller, Vimana. The paperback comes out courtesy the fine folks at Penguin India in March'2012, but I've had the ebook up on Amazon for a little while. So this afternoon, when I checked the Amazon charts I caused myself a fair bit of discomfort in trying to whoop for joy (given how numb my face was after the anasthesia) when I saw the Amazon science fiction bestseller lists. It's right here for all of you to share in- your's truly at #7, two `houses' ahead of Stephen King and three `houses' away from George R.R Martin. Couldn't have hoped for better neighbours, especially since these are two authors I love.
Now, I just hope more such moments won't require the loss of more teeth.
Keep reading, and I'll keep writing
cheers
Mainak
