For the first time in the history of the Planet, I let someone else drive.

Welcome our first ever guest blogger, Stacey Cochran, friend and fellow Tarheel. Ready, Stacey? OK, let 'er rip.

Thanks so much, David, for letting me guest blog today at A Dark Planet. I am currently wrapping up a 45-day blog tour to help promote the release of my novel CLAWS. In the past six weeks, I’ve been visiting a good number of blogs to talk about my book and about marketing and book promotion. During that time, I’ve sold nearly 2,800 copies of CLAWS and The Colorado Sequence… this is so far beyond my expectation I just don’t even know what to say.

Actually, I do know what to say: Thank you Amazon Kindle!

98% of the books I’ve sold these past six weeks have been via Amazon Kindle.

I also owe a big fat thank you to everyone who hosted me on this tour. I owe a super-massive thank you to J.D. Rhoades and Sean Doolittle for the early blurbs that helped set the tone for early reviewers on Amazon.

And of course to all the Amazon Kindle readers and reviewers who have been so friggin’ cool I don’t know what to say other than thanks so very, very much.

So, here is my rough timeline for CLAWS:

2004 – wrote first draft; ran it through writing group; first major revision

2005 – found a literary agent after 74 queries who repped the novel without success

2006-2008 – CLAWS sat in a lonely Word file going nowhere

2008 – decided to self publish CLAWS, began booking it, formatting it, and contacted graphic designer friend to work on cover

2009 – February – cover done, started asking traditionally published authors for blurbs

March – book uploaded to CreateSpace, review copies sent out

May – Dusty and Sean’s blurbs come in; book launch on May 15; Kindle version published; blog tour begins

May 25 – seven reviews on Amazon page, and suddenly Kindle sales start taking off; based on early surge in sales (a few days selling 90/day) decided to release The Colorado Sequence on Kindle

May 30 - CLAWS event at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, packed house, sold 30 copies in paperback

June 1 – Sales for both books reach 750 on Kindle

June 29 – sales reach 2,000 for month of June; out of nowhere, a publisher contacts me and asks if I have other novels; wants me to send them

So that’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to; it’s been a fun summer. I am currently writing up this blog post in Sanibel Island, Florida, sitting at a kitchen table in a second floor condo that overlooks a deserted sliver of moonlit white sand beach and the crystal blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

My wife and two year old are asleep in the other room, and it is 1:18 AM.

Life ain’t all that bad sometimes.