Seriously.

This totally happened, and I’m still sort of in shock, because I was thrilled earlier in the weekend just making top 10! Front page of the Amazon Bestselling Erotica Authors page felt impossible, and so that was already mind-blowing, and then…

Can we just pause for a moment, take a deep breath, and then FREAK OUT?!

Neil Patrick Harris knows what I’m talking about. Honestly, breaking the top 10 is something I’ve come close to before, I think I got up to #12 when ‘Security Binds Her’ hit #1 in a bunch of categories, but there are always some big names holding down the top 10, and even if I sell a bunch of copies of one book in a weekend, those authors are selling a bunch of copies of a bunch of books. So, to break top 10, much less TOP FIVE is freaking amazing. I was shocked, and so very fucking grateful to be supported by so many amazing readers and fellow authors.

Now, this was even more surprising because last month I went through the very annoying process of moving most of my books into Romance (and other) categories on Amazon because my sales had dropped a lot and this is because unless there are a lot of people buying your book, Amazon doesn’t like to show erotica books to readers. BUT! If your book is getting some “meh” sales, and it’s in romance, then Amazon will still toss you around the site at random using the magical unicorn created algorithm that no one understands. The bonus? I’ve been selling more books / finding more readers / exploring new places on Amazon. The draw back? My rankings tanked (obviously) because I had gone from the comfortable bay of erotica into the giant ocean of romance where there’s about a million more authors / sub-genres / books. I wasn’t too worried though, because I may have started back at point A with all of those books, but it was getting me in front of new people.

So, you might be asking, without a bunch of books in erotica, how the hell did I move up the list?

Well, the books I still have in erotica have always sold well and maintained pretty good ranks in erotica. And then… we released The Dark Forest anthology. And let me tell you, lovelies, this boxset is selling like crazy. How crazy, you ask? Pretty fucking crazy.

We’ve taken #1 in BDSM, #1 in Action & Adventure, #1 in Horror, #1 in Fantasy, #1 in Suspense, & #1 in Thrillers! All under the Amazon Erotica category for bestsellers. AND we’ve been inching up the charts in overall Erotica too, we were even holding at #3 in overall erotica for a while (we’re still top 5 as I post this). Not just that, but we went sub-1000 on Amazon’s overall bestseller rankings hitting a high point of #616 I think. That’s #616 in the entire fucking bookstore on Amazon. Meaning we’re up against every author on the planet with a book on Amazon, so this is pretty much what all of my fellow authors in ‘The Dark Forest’ looked like on Saturday night:

Totally reasonable freak-outs were happening all over. A bunch of those lovely ladies hit top 10 in Erotica as well, and we’ve all had a pretty freaking amazing weekend, and it’s thanks to all of YOU. Our publisher for ‘The Dark Forest’ was nervous about the boxset, and that’s understandable. They generally release spanking romance/erotica that doesn’t come anywhere near the land o’ dark – but these results speak for themselves. The fact that the Dark & Seductive Events people are able to run their own author event (happening this July in North Carolina) is wild. Just a couple of years ago you had to be extremely creative with how you wrote the blurb for your dark erotic romance. Had to be ultra sensitive with your cover. Had to cross your fingers when you submitted hoping that the book sites wouldn’t realize just how dark you’d gone and let you through. Even BookBub didn’t have a Dark Romance category until late 2015 I think? The world is slowly catching on, starting to realize that there are readers and authors who like it dark – and we all know I like it dark. ^_^

(Yes, that’s from Zoolander, my favorite movie)

So, in conclusion, thank you guys. Thank you so fucking much, and just know I never take a bit of this for granted. I dreamed of being an author when I was a kid, and while I didn’t know I’d be writing kinky, twisted, devious & dark erotic romance, I did dream of the day when someone would actually want to read the crazy stories in my head. Even with the sleepless nights, the fact that I totally can’t quit my day job yet (not even close), and the frustrations and challenges… I am so fucking lucky, and I absolutely know it.

I adore you, lovelies. Thank you.