An obsessive load of thanks!

So with The Secret War now appearing on Amazon (and I might add, it is also available for pre-order on the WHSmith and Blackwell’s sites too) I’ve been doing the usual sad thing and Googling myself to see where else I could be. Despite it being a little “narcissistic” it’s interesting to see that I’m not only a writer but also a sportsman (a baseball player actually) and I sell guitars. I’m also a character played by Judd Nelson in a Aussie film called Blackwater Trail (the character “Matt Curran” is a writer no less!). There are so many Matt Currans on the net that I wonder if we are all clones, kinda like something from the new Battlestar Galactica series.

But I digress…

Now that I’m on Amazon I can now indulge in what writers could refer to as “Compulsive Am-ranking” – the art of obsessively checking one’s Amazon sales ranking to see if anyone is buying their book. Oddly, I can indulge in that now, even though the book isn’t in print until January 2007, yet there are already copies being pre-ordered!?! Perhaps it is from word of mouth from the few who have read the rare final drafts of the book, or perhaps those who wish to get their mitts on a first edition from a new writer who may or may not make it in this incredibly tough industry. I’m not entirely sure what the ranking equates to in terms of sales (does anyone?), but compared to other writers, I don’t think I’m doing too badly in terms of pre-orders. And I don’t think it’s completely down to friends and family either, as they’re invited to the launch do in January where they are guaranteed a signed copy.

So I wonder who is buying my book?

Well, whoever they are (they could even be reading this blog) I thank you from the depths of my soul for putting your trust in a debut writer, and I hope that six months isn’t too long to wait to discover whether or not that trust is warranted.