Author Ranks on Amazon

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Amazon Author Rank is based on the sales of all of an author's books on Amazon.com and is updated hourly. Explore these pages to find the best selling authors in your favorite genres. Been thinking about reading something a bit different or need some help selecting the perfect gift? Dive in and discover a host of popular authors who are delighting other readers. Make your reading choices with confidence thanks to Amazon Author Rank. Authors can find their Amazon Author Rank in Author Central.  (via Amazon.com)

Amazon is now giving readers another way to find the top selling authors on their site.   This is listed by specific category, so if your book is in the top 100 for the category it's listed in, I'm assuming this is how you get the badge of honor.  I was tickled pink to find my name in there.  I'm listing our book 10 Nights to give a little reference to what it takes to make it into the top 100 Author Rank.

#351 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

• #1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > United States
• #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Drama > United States
• #57 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Contemporary

This has definitely been an amazing ride so far.  I've now become the obsessed author who watches numbers every hour to see if there are changes.  I think I promised I'd never become that author?   For the first time in this journey I'm not considering going back to a day job!  Amazon definitely has the ability to change lives, and I'm very thankful to them for allowing me the opportunity to live my dream.  The amazing support from readers, who I will always consider my dearest friends, has been staggering.  

Tears of Crimson started off as a dream for me in 2009 when I released the first book in the series.  It was something I did for enjoyment.  For those of you that don't know me, I'm the mom of five great kids, married, and I live in the middle of nowhere in a little town called Rockford, Alabama.  We live on top of a mountain on 40 acres of wooded land.  If it weren't for social media, I would probably never see a living soul outside of school functions. 

I wasn't really happy with daycare for my little people, so in 2008 after I was laid off from my part-time job at Prattville Baptist Hospital, (sending out some love to all the great people there), I was looking for something I could do to keep from being bored out of my mind.  I've always been a huge people person.  Before my days in Respiratory, I was a country singer, so there were always people around me.  Being left at home with just myself and my youngest son, who by the way started kindergarten this year, was very isolating.  I discovered that I could do fan fiction on twitter, and interact with people again.

I was playing in the world of True Blood on Twitter, and it just struck me that all these storylines I was coming up with could be used to write a book.   I had written short stories in my teenage years for my own enjoyment, so writing definitely wasn't something I was unfamiliar with.  I pulled my original characters out of the world of True Blood, and created my own world of vampire fantasy.  The Tears of Crimson series was born.

Ironically enough, the Tears of Crimson Vampire series isn't what finally got noticed.  I couldn't get my mind wrapped around doing the final Tears book in the series.  There was, and still is, that part of me that worried if I finished Tears of Crimson, I would no longer be able to write.  Yes, I'm very superstitious!  I sat down one night after a dream, and came up with the beginning of 10 Nights.  That one night turned into a solid week of writing five hours a night.  

I handed the story over to one of my favorite folks, Karl Jones, and originally he was going to edit the manuscript for me.  Mr. Jones loved the story and began giving me insights on what could make it even better.  I loved his ideas, they meshed so perfectly with mine that I knew this was a collaboration that was meant to be, so I asked him if he'd consider writing with me, instead of just editing.  Karl and I worked long distance, he's from the UK, until we felt this was a book that people would be really interested in.

I've always added dark sexuality into my books, but with 10 Nights I let the floodgates open wide.  The ideas were bouncing back between myself and Mr. Jones, and this book almost wrote itself.  It's been a journey that I won't ever forget.  Even if the sales stop tomorrow, I can't say I'll have any regrets about 10 Nights.

Truly,
Michele