January 2006
Hi All,
The new year has started and I’ve decided to do
something new! Those of you who have been on my
writing journey with me for awhile know I was
sending out the notes from my journal as my
newsletter. But through a program I have that
tracked it I learned that many of you never received
it because of spam filters. So I decided to post my
news in this format on my website.
A lot has happened since last September. The biggest
thing is my first book, The Winds of Sonoma, was
released October 5. Ten thousand copies were printed
and eight thousand were ordered by bookstores. The
publisher said they had hoped for five thousand, so
they were very pleased.
At the end of October I had my first book signing at
our local Borders. I learned a lot from that. One
thing that was shocking was that they had never had
a signing where more than 6 books had been sold!
This was beyond belief for me. But apparently
authors don’t do any real marketing to get
attendance. Being a Realtor for over thirty years, I
approached this event like I would an open house. I
sent out letters and invited everyone I knew. I also
had a secret weapon, my mother. It was as if God
anointed her for the task. Everyone she told,
promised to come. And she told a lot of people. I
also asked my agent, Natasha Kern, to come and she
flew in. Still, there was no way of knowing for sure
what the attendance would be. I thought maybe half
would actually make it.
Borders told me they ordered twenty books. (That’s
how I found out they usually only sold about six at
a signing.) TWENTY books. I told them that wouldn’t
be enough. They agreed to order twenty more. They
thought that was a ridiculous amount to have on
hand. So did I . . . but for a very different
reason. I brought forty more of my own in the back
of my car.
The signing was from two to four in the afternoon.
There was a steady flow of people from the minute I
got there. About three o’clock, Borders started
scanning my books into their system. We sold
seventy-five books in two hours! Thanks again to all
of you who came.
The following weekend, November 4, Antonio and I
started a book tour. We went through Washington,
Oregon and northern California. We visited over
sixty bookstores, meeting the owners and staff, and
signing the books they had on their shelves. Out of
the sixty stores only about five didn’t carry my
book. That was very encouraging.
When I got back I found out Natasha had negotiated a
contract for a fourth book with my publisher. The
working title is Forsaking All Others. It is a stand
alone book that is due to Revell next August and
will come out in 2007.
The second book of the Regalo Grande series will be
out this March. If you click on the In the Shade of
the Jacaranda tab at the top of this page you can
see some of the early reviews. The third book, The
Fragrance of Roses, will be out in September. You
can click on The Fragrance of Roses tab and see the
new cover.
I was thrilled to learn a few weeks ago that The
Winds of Sonoma was picked as one of the Top 20
Books of 2005 by Christianbook,com. That is across
all genres of Inspirational fiction!
That’s about all the news over the past few months.
Oh, one more thing. Many of you write to me after
you’ve read my book. I LOVE hearing from you and
what the book meant to you. When you do that, if you
have time, could you also sign my guestbook. My
guestbook is important to me because it serves as an
archive and is a great encouragement to me. I know
when you write it doesn’t seem necessary to sign the
guestbook. Actually you could just paste your e-mail
there. Anyway, I love to hear from you no matter how
you choose to do it. Just wanted you to know I
treasure my guestbook and would love for you all to
sign it with your comments.
Warmest Regards,
Nikki
