I love Greece

So there I was the other night logging on to my computer . . dum de dum dum . . checking my email as I usually do when I noticed a web alert about my book. It looked like Poker Slam was included on some sort of list. That's great I thought. Probably someone included the book on their ten favorite poker novels or maybe poker books or somthing like that. But then I notice that the link is on the apple/itunes site. So I click on it and lo and behold there is a list of the ten most popular fiction audiobooks by european country. I scanned the various countries and then I saw it. In Greece, of all places, Poker Slam is the #6 bestselling fiction audiobook! I knew my narrator, Rich Brennan, had done a great job reading the book, but it had only been listed on iTunes for a few months. Well then I figured maybe they didn't sell many audiobooks in Greece, so I perused the other books listed. Candace Bushnell, the big-time author of Sex and the City was ahead of me twice. OK, I can understand that. I heard her books were very popular overseas. Phillip Roth was ahead of me. I'll accept that. Edgar Allan Poe. He's a world acclaimed master after all. Anne Rice. She's big I'm told. Then little 'ol me. After me I notice Stephen King. Talk about an ego boost.

The next day I talk to some of my Greek friends in the poker room. They say that Hold 'em is huge in Greece. They play it everywhere. They also say that everyone speaks and reads english. But they are amazed, as I am, that the book is listed so high so fast. There are over 6000 fiction audiobooks available on iTunes. My best guess is that some Greek found the book randomly, liked it and told his or her friends about it and it just snowballed. I certainly didn't do any marketing or promotion in Greece.

So I've concluded the following. Work hard on a book. Keep editing it and make it the best you possibly can, make it available and somehow people -- where ever they are -- will find out about it and if they like it or resonate with it, they'll buy it. Secondly, audiobooks are much bigger than I had previously thought. We live in an iPod, digital, internet age. The future for stories and "books" may not be in books at all, but digital downloads in audio or possibly text form. If people aren't reading paper books, find out what they are doing because people will always want stories -- on that I'm quite certain. But they have to be good stories. Interesting. Relevant. Thought-provoking.

So now I'm planning my book tour to Greece. Let's see. I'll rent a boat and float from one island to another waving to my Greek friends as I go. I guess I'll have to learn a few phrases in Greek. For now I'll just say ευχαριστώ πολυ Greece. See you soon.

P.S. Update. I just passed Candace. I'm #4 now.