Even though I still have a lot of work to do especially to get a marketing program underway and get the book formatted for other sites, I went ahead and put two separate editions of The Awful Mess: A Love Story up on Kindle earlier than I did everything else. I guess I just didn’t quite believe it could really be that easy to do. But it was.
And already I’ve learned something valuable. Since I put up the regular edition AND a PG-13 Edition, but only marketed it to my friends on Facebook for now (that’s 89 people), I can safely conclude that my friends (and maybe a few of their friends) prefer to read the sex scenes, thank you.
My rankings have been all over the place and are appallingly low, I assume (again, I’m not really marketing yet), but at about a week in, I’d say this comparison from Tuesday night is fairly definitive:
Regular edition rank: #93,629 PG-13 Edition rank: #439,806.
Don’t ask me what this means in terms of actual copies sold, because I don’t know how to figure that out yet. Also, I’m told that Amazon people can actually return Kindle books, so maybe some of these excited people will just skim through for the scant couple of sex scenes and then give it back in disgust for a full refund.
Even so, it’s been fun to watch. So to speak.
I just finished your book and, as usual, I have some comments to make.
As a Catholic Christian, I must admit that there were times when your main character’s speculations about the non-divinity of Jesus made me wince. I also kept hoping that she’d have some sort of conversion experience, and was mildly disappointed when she didn’t. Not only that, but after she seduced the priest I’m afraid I just didn’t like her very much, and I’m afraid that dislike was impossible to completely kick even once I found out what a hypocrite the priest was.
I also believe that had I known there was a PG rated version of this book before I bought it by following Ann’s link, I probably would have bought the PG version instead of the R one. The sex scenes in this version are a bit too earthy and the terminology is a little crude for my tastes.
That being said, I did enjoy the book. Your characterizations are vivid and the story is engaging. You tackled some challenging issues with honesty, and I respect you for that.
BTW… You should probably know that narcotics like morphine and codeine are perfectly safe in pregnancy. The main risk is neonatal withdrawal at birth if mom is an addict. High doses of Tylenol (more than 3 grams a day – only 3 doses of 2 extra strength tabs in 24 hours) are actually higher risk because they can cause liver damage. You might consider changing that part before your book ends up on the NYT best seller list so you won’ t encourage droves of pregnant women to OD on Tylenol. : )
Ah, crap. I doubt I need to worry about the bestseller list, but I welcome the medical correction. I’ll have to look at that since I definitely don’t want any Tylenol deaths on my conscience. I thought I’d researched that stuff pretty carefully, but clearly not. Thank you for your feedback, Chris. (You might be amused to hear that Ann didn’t like the ending precisely because she feels Mary DID have a conversion experience!)
Heh. I can see Ann thinking that.
You know, after thinking on it overnight it occurred to me that the main reason why I wasn’t satisfied with the ending is that Mary didn’t change substantially. I couldn’t identify with her at the beginning because she was a near-pathologically self-absorbed isolated passive aggressive with a very depressing world view. She avowed friendship with Arthur, and yet was so focused on self-gratification that she ignored the fact that true friends put the welfare of the other person above their own. A friend, in my view, should support a friend who’s in danger of stumbling, not become the stumbling block. If she had learned this lesson from her experience with Arthur and applied it to her relationship with Winslow, I might have been able to identify with her. Instead, she did the exact same thing. All morality aside, when someone you love makes a decision that’s important to them, in my world you help them keep it. You don’t deliberately try to change their mind, even if you don’t share their belief. The character of Mary was just too messed up for me to identify with.