Going Viral

Alone! The house was quiet as I settled after dinner into the recliner, iPad on lap. Arvo was at his worship music practice, Asherel at the church youth group, and I was blessedly done with everything I had to do. I never expected what happened over the next 90 minutes.

I clicked on the sales reports of my new book. After my free promo, 5,000 books had flown off the shelves. Since then, at full price, it had been selling steadily but slowly. The old report from a few minutes ago was still on the screen. I refreshed the screen. What...? 500 new sales in 10 minutes? No, that couldn't be. I hit the refresh button again. 555 sales. I hit it again. 600. I took a deep breath and waited a few minutes, then hit it again. 1,000 books had sold in a span of a few minutes. First I started crying, and then I called my brother. He had told me when I first published that he was praying for 10,000 books to sell. I laughed, but was gratified by his faith in me...and in God.

"John...I think I'm going viral..."
"What? Why?"
"Listen, I just sold a thousand books...let me refresh the screen...1300....refresh again....1350.....refresh again.....1370....John, I am selling 20-50 books every couple of seconds!"
For the next half hour, I told John the raging total every few seconds. He was driving and had reached his destination but sat listening.
"Well," he said, "I prayed for a total of 10,000. You are going to reach that easy if this pace keeps up. Call me when you hit 10,000. I gotta go."
At 10,000 , a half hour later, I was on the phone with my sister Amy.
"10,000!" I screamed, "Gotta go, gotta call John! After all, he prayed for this!"
"John is my go-to prayer man now," said Amy, "Call him! Love you!"

After 90 furious, glorious minutes of sales, the sales suddenly slowed, and then trickled to just a few an hour. The viral surge appeared to have burnt out for now. I ended with over 13,250 books sold. Amazon listed me as one of the "hot new sellers" in the spirituality category, above some very well known authors. I was number nine on the hot new seller list this morning. It is a dangerous thing when a writer is so dumfounded as to be at a total loss for words.

Until I hear from the publisher, and see in writing what I earned, I won't spend any of my unexpected income. If it is real, at last I can give something meaningful to Hollow Creek Farm, whose help with our once vicious dog was the subject of my first book. There are other ministries I would love to give a little to, and now maybe, I can. But I am heading to my Mom's 80th birthday up north today. I do intend to take her and my dad out to a nice dinner. They taught me my first words and should help celebrate 13,000 people finding my words worth reading.

When I lay down last night, I couldn't sleep. I clasped my hands, with the bilateral rigid splints on my throbbing wrists, in prayer, and could not think of a thing to say to God except, "Thank you. For blessings above and beyond what I could ever imagine. Thank you."

Job 37:5
God's voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.








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