An Award for Have Gun Will Play - and the traditional pubishers were right, sort of

Forgot to mention this: Red Adept has started to give out Annual Indie Awards, and Have Gun, Will Play was second in the miscellaneous genre category!

I was very pleased. I also noticed something interesting as the apparent result of the award. I did not see a jump in sales for HGWP, but I did see an unexplained jump in sales for my other books, especially the short mystery collection.

I have the feeling it's an illustration of how right the traditional publishing industry can be, because this isn't the first time that has happened. I get a good review, or someone mentions how much they enjoyed the book... and my other books get a bump in sales. When I marketed HGWP to agents a little (before going indie), the response I got was that it was a great book, but readers have a high resistance to reading a western - and since it isn't actually aimed at the narrow western audience, no one would actually pick it up to find out if it's any good.

No don't get me wrong, it is my best selling novel, but it seems like people approach it slowly. Someone recommends it, or it is featured on a blog, or I run an ad, and either nothing happens, or I get sales on the short story collection instead. Then a few weeks later the sales on HGWP trickle in.

On a larger scale, this also may be how the audience is approaching indie books in general. They don't know if they can trust an indie book, and because time is more important than money, they approach with care. Checking out the sample and other shorter, cheaper works.

Which only confirms to me that it's good to have a variety of works available. I guess I'd better get cracking....