Amanda Hocking

Amanda's Blog Post

Gratitude and a Fact

January 31st, 2011 by
This post currently has 33 comments

Tonight Christian Bale won a SAG award for his role in The Fighter, and as he was walking up to the stage, he was hugging a whole buncha people, and my roommate Eric said, “I wonder if he’s going to hug the sound guy,” and I laughed for a good ten minutes. Really loudly.

I eat peanut butter with frozen cheese pizza because it tastes awesome. I know all the words to every song ever written by Fall Out Boy. I’ve seen pretty much every movie made in the 80s (and most of them from the 90s and the 00s too). I really, really love Michael Wincott. I try on shoes a lot, but I rarely buy them. I’m obsessed (unhealthily so) with possessing Sharpies. I live in the same house my parents bought twelve years ago, and I live with the same guy I’ve been friends with for the past ten years.

Last night, my friends threw me a surprise party at a bar.(Thanks everybody!!!!) My mom, my roommate Eric, and my good friend Pete did most of the planning, along with my friend Fi would made me a really neat plaque and a clock (and some of my writerly friends wrote some very nice things about me, thanks guys 🙂 :)).

At the party, these are people I’ve been friends with for years. And they are truly, awesome, quirky, funny people. They know who I actually I am, and they like me anyway. And most importantly, they’ll call me out on my crap. And that’s the point. I’m still Amanda Hocking. I still have my same fantastic friends and family, my same life, and I’m grateful for it everyday.

Because as much as I love everything’s that’s been happening with my writing, the things that really make my life what it is are the people (and pets) I have in it.

So what has all this been leading up to? I have a fact that I’m about to share with you, and I thought this fact would change something. I thought that I would be a different person when these things happened. And the last six months have been so confusing to me because I’m not a different person, so I kept feeling like something’s wrong. Something should have changed.

But then I realized that that’s the point. It hasn’t changed. And I don’t want it to change.

Anyway – here’s the long meandering moral. According to what Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Createspace is reporting, I’ve sold 486,018 books total. But that’s without sales from Apple and the My Blood Approves series from B&N reporting to Smashwords yet. Assuming that I’ve sold at least 14,000 books (which I’m inclined to think I probably have) – that means I’ve sold half a million books.

I hate saying “I sold” books, because you know what, I didn’t. You did. I wrote the books, but you the readers, along with the good folks at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple did all the work. You’re the ones writing reviews, blogging about it, telling your friends. You’ve done so much for me, and I’m not going forget that or stop being grateful for it.

But I’m not going to let that change me. I’m still gonna drink orange Hi-C from a juice box, and I don’t care what anybody thinks.

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  • Meghan Wert says:

    Wow, just wow! That is an AMAZING accomplishment! Many authors would strive to sell that many books in a lifetime, never mind in just a few short months! I personally have read all of your books to date, and recommended them to at least 25 different friends, making all of them buy each book. I love to support writers like you and can’t believe how many books you have sold! Keep being who you are, don’t let any of it change you, but don’t forget to be so proud of the this! You are a successful, amazing, talented writer and it just proves that your fans love to read your work. Keep writing! I guarantee I will keep reading!

  • Anonymous says:

    Going way off the subjects listed above…but seriously LOVE Peter. Add more Peter to the My Blood Approves books, please!!! Thanks!!

  • So very fantastic – I was “guessing” this would be true. Can’t wait until you are the first indie to hit 1 million!

  • Way to go, Amanda!!!

    *throws confetti*

    *blows tootie horns*

    All the best!!!

  • Awesome job!! Here’s to hitting the one million mark some time this year. 🙂

    Oh, and I know what you mean by Michael Wincott. His voice gives me chills.

  • JL_Bryan says:

    Wait…is the pizza still frozen when you add peanut butter?

  • Life Outloud says:

    You so lost me at frozen pizza with peanut butter… I mean my mind literally went wait what? What are you talking about? Oh my hell gross no way! LOL I had a friend a long time ago tell me not to knock it ’til I try it and it was wheat thins with peanut butter… I must say after trying it, it wasn’t bad… This one however I may have to play fear factor with my kids and see how they take it! 🙂

  • Anonymous says:

    Thank you for the “Shout Out” to the fans. Its humbling that you took time out to thank us.
    Thank you for the entertainment at a great price. As a mom of two girls I really struggle with finding things that we can all talk about, appreciate and do together, without breaking our budget. Books for three bucks or less are really great. We all love them and we appreciate your talent for story telling.
    The girls and I have reading competitions. To see who can read them the fastest. Then we have mini book clubs about them.
    I know it sounds terribly corny, but sometimes your books help us talk about bigger issues than vampires and trolls. (Not that we don’t love talking about either one of those either).
    However, we have talked about boys, sex, (I still cringe when i think about opening that bag of worms. But it turned out ok.) disappointment, consequences and appreciating a story beyond who someone winds up with.
    Anyway this is a long winded thank you . . . But really thank you from me and my Little Strong Ladies in training. I know you said that you write books to simply entertain, but in our house they have gone beyond that simple goal.

  • Anonymous says:

    Just know that you ROCK with a capital R!!! keep up the good work I read a lot, over 175 books just in the last year, yours are one of the best I have come across and I mostly read YA. I just love My blood Approves and cant wait for the next one, keep up the good work and just being who you are cuz people will love ya for it!!!!

  • Just wow. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer girl, though.

    Now when you hit ten million sales, we’ll see if you’re still hugging the sound guy 🙂