Launch day.

Well, I can first off say I learned way more about the internet today than I ever wanted to know.

Other things that happened:

I showed up all over my own personal Facebook page as well as on Benevolent‘s, my author page, and Owl and Zebra Press’s, including with a cool tee shirt giveaway. I also showed up on my own blog at The Starving Artist, and had a giveaway there. Then there was GoodReads, where my giveaway ended and I hosted a Q&A. On Twitter, yet another tee giveaway. And as for the beginning of the blog tour, I showed up on Book Worm with an interview and the beginning of a giveaway.

What else did I do sitting here all day? Continued to approach bloggers about hosting me this summer and maybe reading my book. Sent books to The New York Review of Books and The American Library Association, as well as agonized over whether or not to pay Publisher’s Weekly and/or Kirkus for inclusion/reviews. Also sent books to the winner of the GoodReads giveaway and two interested reviewers. Bought promotions on Facebook, did some book-keeping, reorganized Benevolent computer files, located some copies of yesterday’s Herald-Sun, and hosted the Q&A that wasn’t. Pretty much the usual for a full work day, lately. (Oh, and Kevin and our daughter, Windsor, came home with a gift of orchids and Lu Le Petit Ecoliers (my fave), and Kevin even made dinner.)

Five-year-old Eamon was a champ relaxing sick on the couch and watching cartoons while I orchestrated and carried out an internet takeover.

Internet takeover was only somewhat successful. I was hoping to see at least 20 paperback books sold today and 100 over the first week. While we are still counting for that second number, today’s sales total as of 8:30pm: 22.

Other indicators of success or failure? People who entered giveaways: 14 on The Starving Artist; 5 on Facebook; 5 on Twitter; over 500 on GoodReads. (So some dismal failure, some huge success.) People who asked questions on the GoodReads Q&A: 0. (Um, failure.) Hits on the blog(s), today: 132 as of 8:30p. (I’d say success.) People who have added Benevolent to their GoodReads “to read”: 273. (Success.)

Had a couple internet snafus, for sure. The Book Worm appearance was delayed due to a technical issue on their end, but that was resolved at 3pm. And then there were a few issues tracking my giveaways, as well. Oops. It’s my first time, for sure. That, and I have failed to track with the idiosyncrasies of new Facebook feeds and WordPress.org versus WordPress.com. Oi.

Then again, I couldn’t begin to tell you how many people actually shared my Facebook posts, pictures, links, and my website. At last count, I can guarantee 501 views on the Benevolent Facebook page and 60 likes, 15 comments, and 8 shares on my personal Facebook page, plus 76 likes on one of Kevin’s share, to begin with. So support is good.

The point was not to sell 1,ooo,ooo copies today (or even ever), but to get those Amazon sales numbers up. (We went from 1.4million in sales rankage this morning to 62,025, as of 8:30pm.) The long-term goal is to sell at least 1,000 copies (which would keep me above the embarrassment level) and to generate more and more interest, in jumps and starts. I have a number of blog appearances lined up into August, contests through 2014, and reviewer interest here and there. This isn’t the end, folks.

Plus, even though Debolina, the blogger at Book Worm, didn’t finish the book yet–Not sure she even has it. How long does it take to get media mail to India?–she had some very nice things to say about the cover, the idea, and the first chapter. So my first partial review, at least, makes me feel warm and fuzzy.