Thanks for the great insight. As I understand it, the numbers for books published through publishing houses aren't much better. I saw the stats recently and it was pretty remarkable. I can't remember them now, but they were grim. Something like (don't quote me on this) 95% of all published printed books sell fewer than 3,000 copies.

I have no clue on how I'll promote my book as it nears publication date. I am planning a book "launch" at an Atlanta bookstore, I have some ads coming out in Kirkus aimed at booksellers, and a newsletter thingy for BookTrib,, but that's it so far.

I am lucky in one regard - the book cover design (the designer was chosen by the publisher) is pretty awesome and I've gotten great feedback on it. That may help some.

But the truth is actually this: Publishing a novel was on my bucket list. I wanted to get it out there. I hope it sells, but the truth is, getting it written and then published made me pretty happy. Anything more will be gravy. Make no mistake, though. I do love a good, thick gravy!