Wait, Those Are My Books
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Yesterday, I found both of my dragon books on Walmart.com and Barnes & Noble.
And yes, I know these are their online stores. I am not claiming I walked into Barnes & Noble and found a display with my name above it.
But still.
Those are my books.
Rise of the Red Dragon and Tupi and the Red Dragon Egg. Stories that lived in my head, became words on my computer, and required a considerable amount of work to turn into actual books.
And there they were.
I had a genuine, “Oh my God, look at that!” moment.
I published Rise of the Red Dragon through IngramSpark, and my publisher took Tupi and the Red Dragon Egg through its publishing and distribution process. I knew getting the books out into the world was part of the point.
Knowing that and actually seeing them there are two different things.
There is something quite amazing about sitting in your own home, looking at a major retailer’s website, and finding a book you wrote at your kitchen table.
My dragons have apparently gone shopping without me.
I was excited. I still am.
But here is the other part, the part that exists right alongside the excitement.
It is still very quiet.
Finding those listings did not suddenly mean readers were lining up. It did not turn into a rush of sales or messages from people who had fallen in love with the characters.
The books are out there.
I am still waiting for more people to find them.
And sometimes that is disappointing in a way I don’t quite know how to explain.
You work on a story for so long. You carry the characters around with you. You sort out covers and proofs and all the practical things that have very little to do with the magical world you wanted to write about.
Then something wonderful happens.
You find your books somewhere you’ve shopped yourself.
For a moment, it feels enormous.
Then you look around, and you’re still at home. There are still things to do. The cats still want attention. And the world has not noticeably stopped to say, “Well, would you look at that? She did it.”
I suppose I wanted a little more noise.
Not necessarily a parade. Although I would not object to a tasteful dragon procession.
Mostly, I want readers. I want someone to disappear into these stories and come back wanting to talk about them. I want the work of getting the books out there to turn into that connection.
And yes, I would like it to turn into income, too. I don’t think authors need to pretend that part doesn’t matter.
So this is one of those moments where I am holding two things at once.
I am genuinely thrilled to see my books on Walmart.com and Barnes & Noble.
I am also frustrated that being available does not mean being discovered.
Both are true.
I don’t want to talk myself out of the excitement just because I’m disappointed. And I don’t want to dress up the disappointment as some cheerful lesson I have already learned.
Yesterday, I saw my books out in the world.
That matters to me.
Today, I’m still hoping the world will notice them.
One universe, two pen names, three epic perspectives. Whether you know me as D.L. Beechinor or Lynn Beechinor, these are the stories I’m working to bring into the world.
If you’d like to meet the dragons who caused all this excitement, begin with Rise of the Red Dragon for adult readers, or Tupi and the Red Dragon Egg for a young-adult adventure.
For serialized fiction and more stories from Odin’s Bloodline, you can also join me on Substack.