March 2023 – M. Jandreau

All Sold Out!

On Wednesday of last week, I posted this silly photo to a Facebook group for book lovers.

The caption was something to the effect of “oh, poor me, what a horrible problem I have in having to sign these books and write witty and unique inscriptions. Woe is me. Send help,”

Completely in jest, I obviously wouldn’t offer it as an option on my site if I didn’t mind signing and inscribing books.

I had no intention of trying to sell any books.

But I did. As soon as the first person asked where they could get a signed copy and I posted the link to my website, the orders started pouring in. My email was dinging all night, overnight, and into the morning.

I’m very thankful that my experience as a web developer lead me down the path of building some “buy other books and save” functionality into my site, because it worked. People were buying two and even all three of my books, saving 15% on all of them. I also offered free shipping over $25, but realized, once I did the math, that I was losing money on that deal, so I upped the free shipping to $35.

I sold out of every copy I’d pre-ordered of Dudley road, in both hardcover and paperback.
I sold out of every copy I had on hand of My Last Days, in both hardcover and paperback.
I haven’t even gotten the first-time-in-print copies of A Sour Chord yet, but I sold out of that whole batch, as well.

So I ordered more. Unfortunately, Amazon takes about 12-14 days to print and deliver them.

And I sold out of all of those, as well. In all three books.

So I ordered more.

This cycled repeated 5 more times during last week. I’d order more, they’d sell out. I put up a notice on the site saying that all books were out of stock until the end of the month, and while that slowed sales down some, it didn’t seem to deter everyone, as the orders have still come piling in.

I’m so humbled, for a number of reasons.

First, complete strangers not only bought my work, but they wanted me to personalize a signature to them. Strangers who’ve never heard of me before took a chance just based on my book covers, as well as my descriptions.

I also did something I’ve never done in the almost 10 years since I published my first book; I made a profit on the whole endeavor. There’s so much cost that goes into publishing a book yourself that folks don’t think of, but it adds up. The artwork for the cover, editing (is the biggest cost, by far), the book trailer I had made, the books themselves, the boxes to ship in, shipping costs. The list goes on and on. But, as of today, I’ve earned more than I’ve spent. It’s not much more than I’ve spent, but it’s in the black for the first time. And while I don’t do this for the money, it certainly doesn’t hurt to motivate me for the next book (which, for the record, I’ve already begun planning out!)

Others have bought directly from Amazon, including the Kindle version, which has been wonderful, as well.

I’ve gotten more reviews through an Advanced Reader service I signed up for that my first two books combined, and while they’re not all five stars (you can’t be perfect all the time, right?), this one in particular really made me so happy:

The book ‘Dudley Road’ was intelligently written. Each chapter commanding your attention and ensuring that you kept turning page after page. It had the right amount of creepy without being over the top scary, the right amount of suspense and mystery.
Overall, Dudley Road is a masterpiece and if you are a fan of mystery with a little horror, this is the book for you.

“Intelligently written” and “masterpiece” for a silly ghost story. How? Why? What? Is this real life? I’m printing and framing it.

I’m sure this level of sales won’t continue forever, and that’s fine. I spent about 2 hours every day last week signing and packing books. It’s exhausting, but so rewarding. A big time author I know and am friendly with signs and ships books himself with the help of his manager. He posts photos of him with literal palettes full of books and I don’t understand the how of it all. It’s crazy pants.

So, if you’re reading this and you’re one of the folks from The Book Lounge Facebook Group who ended up here from my silly little post, thank you so much for your support. I really hope you enjoy my book(s) that you bought and come back for more the next time.

I’m so grateful and humbled and appreciative of everything that’s happened this week.*

* except for losing my wallet yesterday. I am not appreciative of my doofusness.

A Sour Chord now available in print!

It’s been almost a decade since I released A Sour Chord. When I did, I published it only as a digital book. Primarily because I had no idea how to do anything but a digital book.

Fast forward to today, where I fully understand printing and everything that goes along with it.

So, I’m happy to announce that A Sour Chord will finally be available in both paperback and hardcover in early April.

I know some of you, over the years, have reached out asking for a physical copy because, like me, you prefer holding an actual book to holding a Kindle. So, now’s your chance to grab your copy!

You can order your paperback and hardcover here or you can build a bundle of my books that you’re interested in and save 15% on your entire order here.

The Legend of Dudley Road

It’s just four weeks until my new book, Dudley Road, will be available. Pre-orders have been going great and I’ve already beat the goal I had set for myself. Which was simply outselling My Last Days’ pre-order numbers!

Since launching the campaign, a few folks have reached out to me to ask how true the real events are that the book is based on. So I thought I’d clarify some.

Dudley Road is an actual place. Virtually every teenager who grew up in or around Billerica, Massachusetts, knows the urban myths surrounding it.

I first heard the myths in high school, which I detail in the first few chapters of the book. Back then, we didn’t have easily accessible internet to just go look things up on. Google literally didn’t exist yet. Therefore, we had no way of knowing what was real and what wasn’t. Or if any of it was real.

That’s why we went exploring, initially. My friends and I had always been into oddities, hauntings, ghosts, etc. So, when I heard the story, I knew they’d be game to go check it out with me.

I’d love to detail exactly what events in the book are real and which are spruced up to make the book more interesting, but I don’t want to spoil anything before you’ve read it. I’d love to say “everything up to page 201 is real”, and while there is an aspect of “everything up to this page is real”, there are also a lot of real things that happen after the book changes from non-fiction to fiction. So it’s not as cut and dried as I’d like it to be.

With all that said, here are some photos I took of the haunted convent when I went back to visit one day in 2020, right as I was starting writing the book. Yes, it took almost 3 years to write the book. It’s a lot of work!

I won’t go into great detail about what each of these photos are, because then you won’t read the book and I’ll be sad. But under each photo, I’ll briefly describe what you’re looking at.