Fear is a powerful emotion.
It consumed my thoughts during the days leading up to the publication of Alien People, my newest novel. I spent sleepless nights worrying this fictional world I invested my heart and soul into creating would be greeted with a yawn and shrug of indifference. Fear of failure wrapped tentacles around my subconscious mind and squeezed tight.
The storm clouds finally dissipated for me when I witnessed how quickly readers have embraced Alien People since I published it on September 1st.
Setting new milestones
Today marks exactly two weeks since I published my sci-fi novel. The returns have been promising. Alien People ranked among the top 3,000 bestselling ebooks on Amazon by its fifth day of release. It ranked among the Top 100 in eight different science fiction bestseller categories and was a Top 25 new release in all eight categories during that first week.
Seeing these numbers blew my mind. None of my previous novels or short stories had ever climbed into the top 60,000 overall on Amazon before Alien People came along. Pandora Reborn and Under a Fallen Sun each attained bestseller status on Amazon in other countries, but never reached that milestone in the United States. I passed new milestones daily and hourly during that first week. It felt so exciting to watch it unfold.
The initial sales momentum for Alien People cooled off. My book has hovered between 40,000 and 80,000 in the kindle bestseller rankings during week two. Still, I’ve maintained consistent daily sales throughout the week. Alien People remains on pace to exceed the combined lifetime sales of my other three published stories by the weekend.
I feel confident another surge is ahead on the horizon.
Five-star frenzy
Alien People has pulled in a combined 11 ratings and reviews across Amazon and Goodreads through the first two weeks. 10 are five-star reviews and one is a 4-star review. To this point, the reviews have showered a level of praise on my novel that I did not see with Under a Fallen Sun. One reviewer described the story as epic in nature. Another said it would make a terrific movie. Multiple reviewers expressed how much they loved the characters and how easy it was to root for my protagonists.
Seeing Alien People climb upward is a gratifying feeling. I cannot begin to tally up the countless hours I put into crafting this story and building the fictional world within its pages. I genuinely worried readers would not see Calandra and Xttra in the same way I saw those characters and would reject them without a second thought. 
I know one-star and two-star reviews are inevitable. No two readers are alike and one person’s instant classic can be another person’s DNF disaster. But I feel supremely confident that people will continue to respond well to Alien People as reviews continue to pop up on Amazon and elsewhere.
Looking Ahead
What does the future hold for Alien People?
You may have noticed a subtitle accompanying the ebook: Alien People Chronicles, Book #1. This means exactly what you think it means. Alien People is intended to start a whole new series of books. I’m not quite ready to officially announce how many books will form the series, or when I will publish these subsequent stories. I can confirm, however, that Xttra and Calandra are just beginning their adventures.
Their story is far from over. 
I only hope readers will continue to embrace these characters in the future as much as in the present moment. If that scenario happens, the Alien People universe will be mined for numerous novels and short stories for as long as I am able to write.