Hello again,

I have very exciting news.

As you know, The Sewing Machine was published on 17th April this year. As an author, I had a vague idea about how the book was selling, but a lot of that was based on hopes and dreams, cautiously tempered with a healthy dollop of common sense. Authors not knowing how things are going is pretty normal across the publishing world, as far as I know. 

There have been positive noises from Unbound, and the occasional hint about numbers, but unlike a self-published author who can gain entry to the techno-gubbins in Amazon's cupboards, it's all a bit mysterious. Or at least it was until last week.

On Monday, (at 22:26 - someone was working very late) the six-monthly statements were sent out. I saw the email pop up as an alert on my phone and scrolled down to click on the PDF file, as you do... and I couldn't believe my eyes. 

The next morning I got my calculator out, and did some arithmetic, and then sent a rather shaky email to Xander at Unbound. Could this actually be true? And the reply came back... Yes, it is.

So although these things are not much revealed, generally, I have permission from Unbound to let you know that we (yes, WE, because this is a team effort between all of you, and the team at Unbound, and myself) have sold more than 10,000 ebooks.
TEN THOUSAND. 
The paperbacks are counted separately and I can only talk about the ebooks... but WOW. 

I know I say this a lot on Twitter and FB, but this is all down to you, and to the wonderful people who have 

• written an Amazon review (126 and counting)
• rated the book on Goodreads (487 ratings)
• told a friend about it
• bought a copy for someone else
• stashed away a book to give as a Christmas gift
• come to an event
• blogged about the book
• tweeted (or RTed a tweet)
• and a myriad of other supporting things

You are all amazing.
Thank you.

Natalie (who is still wandering about muttering 'ten THOUSAND books' in both disbelief and delight).