it’s been a little over a week since redacted was released. the response has far exceeded my expectations and i’m still pinching myself each morning when i check the numbers. why am i pinching myself? because i am not backed by a publishing house machine. i only submitted redacted to one publisher. i’m not much into submitting my work to third parties. i’ve done this in the past and have received my fair share of both the acceptance and rejection letters. “why middleman/woman this?” i asked myself. the more i thought about it, i came to make the conscious decision to go the ani-difranco-style independent route. why? to have more freedom in the book planning process and complete creative control over my work. i own the copyright. that’s liberating.
redacted charted on a few amazon bestseller lists since coming out easter sunday. it peaked at #5 on the lgbtq+ poetry new releases chart and #32 for all lgbtq+ poetry, old and new. for new release poetry in the u.s., all genres, it held the #17 rank. to my surprise and delight, not only did redacted make the charts, it stayed on them. i am truly humbled by and thankful for all that have supported me and this book. now comes the feedback and reviews. i look forward to hearing and reading them. be gentle, haha.
xx
derick