For all of you who have been following Uncommon Stock‘s launch this past week, here’s the highlight reel of updates:
- Uncommon Stock debuts at #8 in its category on Amazon. For all you Amazon nerds out there, here’s the DL. That means it debuted at #8 in Technothriller books, #9 in Technothriller ebooks, and #25 in Thriller ebooks overall, and #1196 in the entire Kindle store. This week we sold 352 copies. Holy shit. That is ridiculously awesome.
- It was featured on Amazon’s “Hot New Releases” list.
- Uncommon Stock currently has an average 4.9 star Amazon rating on a base of 40 reviews. It also has a Goodreads rating of 4.11 stars on a base of 8 reviews.
- Startups get the ‘John Grisham’ treatment in entrepreneur-turned-author’s new novel. My first interview as an author with Upstart Business Journal.
- Meet the ‘Lara Croft’ of startup founders. Upstart Business Journal also shares Chapter 1 as an excerpt with its readers.
- World-leading startup accelerator Techstars buys Uncommon Stock for all its current and future participants. This blew me away. The next generation of top tech entrepreneurs will all have Uncommon Stock in their back pocket. Insanely cool.
- Top venture investor Brad Feld lists Uncommon Stock as one of his must-read books for 2014. This video interview warmed my heart. It’s surreal to be on the same list as Robin Sloan!
- Brad also writes an announcement and review of Uncommon Stock. This really means a lot to me because he’s been involved since day one as my first reader.
- Entrepreneur turned indie writer crafts great startup story for readers: a novel concept. My longtime friend and partner-in-crime, Jarrod Russell, runs a touching interview that explores where/how/why I write.
- Bestselling author Victor Hwang, who I used to work with at T2VC, hosts a guest article on the creative process. I particularly like the title and introduction he came up with which positions Uncommon Stock as revealing T2VC’s money laundering cartel.
- The Unreasonable Institute shares a special outtake from the book on the challenges startup founders encounter when negotiating equity stakes. I found the comments on this post to be particularly insightful.
- The Heart of the Start. Brad Feld hosts a guest article on our mutual fascination with and exploration of Startup Fiction.
- Uncommon Stock goes live on Bookshout. Readers start commenting and discussing the story as they’re reading. I’m participating too.
- Introducing FG Press & Uncommon Stock – a new Startup Thriller. Veteran startup operator Ari Newman reviews the book.
- Uncommon Stock: a (fiction) E-book About a Tech Startup. Venture advisor and 4X entrepreneur William Mougayar reviews the book.
- Uncommon Stock received shout-outs from bestselling authors William Hertling, Ramez Naam, David Kadavy, Victor Hwang, Jason Gurley, and Phil Simon.
- On Twitter, David Cohen invited Mara, Uncommon Stock‘s, to apply for Techstars and Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson agreed to consider investing in her startup. Her voice was compared to Scarlett Johansson and FAKEGRIMLOCK live-tweeted his reading experience of the book.
- Mara also had a Twitter battle with Brad Feld on launch day. It was epic (#UncommonSTOCK, @MaraWinkel, @eliotpeper, @bfeld, @jasonmendelson, etc.).
All of our success so far (and any to come) has been based solely on one thing: the support of friends and readers. We have yet to spend a single dollar on marketing. The path to publication is lined with a thousand favors and I need your help.
Do you have ideas for a guerrilla marketing stunt? Have a friend who might want to review the book on their blog? Know someone at Google who can set up a book talk? Need content for your next newsletter? Want a review copy? Email me (elpeper [at] gmail [dot] com).
The three most important things are (1) buy the book, (2) read it and review it, and (3) share it with your friends (social media, word of mouth, etc.).
I’ve been completely blown away by the response so far and I know it’s all thanks to you. I deeply appreciate your help and enthusiasm and I find it deeply cool that you’re finally enjoying the story alongside me. Now, back to writing the next book…
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| My fiancee Drea treats me to dinner on launch day! |