In his book, You Cannot Be Serious – Tennis Ace, John McEnroe said, “It’s easier to go from number 100 in the world to number 10 – than it is to go from number 10 in the world to number ONE.” – I believe him.
Last week, my book “TWO HEARTS” hit 77,989th! Yes! It’s True! Not bad at all if you take a look at how many books are available in the Kindle Store on Amazon. If you do the math and reduce the fractions, this puts me in the top ten! To be more specific, the Kindle edition of “TWO HEARTS” was in the top 7.7% of all books sold in the Kindle Store!
If I were having a conversation with John McEnroe, I could say I’m in the top 10 (percent) in this particular world. Top 8 to be more specific or I was vying for the number 7 spot in the rankings! Sort of…
However, some perspective is in order. The ATP World Tour ranks the top 100 tennis players – One Hundred – so if you are in the top 10 of this game you are literally ranked at 7 or 8 or number ONE. Hello John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. A pretty elite group to put it mildly.
The Kindle Store on Amazon.com has over ONE MILLION books. Again, math and fractions to make my case. Number 77,989th in this world does indeed put my book in the top 10 (percent) I was sitting cozy at just under number 8 in the rankings. This is a big accomplishment. I kinda like this!
But I have some work to do. I fear my tennis idol, John McEnroe is right. It might be easier in my case to go from the top 1,000,000 to 77,989 than it’s going to be to get from the top 100,000 into the top 1000 books sold in the Kindle Store.
Former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson’s book, “Stonewalled” recently clocked in at number 1042. 
The book currently at number 100 in the Kindle Store is “The Hunger Games”. The book at number 98 is “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone“. Number 42 is “The Hobbit“. This doesn’t even mention that scattered among the top 100 books are from the likes of from John Grisham and Steven King. Laura Hillenbrand is at number 6 with “Unbroken”. This is probably the most talked about story, book and major motion picture in the theater today. 
All together another very elite and enviable group.
I’d love to be at number 1,000 or 5,000 or even 10,000!
As you can imagine these rankings and sales in the Kindle Store go up and down. My book is no longer even in the top 100,000. I’ve dropped way down. That’s ok though, it’ll bounce back in the rankings as copies sell over time. Actually, I was pretty happy with 77,989. Of course I’d like to move higher up in the rankings. Really, I would. But here’s the bottom-line. I’m playing a game of “no chance” or “fighting chance”. If you don’t have a book in the Kindle Store you have no chance. I have a fighting chance. I’ll take it.
Thank you to everyone who’s taken their hard earned money and bought my book. I appreciate it more than you can know. If you’ve been waiting for the paperback edition – it is now available here > “TWO HEARTS” in paperback.