Throughout much of the year, 2015 was looking pretty uneventful. I had published a Small Brand America book early in the year focusing on distilleries producing bourbon. At the same time I also published the first book in a new series called Bourbon Mixology. This first edition focused on bourbon cocktails from the distilleries featured in the Small Brand America book.
I then spent the next 7 months working on three projects: Pa’u Hana, my first novel, Architect of Passion, a biography of businessman Greg Schredder and a second edition of Bourbon Mixology. This second edition focused on signature bourbon cocktails from 50 iconic bars.
On September 17, the second edition of Bourbon Mixology was published and immediately it was a game changer for me. It started selling right away on Amazon. Sales continued to build through the holidays and ultimately it moved all the way up the #4 ranked bourbon book on Amazon.
Whoa! I true breakout star!
This was a dream come true. I couldn’t believe an indie author was outselling all of these others with traditional publishing houses, p.r. support and a whole system designed for them to succeed.
The success of Bourbon Mixology went beyond finally finding a larger audience. It has opened doors for sequels and other projects in the world of bourbon. While it was difficult getting 50 bars to commit to this book, I have already found that once you have success you can show them, people are more willing to work with you.
At the same time, three years into my writing career, I was becoming more focused on what I needed to do in order to be successful. I started a business plan. I retooled my newsletter with a plan to relaunch it in February. Additionally, I have a project called Bourbon Zeppelin which is going to be awesome (sorry, I’m not officially releasing the full details of it yet).
Despite all of this success, and good news in 2015, it wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows. There was something that happened late in the year which made me question if I even wanted to continue writing. We’ll talk about that, though, next week in the second part of this review of 2015.
Write Steve Write! 
We found each other on Twitter, but I like a bit more content. I look forward to reading Part II.
Thanks for following here as well Jenna. I have been enjoying your blog too!
Terrific. And congratulations on hitting #4 on Amazon. That’s a huge feather in your cap.
Where’s Part II, already?
What if it never came because I quit writing? That was the twist.
Well, you don’t have to worry. That’s not the case. I post this one on Sundays. Only one more day.
Thanks for the interest. I can’t say I have a huge following on my blog but there is more interest in this week’s post than any other one I have ever done.
I’m going to steal the idea and do a two part post. It’s brilliant. Have a great weekend. I’ll look forward to your thoughts tomorrow.