I Contest

First off, don't forget the contest to win a paperback copy of Into the Wild Nerd Yonder.  I only have three entries so far!  (Thank you to those who entered.)  I am so confused by the blogosphere.  I am assuming that my publisher recently mailed out copies of Don't Stop Now to book bloggers because it was on a number of "In My Mailbox" features this week.  For a little bit, I started getting all nervous again.  Does that mean the reviews will be coming in soon?  Then I started getting all panicked, like what if they think it sucks, and what if no one buys it?  But one question that I know a lot of us authors have is: is there a correlation between the two?  If book bloggers hate my books, does that mean other people won't buy them?  Or just those who know there are book bloggers?  Do teens, my main audience and the people I am writing for, read book blogs and take note?  I think of Get Well Soon, which has really sold well and continues to sell well in paperback.  I'm not talking best seller material, but according to the Amazon sales scan thing that authors can now look at, I'm selling at least 100 copies of it a week two years after the paperback release.  And I receive emails and letters on a regular basis about the book from readers.  All good.  So what sparks YA book sales?  Word of mouth?  Teen bloggers?  Librarians pushing titles?  A combination?  With Into the Wild Nerd Yonder, I have had such a positive reception from book bloggers, but I have only heard from a handful of teens (I'm referring to direct email hellos or by searching and finding blogger reviews).  Will all that change with the paperback?  Or is it a different title from Get Well Soon, so who knows what will happen?  I'm  not making a whole lot of sense, just asking a whole lot of questions.  Sometimes as an author these questions feel frustrating, like when you see other authors getting big pushes from their publishers or somehow getting mass attention.  It makes me think, why not me?  But sometimes it feels more confusing, like why am I writing in the first place?  If I were independently wealthy, then sure I could say something like, "I have to write for my soul" or "I couldn't do anything else" or "Teens need me."  But, really, I wouldn't feel the need to write with such frequency or worry what others thought about my work if I didn't need it to be my career.  Oh, and I'm still really bothered by the fact that the Don't Stop Now ARC is quite different than the final version of the book.  Not really in story, but I made changes to almost every single page that will end up in the final book.  What if those are the changes that would have made some reviewers change their tune (see, I'm already assuming the worst)?  Aargh.  I hope a bunch of teens find and love the book. And then buy lots of copies.  That's all I ask.  Well, that and a million other questions.