I’m off for a couple of weeks on the Cape, but with greater than ever peace of mind for two main reasons.

First, more than ever, it’s a terrific feeling to leave KND and our various sister sites in the especially capable hands of Candace, April, Paula, Mark, Sue, Betty and Tom. We’ve been around for nearly five years now and we’re still a tiny start-up, but we’ve been extremely lucky in our efforts to build a team of people who are passionate about reading, writing, the Kindle, and the work we do to connect great readers with writers of distinction.

Second, it’s an especially good feeling to be heading out on vacation with the knowledge that we’ve been making a real difference for some of those writers of distinction lately by turning their sponsorships into very positive exposure to our ever-growing readership base. You can check out our sponsorship options and book your own dates anytime at our Kindle Nation Sponsorship Info Page for Authors and Publishers, and you can always see for yourself on our public Sponsorship Results spreadsheet, but among the dozens of success stories during the last month or so, here are a few that stand out:

• Tim McHugh’s Ivan! A Pound Dog’s View on Life, Love, and Leashes isn’t done yet as today’s Free Kindle Nation Short feature, but it has jumped from #139,198 to #2,514 overall and is now the #2 dog book in the Kindle store.
• Each month our readers download hundreds of thousands of free copies of the titles that authors and publishers feature through our Free Book Highlighter program, but one of the sweeter stories there involved Kindle Nation reader fave Terri Giuliano Long’s decision to give her readers a reverse birthday present by making her bestseller In Leah’s Wake free on her birthday. She gave away thousands of copies and the book jumped into the top 15 among free books in the Kindle Store, but the follow-up was especially nice: it had been in the #1,500 to #2,500 range among paid books for the week prior to the freebie promotion, but it’s been among the top 800 paid books almost continually since.
• Rose Senehi’s Pelican Watch jumped from #227,144 to #1,377 in the Kindle Store during its August 5-6 run as eBook of the Day.
• Paul Kreider’s Uncorked jumped from #11,756 to #1,234 and became the #1 wine book on Kindle when it was featured as our August 4 Free Kindle Nation Short.
• Taking advantage of our new Power Package discounting our two most powerful short-term sponsorships, Katherine Harvey’s Butterfly jumped from #5,846 to #304 in July and sat high atop the Kindle Movers & Shakers List.

I could keep going, but I really am supposed to be on vacation….

Cheers,

Steve