By Casey Kelleher

I’ve just had the most amazing five days in New York. Christmas shopping with my kids in all the big stores (I had a bit of a love affair with Macy’s), watching the Knicks play, paying my respects at the 911 memorial, and being generally followed around by my royal stalkers Kate and William on their visit.  😉

On my last day there, I woke up to the most amazing news.

Kobo had announced not only their “Best-Sellers list”, but also the most ‘Completed book of 2014”. They had collected data between January and November 2014 from more than 21m users, in countries including Canada, the US, the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Kobo found that its most completed book of 2014 in the UK was not a Man Booker or Baileys prize winner. Instead, readers were most keen to finish MY BOOK!! My self-published thriller ‘Rotten to the Core’, which as Kobo went on to add, doesn’t even feature on the overall bestseller list. “Rotten to The Core by Casey Kelleher was the most completed book in the UK, with 83% of people reading it cover to cover.”

Wow! I was blown away.

My phone went crazy. Thomas and Mercer’s, Emilie Marneur (my publishers for my latest book Bad Blood) broke the news about Kobo’s article printed in The Bookseller, which then went on to get picked up by The Guardian, The Telegraph, Entertainment Weekly, and Red Magazine. Kobo’s Director of Author Relations, Mark Lefebvre then contacted me to congratulate me, and the BBC got in touch to ask if they could do an interview. It was so surreal, by then my head was up in the clouds somewhere just over the Rockefeller Centre.

UK’s most completed books for 2014 include Kobo Writing Life authors Casey Kelleher and Melody Anne.

As an author, we do wonder how well our books really do with our readers. We can all see the sales figures, and the chart positions, but what do readers think when they read our books? Do they get bored and put our books down? The data Kobo provides is such an insight for authors. How amazing is it to know that your book has been not only bought, but read cover to cover by so many. Ultimately we want readers to not only buy our books, but to read them and most importantly enjoy them.

A fellow author has since congratulated me on coming top of the “Completed Book” list. He said that having your book hold the readers attention really is the best writing achievement of all, and he is right.

It really is!

Born in Cuckfield, West Sussex, Casey Kelleher grew up as an avid reader and a huge fan of author Martina Cole. Whilst working as a beauty therapist and bringing up her three children together with her fiancé, Casey penned her debut novel Rotten to the Core. Its success meant that she could give up her day job and concentrate on writing full time. She has since published Rise and Fall, Heartless and her latest release, Bad Blood. Check out Casey’s website, Facebook page and follower her on Twitter.