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Any author, especially new authors will understand how difficult it is not only to publish a book, but to publicize it as well. This group looks to explore lots of ways to get the word out on your book for free.
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Any author, especially new authors will understand how difficult it is not only to publish a book, but to publicize it as well.
Discussion Forum
Get Your Book Cover on Amazon.com Now! 13 Replies
Started by BiblioScribe. Last reply by Kelly Joseph Oct 20, 2017.
Co-operation with fellow writers leads to cross-promotion 11 Replies
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Newbie to publishing and Marketing! 9 Replies
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Comment Wall
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Comment by Neil Ostroff on March 22, 2013 at 11:21am
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Silent Invasion (Book 1- The Imagination Series)
Thirteen-year-old Tim Madison is the only person who knows about and can stop the ruthless creatures who are working deep inside our planet constructing a massive extermination army. Tim’s ordinary life turns upside down when a strange visitor takes him aboard a magnificent spaceship to train for a future alien war. Returned home with new skills and this terrible knowledge, Tim confides in his two best friends about his experience. Now, they’re in a race against time to prevent an all-out attack on Earth.
The authorities would never believe their story of course, because they’re just kids. Bearing humiliation at school and ramifications at home, they hop a bus and journey to the Grand Canyon where they locate an alien army many thousands of times greater than what Tim had expected. Caught up in escalating danger, Tim and his buds must make a choice. Try to climb back out of the canyon without being seen or take the aliens head on. If only Tim could acquire a weapon and steal one of the alien’s fighter ships he might have a chance at victory.
Readers can expect deadly creatures, technical marvels, and in the end, something surprising to play a key role in winning the epic battle.
Kindle-
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZQTWPW
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006ZQTWPW
Nook-
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/silent-invasion-neil-ostroff/111036...
Kobo-
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Silent-Invasion/book-CIZGsAAUk02s_dj...
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The virtual bookshelf
There is a riding wave of enthusiasm and excitement among indie authors that finally, after centuries of struggle, we can now put our books out there on the virtual bookshelf for the world to see and for all eternity. What an incredible concept that a hundred years from now someone might happen upon one of my books and my characters would rise from the ashes of time and thrill a new reader. Or is it?
What is the likelihood that a future individual will happen upon one of my books? If you do the actual mathematics, it doesn’t seem likely.
Ebooks have only been around for a few years and their rise in popularity is growing at exceptional and exponential levels. When I first started publishing in the virtual world, getting my books noticed was as easy as posting descriptions on social networks and threads. If you were lucky enough to afford a promotion on a popular reader’s website, you could draw dozens if not hundreds of new sales. Ereaders were a novelty that the next generation had to have and ebooks were golden jewels.
Well, the reading population bought both books and devices, and they bought them by the millions. You would think that is a good thing for indie writers like me, having a new audience who have a lifetime to discover my works?
With the new wave of ereaders also comes a new wave of writers. Writers who have discovered how easy it is to publish a book and try to sell their work. Many of these indie books are coming onto the market too soon. In a rush to get published, many writers are neglecting the basics of grammar, and characterization, and the importance of details in the setting. These quickly written books are coming on the market raw and unreadable, and flooding it in the process. Many novice writers are spamming the once mighty reader’s websites giving the legitimate indie authors little exposure and the art form a tarnished reputation.
It is true that the virtual bookshelf will exist as long as humanity and the internet do, however, being discovered on that bookshelf is soon going to be like trying to find a specific grain of sand placed somewhere on the largest beach on Earth. What can possibly set apart the great writers from the wannabe’s: Marketing? Promoting? An incredible tale?
I believe the only saving grace for the gifted writer will be word-of-mouth. Only if you write a great story will absolute strangers tell other absolute strangers about it. Like all things great, it will rise above the garbage and shine like a diamond. And there will be a lot of garbage out there, I predict billions of books.
As I continue to see mediocre books flooding the market (many free or at a price insulting to the art form) I can only wonder how long it will be before I, too, drown in this oncoming sea of mediocrity. Writers whose works are truly gifted are getting lost in a flood of new titles. A virtual bookstore where anyone can sell your work is truly a Godsend to the true storyteller, however, with virtual unlimited shelf space there may soon be more books than readers who care to read them.
ALWAYS WRITING - http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
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Breaking Writer’s Block
I woke up this morning momentarily gripped by a fear and uncertainty that has plagued me as of recent. Would today be like yesterday and the day before and the day before? Would I spend the next fifteen hours walking around my office in a daze trying to rip free of this chain of boredom? Would today be the day I finally break this horrible bout of writer’s block?
For twenty-five plus years, I’ve woken each morning with my head crammed full of ideas. Imaginary characters start to converse with me and I find my thoughts drifting to other worlds and possible dimensions. However, for the last few days these comforting and familiar figments of make-believe have vanished.
I’ve never experienced a block before and find it both terrifying and strangely liberating. Being a writer is like waking up every morning for the rest of your life with homework to do. There’s always a chapter to be edited or a scene that needs tightening; a continuous mental itch to put down your thoughts that doesn’t ever get scratched or go away. To not feel that itch is as strange as cold-turkeying an addiction; like a smoker not being able to huff his first cigarette of the morning, or an alkie denied his early-afternoon sauce. I literally had restless tremors.
The first two days of my block was bearable, and my creative writing time was spent marketing my other novels (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and my usual marketing time was spent trying to find my creativity. Day three of my block was when I got scared. I spent two hours staring at the same page in front of me. My newest dystopian novel (the one I’d been averaging 1,500 words a day) was stuck on the glowing computer screen like a dead fish in mud.
Television and video games rarely exist in my life. Perhaps, that is the main reason I write. I’d rather create my own stories than watch someone else’s imagination unfold on the screen or become a pretend animated character in a programmer’s virtual reality game-world. I create my own virtual realities. I can disappear at will into a character of my own choosing and creation. That’s probably why I’m so sad that the ability went missing.
I find days without writing exceedingly long, believing hours have droned by only to realize the day isn’t even half over. I don’t know how normal, non-writers find enough stuff to do to fill the time (I know, those with kids are cursing me right now). Only after I’ve put in a good three or four hours of writing can I start my day feeling like I’ve accomplished something, and by then I’m racing against the clock to get my normal, human life activities done.
Happily, this morning I awoke with the tingles of creativity again sparking in my mind and the dreaded, creative dead-weight lifted. After four days of not “feeling it” my thoughts are again sharp, my worlds have returned, and my characters are speaking to me.
Stephen King describes the breaking-writer’s-block emotion best in his book ON WRITING. After years of drinking and drug addiction, Mr. King finally got sober, only to realize with this new sobriety he had lost his creativity. Finally, slowly, over a period of a few months, he found the beat again and the joy. He describes the feeling as this;
“I came back to it (writing) the way folks come back to a summer cottage after a long winter, checking first to make sure nothing has been stolen or broken during the cold season. Nothing had been. It was still all there, still all whole. Once the pipes were thawed out and the electricity was turned back on, everything worked fine.”
It’s time to continue with my novel.
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Comment by Crystal Smith-Connelly on March 2, 2013 at 10:27am
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For I Am Zeus: A Collection of Plays About Greek Mythology is free for Kindle today and tomorrow! Please help me reach my goal of 1,000 downloads...only 86 to go! : )
http://www.amazon.com/For-Zeus-Collection-Mythology-ebook/dp/B0085H...
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Get read!
It’s the end of the month, which means my book sales stats will again be reset to zero. As I’ve mentioned many times before, it’s a little depressing to start each new month from scratch. Sometimes I think it would be nicer if they just kept the numbers going.
That said, I sold a pretty fair number of books this month. It helped that I ran two promotions and that Kindle Nation Daily gave me extra free publicity by presenting me with an interview by a fifth grader and then publishing it on their site.
I’ve also just finished up with my two-month long marketing frenzy and I am anxious, really anxious, to start back up on my latest Dystopian series. I finished the first draft of the first book back in January and have been letting it stew and simmer for the past six weeks. I’ve fleshed out the characters, setting, and plot and am ready to jump head first back into this one.
My marketing frenzy included downloading long samples of each of my novels to many popular writing sites. I don’t outright solicit my books, but do make mention at the end of the sample that the whole book is available. This seems to be working as my sales have continued to increase even weeks after my promotions ended. The sites keep a counter of readers and collectively, on all sites, I’ve had @ 9,000 reads in the last week. Not bad.
Here is a list of those sites. All of them are free, easy to download, and get great traffic. Do not spam the sites with self-promotion or you will be removed. These sites get readers, use them.
Nothingbinding.com
Scribd.com
Writing.com
Writers.net
Book daily.com
Published.com
Bookhitch.com
Writetobreathe
Worthyofpublishing.com
Wringroom.com
Bookmatchers.com
Writerscafe.org
Bookpleasures.com
Wattpad.com
ABCtales.com
Fictionpress.com
Shelfari.com
Authonomy.com
Ficwad.com
As I now plunge back into my latest book, I am still dedicated to placing writing samples on at least three new sites a week and will continue to update my existing samples. The more you update your samples the higher you will be placed on their new additions list. Good luck.
My blog: http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
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Comment by Marilynn Dawson on February 26, 2013 at 3:57pm
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Best interview ever!
Haha! Here is my first ever interview with a fifth grader. Please check it out!
http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com/2013/02/fifth-grader-interviews-k...
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Comment by Linton Robinson on February 21, 2013 at 11:40am
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FREE TODAY AND TOMORROW
A Fun Caper With Lovebird Bank Robbers
Bottom line: free on Kindle today and tomorrow.
Next to the bottom line: I’m cruisin’ hard for reviews and think you’ll enjoy this enough to give me some stars.
BAILIN’ started life as a screenplay. But if there is one thing harder to sell than a novel, it’s a movie script. So, on the advice of TVwriter.com guru Larry Brody, I started “reverse adapting” my scripts—novelizing the plays—and this one has worked out the best. What started as an attempt to get a quickie ebook blossomed out and I like the writing and augmented characterization a lot.
The cover subtitle “Comic Crime Romance” gives you an idea (though it’s not a “real romance” in the RWA sense—just two lovebirds working it out while robbing banks and trying to collect for the embezzler they rescued/kidnapped. Cole and Bunny, smooching their way across Texas and parts of Mexico with help from some rocket-flying bike bums. And much cuter than Bonnie and Clyde.
I’m seeing this book as a breakthrough thing for me, an attempt to get on the boards with something of wider appeal. And don’t flip out when I say this, because I’m a huge fan of the man, but I think BAILIN’ would go over well with fans of Donald Westlake.
My first task, of course, is building up a body of reviews and I hope you’ll help me out with that. Especially since you can get BAILIN’ for FREE today and tomorrow, Feb 21 and 22, on the amazon Kindle store: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AVZJXGG
Thanks for your attention. I hope you’ll grab a copy of BAILIN’ and enjoy it’s blend of wild action, financial hanky-panky. humor and lovey-dovey.
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Millions will see this!
I read a funny disclaimer on a website the other day. It was a site dedicated to posting samples of author’s writing. The disclaimer warned that any material posted may be seen by millions of people. I nearly burst out loud laughing.
If only that were true? Can you imagine if each one of my book samples got read by millions of people? If only a very small percentage of those readers purchased the book I’d be rich. The reality is the internet allows you the opportunity for millions of people to read your work, not a guarantee. And that’s if they know your book samples exist at all.
Today’s cyber exposure is limitless for authors, but it is up to the author to get noticed. I’ve spent thousands of hours marketing my books and I’ve estimated about 150,000 samples have been downloaded. That’s a far cry from the warning that millions may see this.
In an era when websites can easily manipulate an uninformed author into spending hundreds on advertising, one needs to check the rankings before hopping headfirst into purchasing an expensive advertisement. There’s no site in the world that can guarantee millions will see your ad or sample chapters when the site only has 300,000 lifetime hits. If anyone out there knows of a website that can guarantee a million people will see my promotion I’d readily spend a big portion of my budget for that exposure.
As of now, I have long samples of all my books on more than two dozen FREE sites and have collectively received a decent amount of hits (in the thousands) and that’s okay with me.
They key to getting discovered is not to place all your eggs in one basket, because no one basket gets that much attention. Spread your samples across the vastness of the cyber-world. Download to as many sites as you can find. Eventually, and with time and patience, you will get the millions reading your samples, and hopefully a few might buy the book.
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So exciting!
Please check out my latest sci-fi adventure, SILENT INVASION it is the first novel in a series of three. It is also Kindle Nation Daily’s ebook of the week for their new site devoted to kids and young adults.
Thank you.
http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com/2013/02/announcing-a-brand-new-ki...
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