Novel Authors and Publishers

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Comment by Neil Ostroff on July 16, 2012 at 12:54pm

Organizing the chapters

 

So begins one of my favorite aspects of writing a novel; organizing the chapters. This is when I take each separate character and their plotline and read it all in one string instead of being spaced out in the book. This allows me to flush out any inconsistencies and make sure the story stays true and along the proper path. I first did this when I wrote DEGENERATES http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FFN5LY. That book has so many characters and plotlines that it was nearly impossible to keep track of everything. I literally wrote seven separate stories, one for each character, before melding them together to form a coherent novel. This is what I’m doing right now for IMAGINATION. Once I get the characters in order, it’s just a matter of connecting them with a few key intro sentences and, wallah, the book is nearly complete. Why do I say “nearly”? Because I still do two more final reads. The first final, I’ll read half the book in one sitting at a relatively slow pace looking for any mistakes or errors no matter minute or insignificant. The next sitting, I will read the second half, looking for the same things. Then I put the book aside for one week give or take a day and concentrate on marketing and promoting, putting the manuscript totally out of my mind. Then comes the final read day. I’ll plan it on a day when I know I won’t be disturbed and have nothing pressing to do outside of the house. I’ll wake up early, get a steaming cup of coffee, settle into my comfy chair in the sunroom, place my laptop computer on my thighs, and read as much as I can before my eyes bug out or I stop for lunch. I’ll read the book like someone who bought the book; fast and looking to be entertained. I’ll only pause if something really terrible stops me. If I do have to rewrite a paragraph and shift some things around during this phase, I will start the entire process over again, reading from page one. I’ll do this until I can read the entire book in one sitting without stopping to fix anything. Sound like a long process? It is. I’ve written entire drafts of novels faster than it took me to consider the book finished after re-reads. You might say I’m a perfectionist, but I’m really not. For me, finishing a book is like setting a child out into the world. I want the book/child to be the best it can be and shine far above all the other competition. So, as I take another sip of coffee and look over these pages, I won’t know if IMAGINATION will be done in a week or a year. Let’s hope it’s the previous, I’ve got lots more new books to write.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Comment by CBM Christian Book Marketing on July 13, 2012 at 9:30pm

A Story of love, redemption and the power of God's grace.

Author, Samantha Ryan Chandler writes, A Love Story-How God Pursed Me and Found Me-An Impossibly True Story. This gripping and heart-wrenching memoir by the author gives her personal testimony of an unseen divorce that forever changed the landscape of the author's life and the lives of her children.

In the author's words, she tells a story of an evil plan perpetrated by her husband to rob her of everything: their homes, money, and stability-to include her three precious daughters. The author writes with purpose first for her children, so they would know the truth, but also gives the reader many life lessons learned through her dilemma. When all else failed in her life, God was faithful. The author boldly proclaims the unfailing love of God as she learned that God can rescue anyone, for His hand is not too short. Her message is one of hope and faith in God, encouraging others to hold on to see their restoration. For God is a God of new beginnings and faithfulness in His love.

Giving accounts to visitations by angels on three different occasions, the book testifies to the supernatural in a wonderful way. Uplifting and filled with scripture this message of encouragement is to all those whose lives have been stolen from. Her message is simple: God is Faithful and He can restore that which was lost. This book is truly a magnificent testimony to the saving power of the grace of God.

This is a testament to the love of God and an irresistible love story to those that are lost. Thank you Samantha for writing a book that shared your life story, that gives others hope when "hope" has been lost. You are an inspiration.

Highly recommended for anyone that loves an amazingly true story with a happy ending! May all the glory and honor be to God-who came and rescued a young, skinny girl from Nowhere, Louisiana and gave her life and life more abundantly!

For more information about the author and the book be sure to visit Author Samantha Ryan Chandler ... You may also visit Amazon for more information about A Love Story-How God Pursed Me and Found Me-An Impossibly True Story

A Christian Author's Article Blast sharing the love of Christ.

Comment by Forrest Casey on July 13, 2012 at 8:37pm

Hello team! For a couple of weeks, I have been reading the comments posted. All of you have very valid concerns, suggestions and most of all dedication towards making your publications available to readers abroad. My company will have boothes at two different upcoming book fairs: The Brooklyn, NY Book Fair on September 23rd and The Miami Book Festival on November 16th-18th. It's been my experience that avid readers go to book fairs...and at these events that are not only EXPOSED to different types of literature but are more RECEPTIVE to it because of the present "feel of the environment"!!!!! If there are any published  authors or Indie Publisihing Companies that would like to give their books exposure by offering one or two free copies of the book at either of these book fairs, please contact me immediately for shipping details. First come, first serve. While we cannot help all of you at these upcoming fairs for the remainder of 2012... we will try to provide avid readers with a free copy of your book and contact information. Who knows... maybe the free copy of your book will go into the hands of professional blogger, a leader of a big book club, a publicist, etc. Please send me a direct message so that I can respond ASAP. It will be difficult for me to track any requests if you post it on the comment wall. I sincerely hope that everyone's published book is positioned to generate potential profits and fanfare! Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Comment by Thom Cantrall on July 13, 2012 at 1:58pm

It's FRIDAY!!! ... And Here is Part VII of "After Armageddon" Enjoy to your heart's content... http://www.ghostsofrubyridge.com/sasquatch/

Comment by Neil Ostroff on July 11, 2012 at 1:11pm

Word-of-Mouth

 

Okay, so here we are entering the second week of July and my sales have remained relatively stagnant since the Fourth of July. I’ve explored all the free promotion sites, and forums and threads. I’ve placed sponsorships with Kindle Nation Daily, Kindle Fire Department, Kindle Boards, and various smaller indie websites. I’ve manage to write on average three blog posts a week and have over 170 followers (thanks everyone) and almost 200,000 hits. I’m active on Authors Den, Goodreads, Shelfari, The Book Marketing Network, and various other websites for writers. I participate on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Booktown, Bookblogs, and numerous other social media outlets… so what do I do now to boost sales? Pray to the book buying Gods to make me go viral? Pay thousands of dollars for a publicist and go forth unto the living and market directly to humans? Or simply keep doing what I’m doing and hope that eventually my dues will be collected and it all will pay off. I’m at the point in my writing career where the biggest book buying will probably come from word-of-mouth. With eight books out there now and three more on the way within a year, I can only hope that word-of-mouth will propel sales. I’ve gotten nothing but rave reviews for my novels and these are from actual unbiased buying customers that I don’t know. My friends who do buy my books also tell me how much they enjoy them. I get emails and comments from total strangers who love my stuff and style. So, what do I do now? The agony of word-of-mouth promotion is that it can take a long time for it to gain momentum. But then suddenly, poof, you go viral and everyone wants your stuff. Suddenly, you’re rich beyond your wildest dreams and selling tens of thousands of books a day. You buy vacation homes, and boats, and fast cars. You sit in a big house overlooking the ocean and tap out stories, happy beyond your wildest dreams. Yep, that’s what the right word-of-mouth can get you. Now, if I only knew how to get people talking. Any ideas? Check me out on Indie Spotlight today! Of course they got the wrong cover so that’s not good. That’s free advertising for ya. http://www.theindiespotlight.com/

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Comment by Neil Ostroff on July 8, 2012 at 12:03pm

The future

 

Lately, I’ve been contemplating the future of writers in today’s high technology society. What will become of us and the books we write? Will the paperback go the way of the compact disk? Will publishing houses disappear the way most record labels have? Will the paperback book become a lost art? I don’t know, but one thing I do know is that there will always be writers and there will always be stories to tell. What is uncertain, is what medium will sell those stories. I have several theories on what may happen in the not-to-distant future. One, and something we can all agree upon, is that ebooks will replace traditional books to a large degree. People will carry libraries of their favorites in a nearly weightless ereader the size of a sheet of paper or less. And we all know how easy it is to pirate a book and place it for free all over the internet. So, how will a writer make money? I’m nearly certain that book advances by major publishers will be non-existent within five years. I have two theories. My first, is that authors will have websites that people can join and then read the author’s books. For instance, I would charge say, 99 cents a month to read all the books I have and continue to put out. No one would really own the books but they could read them everywhere and on all types of devices. This would work extremely well if you had a large following. Imagine thousands if not tens of thousands of people paying .99 cents a month. That’s a lot of scratch. My second theory on the future of authors and their books is perhaps an author will offer their ebooks for free on websites or even as stand alone novels. The twist, there would be ads on both the site and in the book. The product would be free to the reader, but companies would pay to advertise alongside or in between the pages. This could generate quite a bit of revenue if the book became big. Imagine charging a certain sum for advertising per month and then switching it up between advertisers. Again, that’s a lot of scratch. As I see it, the traditional book industry of buying a single paperback from a single author through a bookstore or website will soon become ancient history. But for the author, this opens up a whole new way of getting the world to notice you. We’ll see what the future holds.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Comment by Neil Ostroff on July 7, 2012 at 10:33am

If you write than check out ALWAYS WRITING-

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

 

A blog about the writing life, making it as an indie author, and showcasing the books I write.

Comment by Neil Ostroff on July 5, 2012 at 12:54pm

Don’t get discouraged

 

I’ve been reading a lot of posts on KND and KDP about how July sales have started out slowly. It’s not surprising considering the Fourth of July holiday. As I said in my last post, I made the biggest mistake of all by booking a sponsorship during this week. People are out having fun and spending time looking to buy ebooks takes away from some of that fun. Although I’ve sold a bunch of books already this month, I’m not going to base my monthly average on this week’s sales. Otherwise, I might get discouraged. In my never ending quest to sell more books I’ve decided to start concentrating on selling to Nook. Nook is lowering their price and has great features like backlighting for night reading. I’ve joined the Nook Boards (which allows you to promote your books on their author’s forum) and already have all eight of my books in the Smashwords premium catalog. Smashwords offers a much higher royalty than Kindle, and for each $1.99 book I sell I get to keep $1.40 compared to about sixty cents from Kindle. As most authors know, Smashwords also makes your book available to all other ereader devices except for Kindle, though I’ve heard a merger just may be in the works. I’ve got my books up on Smashwords and in the Nook store, but until recently I paid little attention to marketing for those devices. Until I saw that Smashwords has paid out more than ten million in royalties this past year. I want a piece of that. I have sold a few dozens copies to Nook and Kobo and have seen the royalty deposited right into my bank account so I know the machine is primed for selling. If I do this right, and join the correct forums and websites for Nook readers, I should double my sales within a few months. Nook or Kindle, it doesn’t matter to me which ereader is better and I have no loyalties to one or the other. I just want everyone in the world to read my books.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Comment by Jennifer Robins on July 3, 2012 at 9:27am

What Happened to Anna? is released today.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-to-Anna-ebook/dp/B008GYJU30/ref...

 

Comment by Neil Ostroff on July 2, 2012 at 12:48pm

So once again, I’ve made a blunder (I think) in my sponsorship ads. Last Friday, DROP OUT was Kindle Nation Daily’s sponsor. http://kindlenationdaily.com/2012/06/kdd-june-29/ According to their own estimates more than 150,000 readers were exposed through their means. I probably exposed the link to another twenty or thirty thousand people through my promotional efforts. I figured it was a good day to place the sponsorship because of the upcoming Fourth of July. I assumed readers would be anxious for some holiday reading by the poolside or on the beach. I, myself, was at the beach all last week at Wildwood Crest New Jersey. Our checkout date just happened to be the Friday of my sponsorship. So, after posting notice and the link on all my writer’s sites and blog in the morning, I merrily packed the car and headed home, thrilled to check my sales numbers when I arrived. I cruised out of the island pretty easily, but then we got to the expressway. Oh my God! Traffic was backed up for miles and miles. It was crazy. People honking. People getting out of their cars and looking down the street. People scratching their heads in frustration. Thankfully, the cars were all going toward the beaches and not away, like I was. So, as I drove onward relieved that I wasn’t involved in that mess, it suddenly occurred to me that today was a HUGE travel day. People weren’t going to be lounging around poolside or scanning their Kindles for books. They were going to be traveling. I had booked a sponsorship on a day when most people won’t be reading anything. The last sponsorship for DROP OUT was a few months ago with Kindle Fire Department, and that yielded impressive results. With that hopeful thought in mind I tried to put sales out of my head and concentrate on driving. Three hours later, tired and hungry, I pulled into my driveway. Not one for suspense, I went straight into my office, turned on my computer, and waited with tingles along my spine for the machine to boot. After what seemed like an eternity, the screen flickered to life and I was online. Fingers trembling, I typed into my account. I looked at a few sales of my other books and then lowered my eyes to DROP OUT’s numbers. It felt like a lead weight had dropped into my stomach. My biggest fear materialized into truth. My sales for DROP OUT after the sponsorship were hardly affected, just a few more than normal. I sighed with disgust at my own stupidity for booking the date. If nothing else, I’ve learned this about sponsorship. Don’t sponsor on the weekends even though most people say you should. I’ve discovered most sales come during the week when people are bored at work and fiddle around online to pass the time. That’s when they discover you. Don’t book sponsorships on sites with less than 10,000 hits a day. The percentages against making enough sales to cover the cost run against you. And the hard lesson for me, never book a sponsorship on a known travel day. Hopefully, sales will magically increase and I can put a plus on the income side of this sponsorship instead of a negative.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

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