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The Kindle Daily Nation sponsorship for DEGENERATES yielded okay results. I was hoping for a few more sales than I actually made, but at least the exposure was good. It caused several dozen more hits on my blog than usual and I have now surpassed the 170,000 hit mark. That’s a lot of hits, but even with that I didn’t reach my total sales goals for the month. Though I did have enough that I’m pretty satisfied a momentum will build over time. I’ve also discovered that posting on Amazon.com…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on May 29, 2012 at 12:34pm — No Comments
As summer approaches and the breezes grow warmer, I find myself more immerse in the reality of life than the fantasy world I create while sitting at my desk. The job that pays my bills gets busier this time of year and I find myself with less and less hours to write, and a miniscule amount of time to market and promote my books. Thus, the dismal May sales. We are an impulse society and without a constant web presence, you’re quickly lost in the ocean of advertisers. Though collectively my…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on May 27, 2012 at 12:08pm — No Comments
When it comes to indie publishing on Kindle I’ve learned to expect the unexpected when sales are involved. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to why books sell on some days and don’t on others. The key is to market and promote on a regular basis. That said, I’ve been feeling frustrated with my sales lately, having set sales goals that far exceed what my actual sales are this month. I set these goals several months ago when it was colder and my books were selling, and it seemed like…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on May 25, 2012 at 2:00pm — No Comments
The other day as I was writing I heard a sudden, loud knocking at my office door. I turned my head to see who could have caused such a ruckus and behold, it was my wife.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked.
“Uh, no,” I replied, somewhat in a daze from being pummeled out of my imaginary world.
“I thought you were ignoring me,” she grumbled. “The trash stinks. It needs to go out.”
“I wasn’t ignoring you,” I replied. “I’m working on my latest novel. I was in the…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on May 11, 2012 at 11:45am — No Comments
I’m often asked how I create my characters. At last count I have somewhat in the neighborhood of seventy-five to eighty relatively strong characters. By strong, I mean these characters actually have back stories and personalities that come across on the page. Some are absolutely terrifying, like Cody Larson in FROSTPROOF and Tommy Fielding in DEGENERATES. Some are adventurous, like Tim Madison in SILENT INVASION, and Jamie Richards in DREAM TRAVELER, and some are tragic, yet beautiful, like…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on May 6, 2012 at 7:06am — No Comments
Another fresh month is upon us and that means another start at zero for my books sales count. Last month ended pretty well with a last couple of days blitz that netted enough sales to reach my goals. However, it was a tough struggle, not helped by the fact that I was on vacation for nine days and did little in terms of marketing and promotion (not that I’m complaining). My sales goals for this month may be unreachable since I don’t have any sponsorships planned for this month. It’s going to…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on May 2, 2012 at 1:45pm — No Comments
I love the new cover for my Kindle version of FROSTPROOF. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m slowly taking back all my rights to my paperbacks and republishing only electronically. I believe the traditional book is going the way of CD’s and I’m excited to be at the threshold of this new medium. With my seventh novel soon to be published electronically, I’ve now got more than half of my books out there for the entire world to purchase. It’s a pretty cool feeling. Once I send the new FROSTPROOF off…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 28, 2012 at 10:46am — No Comments
Every once in a while I come across something that makes all the hard work trying to make it as a writer worth it. I’ve had these moments in the past, like when I discovered an article about me written in Italy and I had to have it translated just to read it. http://sftech.blog.tiscali.it/2012/01/16/vendere-ebook-un-caso-su-amazon/
Another was when KND praised DROP OUT as a sleeper hit.…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 26, 2012 at 11:10am — 1 Comment
That’s what Kindle Daily Nation called DROP OUT. http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2012/04/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day.html But then again, I’ve posted this many times and guess what… it’s still sleeping. Though the book is my best seller out of my six novels, it still hasn’t reached the great heights I had hoped. Right now I’m a few dozens copies behind my sales goals for this month, so for the next three days…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 23, 2012 at 12:10pm — No Comments
Back from vacation and had a great time. Too bad taking a vacation from writing and marketing didn’t do for my sales what it did for my soul (raise it to a higher level). As I mentioned before, it’s amazing how quickly your literary presence drops off when you’re not posting and promoting your books every day. While in the Florida Keys, I watched my blog hits drop like lead balloons and my book sales drop to November levels. Especially, in the U.K. which for me, sales this month have been…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 20, 2012 at 11:03am — No Comments
At this very moment, I am sitting on a veranda in Summerland Key Florida staring out at a vast expanse of glacial-clear, maroon-colored, water while whispering palm fronds provides the backdrop to seagull cries, and yet I cannot write. Well, that’s not exactly true because I am writing this, but I can’t seem to concentrate on my current novel. Perhaps, I’m too relaxed? Too contented? With the knowledge that my books are selling, I no longer feel that intense pressure to create for hours on…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 12, 2012 at 12:44pm — No Comments
Here is the link to my author spotlight on Kindle Nation Daily. It will be posted on Kids Corner's Facebook and Twitter this afternoon and on KND's Facebook and Twitter this evening. This interview will also be featured in the Kindle Daily Digest. I can’t wait to see what will happen to sales.
…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 10, 2012 at 11:29am — No Comments
My Kindle ebook of the week sponsorship for the kid’s corner has begun. Sales are slow however, I’m guessing because of the Easter holiday. Perhaps, they will pick up more when my author spotlight interview comes out. That’s right, I was chosen for author spotlight on Kindle Nation Daily. This is a great FREE promotion offered by Kindle for me. They will post an interview, a picture of my book SILENT INVASION, links to buy the book, and links to my blog, all for nothing. They claim the…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 9, 2012 at 12:50pm — No Comments
“A sleeper hit”, that’s what the reviewer on Kindle Fire Department said about DROP OUT. Well, when is it going to wake up? Seriously, the Kindle Fire sponsorship has been the only sponsorship so far that has made back its cost. I’ve also achieved half of my sales goals for the month of April and it’s only the 5th. I’m not sure what made this sponsorship such a success but I think it has to do with my previous notion that not enough kids own Kindles, yet. DROP OUT is an adult book…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 5, 2012 at 1:52pm — No Comments
Well, my second free promotion for INSECTLAND didn’t go hardly how I thought. I only sold a measly 75 copies for the giveaway, which leads me to wonder if the rumors are true about the KDP select free promotions; that mostly book hoarders download the books and not read them. And that the same few hundred book hoarders download whatever becomes available. It would explain the low numbers. The last free promotion for INSECTLAND yielded hundreds and hundreds of downloads. I’ll guess I’ll never…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on April 2, 2012 at 12:02pm — No Comments
Just wanted to let everyone know that my sci-fi adventure INSECTLAND is now free until Monday. And if you like it please check out my blog and other books for sale. Thanks. http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
Imagine a world where humans are pests and insect-like aliens rule over them. Imagine that world is Earth.
INSECTLAND
Be frightened! Be very frightened! Tiny, dragon-like creatures hiding in our…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on March 31, 2012 at 10:12am — No Comments
Just about everybody has lottery fever right now with Mega Millions jackpot over $500,000,000 dollars. And just like everybody else, I’ve been daydreaming all morning about what I’d do if I win. (I’ve got $20 in quick picks). I could fulfill every dream I ever had. Buy big houses, a yacht, a private jet. Eat the best food prepared by master chefs. Would that make me happy? Of course. But what if I had all that and stopped writing? What if having every desired fulfilled drained me of the…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on March 30, 2012 at 12:10pm — No Comments
Continuing my series on effective query letters that got interest in my books by industry professionals, I’m posting the original query letter for DEGENERATES that drew huge interest several years ago before anyone had heard of Kindle and ebooks. I had several agents request the entire manuscript from this query and it is this query that got my first power agent Gary Heidt really interested in my work. As I’ve posted before, Gary eventually signed me after reading the query for SILENT…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on March 27, 2012 at 2:11pm — No Comments
I woke up this morning and like every morning, the first thing I did after brushing my teeth and washing my face is go down to my office, wake my computer, and check my sales on KDP. Lo and behold, AFTER is moving copies. I also sold a few copies of INSECTLAND, DROP OUT, and SILENT INVASION, but AFTER is the winner today by far. So, I started thinking what I could have done differently the last few days that attracted the extra attention. I really haven’t been concentrating much on AFTER…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on March 24, 2012 at 10:48am — No Comments
Okay, for all my new followers, here’s the raw deal of what I’ve done in the way of promotions in the last four months and what the results are. First were the fiver ads on fiver.com. For five bucks people put your books and links on their blogs and websites. I did about fifteen different blogs with little result. My advice; don’t waste that hard earned five bucks. Then I did the article service where an article is ghost-written for you and then sent to thousands of journal sites and logs.…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on March 22, 2012 at 2:23pm — No Comments
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