For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers
Been doing the interview thing a lot lately and I think it’s starting to pay off. Not only does my name come up more often in search engines but I’m noticing visits to my blog and website are increasing. Of course, this could also be the result of my article experiment, which I’m waiting for the final stats. Speaking of my Author’s Den website, I recently signed on with GoDaddy to build a website myself that I can update, and let me tell you, it’s not nearly as easy as they claim. I spent…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on December 10, 2011 at 10:06am — No Comments
Do you know if you write a page a day that within one year you will have written a book? How many times have I heard that one? If that one book takes a year to write then the revision process would have to take many years. Truth is, writing a first draft is the easy part. I can usually belt one out in a few months. But the revision; forgetta’bout it. That’s the time consuming stuff, though I am getting better at it as I get older (and hopefully wiser). I’m also getting better as a…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on December 7, 2011 at 12:05pm — No Comments
Hit 6,000 words today on my new novel. It's an easy and exciting write because anything can happen in a world that isn't real. I see the book getting a little deep in the philosophical area once the characters begin to realize the nature of their existences and how it all could just disappear. We'll see where the story takes me. Right now, I'm still developing characters and relationships and setting the scene for a wild ride through the possible and impossible.
…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on December 6, 2011 at 9:00am — No Comments
Added by Martha A. Cheves on December 5, 2011 at 4:23pm — No Comments
As some of you know I started a new book a few days ago. The title is IMAGINATION and it’s the wildest concept I’ve had yet. Here’s the preliminary tagline: (What if everything around us, our friends, our surroundings, the universe, what if all we experience is just a figment of someone’s imagination? And what if that someone is dying?) I’m very excited about this one as I’ve been thinking about this possibility for a long time. The book will be written in the style of one of my earlier…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on December 5, 2011 at 9:25am — No Comments
Okay, well… here it is. The $55 article written for me. Now,
the next step is the company will send this to three hundred article submission
services, and people, and companies looking for content. My Blog address and
Author’s Den address will be attached to the article so readers can connect
with me. I reset my site stats to zero and will closely monitor that over the
next ten days (the run I was promised). I average about twenty-five bio hits a
day on my AD site and…
Added by Neil Ostroff on December 1, 2011 at 2:23pm — No Comments
It’s raining today. Drops slide down my window like translucent
snails. Water puddles in the street. Worms
tunnel up from drowning liquid and sprawl across the sidewalk. And here I sit
in front of my computer belting out another novel. I forget who said it, but I
remember a quote that summed up the writing life completely. The quote went
simply; being a writer is like having homework every day for the rest of your
life. And that’s true for the serious, passionate…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 29, 2011 at 12:51pm — No Comments
I just did something that I’ve never done before. Something
I ignorantly hoped to avoid but always knew would happen. I just paid hard
earned dough to promote my books. Well, not my books individually, but my blog
and author’s site. I signed up for two marketing ideas that I believe may
actually work. I also have a third PR person in line to do search engine
optimization. Who would have thought being a writer and selling books could get
so complicated. The first site…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 27, 2011 at 11:45am — 2 Comments
As a historical novelist I enjoy reading about eras which have gone with the wind. I have just re-read The Little Madeleine by Mrs Robert Henrey, which relates the joys and sorrows of Madeleine, a French girl, loved by her mother, who earned a living as a talented seamstress, and her father, ‘a picturesque figure from the Midi.’
"Mrs Henrey’s autobiography is the story of her girlhood in Montmartre and the wasteland near the Paris fortifications, or city walls,…
Added by Rosemary Morris on November 27, 2011 at 1:13am — No Comments
38 Entries
Thoughts on Creating Believable Historical Characters So far, I have only written historical novels set in England, but regardless of when and where a novel is set the characters must be believable. Before I start writing a historical novel I name my characters. I find The… |
Added by Rosemary Morris on November 27, 2011 at 1:06am — No Comments
It’s happened! I’ve finished a new book (DREAM TRAVELER) and
it’s about to go live. So, what do I do now? Well, besides all the marketing
and promotion I’m planning in the coming weeks, it’s time to start a new novel.
I’ve had this one simmering in my brain for a long time; about thirty years.
What’s it about? Well, I learned long ago not to talk-out a book before you’ve
put it to page, but I have come up with a tagline. ‘You and me and the world we
live in is nothing…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 26, 2011 at 8:28am — No Comments
Happy Thanksgiving to all! That said, I have to tell you
that since I’m in the service industry, I work every Thanksgiving. So today,
black Friday, is my day to celebrate. Oh it’ll be a hoot. Got the family coming
over, got friends of the kids stopping by, got lots of food and drink. By the
time most of you read this I’m going to be knee-deep in overindulgence. But for
now, I must write. This post is only the beginning of about two hours I’ve set
aside this morning to…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 25, 2011 at 8:47am — No Comments
So, you married yourself a writer, eh? You bought into the
romantic notion of the two of you sitting fireside, you drinking a glass of
pinot noir while your significant other sits beside you writing the next great
American novel. The only sound is the crackling fire and the tapping of their
keyboard. Every once in a while your significant other looks up from their
masterpiece and flashes you a smile that makes you feel like you’re the most
special person in the world.…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 22, 2011 at 1:06pm — No Comments
Got a new book coming out next week and I must say it’s a
great feeling. Not because I finished another book, but because I finished a
book that I started writing in 1997. As I slowly weed through more than two
decades of manuscripts, there’s a certain joy that comes each time one is
finally declared “finished”. Even as I re-read the manuscript for the
thousandth time, I could still picture myself fourteen years ago, sitting
upstairs in my sweltering bedroom…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 21, 2011 at 2:00pm — No Comments
Please check out my latest interview.
http://susanwhitfield.blogspot.com/2011/11/neil-ostroffs-insectland.html
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 17, 2011 at 1:56pm — No Comments
Home from vacation and looking forward to working sixty
hours in the next six days… not! There are many reasons why people attempt to,
or actually do, write a book. Some are for purely egotistical reasons: money,
fame, the adulation of pretty girls and boys. Some people write books because
they feel they have a story to tell the world, whether it’s fiction or
non-fiction. Some people write stories purely for the joy, and care little if
no one else but family members…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 10, 2011 at 1:32pm — No Comments
How I Write Historical Fiction
Although there are books on the subject of How To Write Historical Fiction, which are useful, I am sure that novelists develop their own techniques.
I read history books and sooner or later something triggers my imagination. For example, I read that most of the English nobility disliked James II, his politics and his religion. After James fled to France, first his older daughter, Mary, and her…
ContinueAdded by Rosemary Morris on November 7, 2011 at 8:00am — No Comments
I’m sitting on the dock this morning, my fishing rod baited
with a shrimp and hoping to catch some lunch when a strange thought occurred to
me. Fishing and becoming a successful author are similar activities. Except
when you’re fishing, you use bait to catch stuff and when you’re a writer you
use your books to try and catch something, that something being an agent,
publisher, or audience. The analogy expounds even further. With fishing, the
quality of bait is…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 5, 2011 at 2:30pm — No Comments
As readers of my blog know, I am currently on vacation in the Florida Keys while my step-kids are at our house up north. The Keys is and was home to many famous artists and writers including its most notable resident, Earnest Hemmingway. Hemmingway lived and fished here, and wrote some of his most memorable novels in this tropical paradise. So, how has my own writing been going? I must admit the scenery is breathtaking and watching the sunsets really does get the creative juices flowing. But…
ContinueAdded by Neil Ostroff on November 4, 2011 at 1:00pm — No Comments
As I write this I am on vacation. Yes, vacation. That
magical two weeks a year when you leave your cares behind and head off into the
sunset. In my case, this is Key West Florida. It’s beautiful! Right now it’s 82
degrees and sunny with low humidity. I watched the recent snowstorm in the
northeast on television and thanked my lucky stars that I left Pennsylvania two
days before it hit. I do write on vacation, usually in the morning before the
high heat of the day sets…
Added by Neil Ostroff on November 2, 2011 at 12:55pm — No Comments
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