All Blog Posts Tagged 'Suspense' (165)

Nook just unveiled its new tablet today. Watching the interview on CBS this morning with the president of the company he was asked if he thought traditional paperback books will disappear in thirty years. Although, he wouldn’t give a definitive answer (because Barnes and Noble still have over 600 bookstores nationwide) it was apparent that he thought so. Though Barnes and Noble have outlived most retail book outlets, I do believe those days are numbered. Getting into the ebook revolution by…

After almost eleven months of continuous, daily writing I finally wrote ‘The End” on IMAGINATION. Well, I don’t actually write those words since it’s not industry standard anymore, but I did write the final, conclusive last sentence of the novel. Ah, what a feeling! This being my eleventh book, it still never ceases to amaze me how a story can take on a life of its own. If I were to look at my original notes on the concept for the story from last year and compare it to what I actually…

Ebooks are forever. Think about this sentence for a moment. You write a novel, get it formatted, have a nice cover made up, get an ISBN, and then download it onto Kindle, or Smashwords, or any of the hundreds of ebook distributors, and poof, it’s available globally to anyone with an ereader. Not only that, it will be available until the end of time. That means fifty years from now if I want to show my great grandchild one of my books, all they’ll have to do is type in the title and, poof…

It used to be that an aspiring author would write a novel and then painstakingly send out SASE’s (remember them) hoping to land an agent. If the author did land an agent, then the author would hope for a publishing contract. If by miracle of miracles the agent actually sells the book, then eighteen months later it comes out in the bookstore (remember those) and the author starts doing a grueling schedule of signings hoping to recoup more money in sales than the advance received.

The…

Although I’ve figured out what sites help most with sales, and what forums to post on, and what sponsorships work best, and I’ve documented all of this on my blog, there’s still one thing I cannot figure out. What prompts sales?

For example, last month I sold many copies of INSECTLAND, DROP OUT, DREAM TRAVELER, and FROSTPROOF in the U.K. Yet, I’ve done almost no marketing for the U.K. since March. In the U.S., I sold many copies of all my books, but the two best sellers for the month…

Wanted to let everyone know that my novel, DROP OUT is today’s Kindle Nation Daily’s sponsor. Please check it out. It’s a powerful read. Thank you.

http://kindlenationdaily.com/2012/06/kdd-june-29/                                     

One of the strangest things about being a writer is people’s reaction when you tell them that you are. Most of the time there’s a slight admiration followed by the general expression that “yeah, everyone says they’re a writer”. But then when I tell them to Google my name and see what comes up, the admiration becomes real. Here’s what I’ve discovered about the nature of the arts and you can feel free to disagree with me, because like I say, these are only my biased opinions. Most people can…

The room was sparse and dimly lit with flickering strawberry-scented candles. Power was out. It had been nearly a decade since Nathan had stood inside someone’s home; since that tragic day when he lost everything that ever mattered to him. Outside, a hurricane sounded like it was beating palm trees against the earth. Nathan didn’t know the woman who’d rescued him from the throes of the deadly storm, but he would soon enough. Her name is Miriam and she is about to drastically change…

Get ready to meet one of the world’s creepiest serial killers. That’s right! FROSTPROOF is now live on Kindle and available world-wide.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083WSXL0

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0083WSXL0

As always, with the release of a new book come all the back-breaking, sore-eyes, aching-fingers, promotion and marketing that comes along with it. Here’s my new…

Those who follow my blog and my other posts on the numerous writer’s sites that I belong to, know that I am on vacation. So, instead of boring you with details of the fried Grouper sandwich I had for lunch and the long, saltwater swim I took after (waiting thirty minutes of course), I’m going to post a long sample of my current best selling book, DROP OUT. I’ve received more than a hundred emails from people telling me how much the book affected them and their views on the meaning of life.…

“It’s not happening fast enough! It’s not happening fast enough!” Those were the complaints of Jim Morrison during the early days of the 1960’s rock band The Doors concerts. They had been together as a group for a mere seven months and Jim was getting antsy for them to get discovered. “Relax Jim,” Ray Manzareck (The keyboardist and discoverer of Jim’s song writing ability) replied. “All great things take time.”

Within the year the group was world famous and Jim Morrison became one of…

Hitler’s Silver Box is a compelling, exciting thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.

In a two-story Georgian house in one of Chicago’s affluent suburbs, Max Bloomberg, an old bookseller, is brutally killed. Before murdering him, the killers burn his holy books and ask him for ‘the box.’ The old…

I just put together a Facebook fan page for Author Neil D. Ostroff. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Facebook-Page-of-Author-Neil-D-Ostroff/124794694205967?sk=info

I sent out a bunch of notices through social marketing and guess what? I already have almost 2,000 likes. The internet is just amazing! Anyway, I’ve got everything in place for my winter marketing blitz. I’ve got…

It’s done! I’ve just put money into promotion. A pretty good chunk, actually. I’m starting with Kindle Nation Daily site. I’ve done some research and heard a lot of positive things about this site and what it can do for your sales. They even have a statistics page that shows you all the books whose ranking went down after placing ads. I signed up for two campaigns. One, the bigger one, won’t start until March, which is fine because hopefully there’ll be many more Kindle owners by then. The…

My brother sent me an article the other day that inspired me beyond belief. I’ll attach it at the end of this post. Basically, it’s the story of a self-published success. I know, I know, I’ve read a thousand of them, also. But this one struck me different, mainly because this author did everything I have done to market and promote with one exception. She used the pay promotion on her sites and I have not. See, I’ve been mistakenly foolish with my numbers. I was putting book sales in…

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…

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…

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.

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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…