Neil Ostroff's Blog (390)

The full ebook collection now available in paperback.…

It’s been six years since I published my first ebook and a lot has happened since. I wrote and edited feverishly, publishing another ten ebooks with four hitting the #1 status on Amazon in multiple genres. To achieve this took nearly all of my time and energy, and after completing my last ebook, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, I decided to take a break.

After approximately twenty hours work formatting, inputting keywords, checking typo and graphics, and verifying material, my proofs are finally on their way. I can't wait to see all eleven of my books in print form. There is one tiny inconvenience, however...



Many years ago, I did publish three of my books, DEGENERATES, FROSTPROOF, and PULP in print form through iUniverse. What a huge mistake that has turned out to be. Not only was the experience a total waste of money (only about…

A recent event in the music business caused me to take brief pause in my writing. Singer/songwriter Paul Simon is quitting the business. Now, I’m not the hugest of Paul Simon fans. I do like his music, and his impact on folk rock history is solidified. It’s the reason why he’s quitting that has me, as an artist, very worried.

Paul just released his 13^th solo…

The title of this post may be a bit misleading. It is not a lesson on winning the viral lottery. This is a curious plea for answers. I was surfing Facebook this morning and I came upon several videos that caught my attention causing me to pause and click. Two were funny animal posts (which I love), two were posts of people doing dumb things, and one was of a car accident (morbid sense of curiosity).…

Just a quick update to keep my followers in the cerebral loop. I'm working on a new book that is a stand-alone story but also book #2 in the End Time Series. It is based on an idea I've had and kept in the vault for years. The subject-- what lies after the end of existence.

As I've mentioned before the going is slow with this one due to the near…

Progress with my new novel is going slower than I anticipated. It’s hard to focus on storytelling during these long, lazy summer days. That’s okay… I feel content. It wasn’t always this way. Two decades ago, when I decided to focus my life energies on making it as a novelist, a slow-down like this would have driven me to the asylum. Thinking back, boy was I hungry to make it. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year… rain, snow, or sunshine, I would be in…

There have been a lot of changes to Amazon and how it sells books since I broke from my agent and started on this solo indie adventure.  A few years ago, the process of self-publishing an ebook was much simpler. You wrote a manuscript, edited, formatted, designed a cover, uploaded the file, and poof… it was available for sale all over the world. If the story you wrote was any good you just might have sold a bunch of copies. If you were hard-working and totally…

Wow… it’s been a while since I checked the visitor stats on my blog and I must say I am impressed at the amount of hits I have been receiving. Last month, my blog received more than 25,000 hits. That’s more than some book sites that sell advertising. Yesterday alone 1,350 people clicked on and checked it out. I sincerely appreciate the interest.…

I’ve been an indie writer going on five-plus years now and on a whim I decided to try and calculate the number of books I have sold throughout my career. Results were a bit unexpected. Combining my eleven published ebooks with my print versions (when they still existed) I have sold more than 100,000 books.  Another 120,000 books have been given away as free promotions. That’s nearly a quarter million copies of my stories circulating the…

Got a couple of nice new reviews for DROP OUT and IMAGINATION from some awesome readers! Thanks for taking both books to the #1 bestseller spot on Amazon!

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DROP OUT - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story.

By paula on June 7, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified…

Neglecting to market my books and myself has always been my weakness. While I love the process of writing (creating new characters, worlds, and plots) the arduous task of promoting my work can seem dauntless at times. After writing consistently for 25+ years, I recently made the conscious, and I must say extremely difficult decision, to take a break from it all. I have gone thirteen months without publishing an original book and as of right now, two months have passed without me writing an…

The free promotion for my book, IMAGINATION is long over and now, as I had hoped, reviews are starting to roll in. This got me thinking as I read people’s opinions of my story… what do reviews really mean?

If you’re trying to do marketing on major sites such as Bookbub or Booksends, reviews mean you must have a minimum of them to even be considered for an ad spot, and the majority better add up to four stars or more. Logic being, higher reviews helps weed out books not quite…

When I first began writing IMAGINATION, I envisioned a book which would propel readers beyond the norm and into realms where the utterly unbelievable was possible. I wanted to blow their minds! Fascinated by the physical and psychological endurance experienced by POW’s during times of war, I knew prolonged periods of isolation and injury invoked defense mechanisms of the mind. Part of this defense is to escape inside one’s own thoughts and memories. Tiniest details of imaginary worlds become…

After weeks of planning and coordinating efforts, today is the day my books and myself are being promoted on more than twenty of the top ereader websites in the U.S. with a total subscription base of 3.5 million opt-in readers. Just a few of the biggies are :

http://ereadernewstoday.com/book-of-the-day-drop-out/

 …

Today, THE END TIME ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K08TEYA ) is being featured on multiple books sites with an audience reach of over two million readers. Needless to say, I am very psyched! Here is a list of sites on which I am being featured. All have a low Alexa ranking and are proven to generate ebook sales.

Ereader News Today

Free Kindle Books and Tips blog

RiffleBargain Booksy

Fussy…

Today begins my multi-book, months-long promotion blitz. My dystopian, sci-fi THE END TIME is being featured on FKBT, ( http://fkbt.com/2016/02/23/the-end-time/ ) which has an opt-in newsletter of over 80,000 subscribers, not including its Facebook and Twitter reach. Also, want to remind readers that the first book in my YA sci-fi/fantasy trilogy, SILENT INVASION (…

           Out of my eleven published books, one of my favorites to write has also been my worst seller; IMAGINATION ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ATFC3JM ). I wrote the book a few years ago, during the most creative point in my writing career when I pumped out three full manuscripts in less than a year. As an experienced, decades-long writer, I knew that fresh manuscripts must be seasoned and then re-read several months later with a fresh…

It used to be that if you talked up a dozen or two readers about your books in a day you’d consider that a success. Scheduled book store signings would possibly bring in a few dozen more, if you were lucky. Boy, times sure have changed.

I am lucky enough to have secured not just one, but two Book of the Day sponsorship spots for two different books (DROP OUT – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U on March 30th and THE END TIME –…

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I posted and I apologize to my followers and readers for my absence. It has not been without merit. Though I have lost a percentage of my followers by not posting, I believe the end result will justify my reasons.

I have spent the last months feverishly rewriting my book descriptions and several of my books. I am in the process of updating a few new covers, too. This is in anticipation of a major promotional blitz.

I am…