Neil Ostroff's Blog – September 2013 Archive (8)

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 sold the book, then eighteen months later it came out in the bookstore (remember those) and the author started doing a grueling schedule of signings hoping to recoup more money in sales than the advance…

Read what Kindle Nation Daily called “the sleeper hit of the year” what Kindle Fire Department called, “riveting, touching, and deeply heartwarming, a book that will stay with you forever”, an Indie Book of the Day winner, 18-five star reviews from all over the world.

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A writer’s life is like riding a rollercoaster. There are dizzying highs and terrifying lows. Some days are more productive on the creative end and some days on the marketing and promoting end. Today is a mixture of both.

On the creative end, I recently finished the third edit of my latest dystopian sci-fi. The book is about life on Earth fifty years after humans have driven off an invading alien force. The story includes…

When you buy a book especially on the internet, what do you look for? Is it the cover that attracts you? The reviews? The description? The key to selling books is to have all three of these as A plus’s. A good cover, good unbiased reviews, and a blurb that makes people want to look at the book. With ebooks, a consumer can’t take it off the shelf and feel its texture, skim through the pages, get a sense of the thickness and how long it will take to read. They must rely on the free sample…

Now that another September 11^th has passed, we can all heave a collective sigh of relief that there has not been another major terrorist attack on American soil in the last twelve years. That doesn’t mean that those who were affected by September 11^th aren’t still suffering.

Please read the reviews for my novel DROP OUT ( …

If you follow my blog you know I've recently acquired a rescue dog, part beagle, part ?. He is a good dog, friendly, gentle, and quiet; as I've mentioned before, a good writers dog. However, I have notice my writing productivity has nosedived since this animal entered my life. Is that a good thing?

The past twenty years I’ve spend nearly half my day, almost every day in front of my computer. I’ve published nine books and have sold thousands of copies. I’ve missed out on…

So, here it is the day before the twelfth anniversary of the worse terrorist attack on American soil ever and the second year since my novel DROP OUT was published. DROP OUT ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U ) examines the tragedy left behind for the survivors and how one man copes with his incredible loss. In honorarium, I do not market or promote this book on that date.

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DROP OUT http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U continues to pull in five star reviews from all over the world and I’m still getting an average of ten to fifteen emails a day…