Neil Ostroff's Blog (390)

Okay, I got over the woman who bashed me. Thanks to all who responded with their own stories of jerks.



So, in my continued quest to get rich and famous I've come up with a few marketing ideas. First off, though not an original idea, I've decided to get bookmarks made that have pics. of my books and my website, plus info to buy them. I'm putting some at the front desk of the hotel I work at and I am going to local stores to ask if I can put them on the counter so people can…

If you like books that will keep you awake at night reading, then check out this interview.

http://wwwthouhtfulreflections.blogspot.com/2011/07/after-author-neil-dostroff-has-another.html

All the thousands of hours of work I put into DROP OUT and it's off to the

formatter and done forever. Yeah! So, I've decided to devote myself to marketing

this week because I have the time and I was going to give AFTER one more blast

before I started rewriting INSECTLAND and marketing and promoting DROP OUT.

Okay, all is well and good. I've done my usual postings on Kindle forums and my

various writers sites that I belong to. But the other day I discovered something…

All set to go with DROP OUT. My format guy has it and I'm preparing to market

and promote. I recently read an article about how an Indie author can make a

living writing ebooks. There actually is a secret and here it is. WRITE A LOT OF

BOOKS! The article said that most authors who are earning a decent living from

their books have at least seven that are available. If you do the numbers it

makes sense. I've sold approximately forty copies of AFTER this month.…

Okay, so I finished the final of the final read for DROP OUT and I am excited to

release it into the world. Truth be told, this is the book that my agent said he

didn't want to try to sell because it was so out of my genre. But it is a story

that I always wanted to tell about the impotance of living life to its fullest.

My initial readers burst into tears at points while reading it, telling me how

sad it was, but also how meaningful. I'm curious as to the repsonse it…

So those of you who have been following my blog know that I recently published

my first ebook AFTER and I detailed the marketing and promotion strategy in this

blog. Well, just as I'm about to begin the process of releasing my next ebook

DROP OUT, I learn a very valuable lesson that probably put five months of

promotion in the toilet. AFTER has sold copies, though not nearly as many as I'd

hoped considering I'd spent months marketing and currently my combined…

Well, it's happening again. I've got the cover nearly complete for my new ebook DROP OUT. I'm currently tweaking the pitch for it and I must say, a website called http://www.mywriterscircle.com helped greatly. I posted my summary and got lots of free feedback which was awesome! I can't believe how much time some people took in editing my sample. It was like getting a dozen free edits. I highly recommend that site ansd also the Kindle forums.…

author's site

I recently discovered a great site for free feedback on your writing. It's:

Mywriterscircle.com.  I put up the first chapter of my new sci/fi novel

INSECTLAND and already have more than 60 views and ten comments on improvement.

Wow. The only catch is that you have to read and comment on others writing. But

hey, there's no longer a need to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for

editing when you can get it free!! These writers on the site are good, too.…

Thanks to all who commented and followed me on the tour. Unfortunately, I ran

out of time to comment on everyone but I did manage to leave a few and like and

repost most of your blogs. But now it's time to move on. I've been marketing

AFTER for several weeks now and it's exhausting work. I have managed several

sales and have gottten a lot of exposure but it is taking away from my true

love... creating my own worlds. I've decided to publish my next book by…

To all of you on the blogolicious tour today I apologize. My computer keeps

locking up for some reason when I use the links. I'm "liking" and posting

everyone's blog on Facebook and Twitter as best I can but I'm having a hard time

commenting. Unfortunately, I'm running out of time to figure this out and have

to go to my job that pays my bills soon. If this helps, I'm posting everyone's

blog here.

Again, I apologize to everyone participating that I'm too dumb to…

Spending three hours a day plugging away at Kindle sites and forums is finally starting to pay off. I've had sales. And not sales from family and friends. But actual sales from strangers. It's pretty amazing what the new technology is offering writers who don't like to travel and promote outside the house. I only dream of going viral and waking up one morning to a hundred thousand sales. I'd appreciate if my blog followers participated in this dream. LOL. I have AFTER priced on Kindle at…

Sorry it's been a while since I wrote. Nicer weather means more work and less time to write, which I hate. So anyway, on to AFTER and what's been happening. I've been promoting pretty heavily on Kindle forums and the results have been pretty awesome. Not so much in sales, but exposure. My posts so far are averaging about 100 views per day, which is pretty awesome considering each post lists my sites. I've noticed an increase in hits as a result. I've also started commenting on other…

Purchase AFTER

Well, after many long weeks and many refinements, AFTER is complete and available for sale at the Kindle bookstore for a mere $1.79. I've been approved with Smashwords and am just waiting for it to appear in their premium catalog. Then it will be available everywhere. Here is the pitch followed by the link to purchase. I've hardly started to market and I've already sold a few. Major marketing promo blitz…

I decided NOT to pay the $25 for my epub guy to put AFTER into the e-world. I did it myself. And it was pretty easy. I would recommend people try to do it themselves and only if they can't then hire someone to do it. Getting on smashwords is a little harder but I think I'll be able to figure it out. I'll let you know how it goes. That said, and being all proud of myself, I realized to my horror that I made a mistake in my description. I have my character being two ages. Fifteen and…

Well, after many long weeks and many refinements, AFTER is complete and available for sale at the Kindle bookstore for a mere $1.79. I've been approved with Smashwords and am just waiting for it to appear in their premium catalog. Then it will be available everywhere. Here is the pitch followed by the link to purchase. I've hardly started to market and I've already sold a few. Major marketing promo blitz starts June 1st.

AFTER

On the day we’re born we’re all destined to die.…

Work. Work. Work. That's all I seem to be doing these days. And not the good kind of creative work, but the work that pays the bills. I'm still waiting for AFTER to be editted into professional ebook form. While I wait I continue to work on my new YA novel, WASTED, which is nearly complete. With WASTED, I'm going to try to get an agent, which may be a mute point in publishing. I guess wanting representation is just a desire to fill my ego. There are blogs saying all agents will be…

I know. I know. In my last post I said AFTER was finished. But then last night I received feedback from a woman on the opening chapter. She said that it was great except for a few miniscule details, like one sentence in the wrong tense and changing a word. I wouldn't have taken the advice so seriously except that this woman was a bona fide LITERARY AGENT and she gave this advice free and willingly on her own time. Obviously by the detail of the critique she had spent some time on it, even…

That's it. AFTER is finished! I've contacted the formatter and I am waiting for his reply. I'm going to get the ISBN but not the bar code, since this will be an ebook and only available hard copy through Create Space. The ISBN will allow the book to be distributed worldwide. I've begun very simple marketing and promo by mentioning AFTER in two new blog interviews that I've done. Here's that info:



July 30th--Sylvia L. Ramsey: Thoughtful Reflections Blog--…