Neil Ostroff's Blog (390)

I’m involved in a review program with Choosy Bookworm.com where DROP OUT was sent to @35 top Amazon reviewers who post their reviews on a number of websites reaching a huge audience. So far, so good. Here are just a few of the headers. Check out the rest at –

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U

Thanks.

5.0 out of 5 stars BELIEVE!!! Amazing!!, August 25, 2014

By …

It’s been an interesting week for me and my books. First, I’m involved in a review program with Choosy Bookworm.com. So far nearly thirty copies of DROP OUT and about ten copies of THE END TIME have been sent to anonymous reviews who promise to post an honest review on Amazon and Goodreads in exchange for a free copy of the book. The reviews are just now coming in and all I can say is “Wow”. It’s nice to know that and read how much people like the stories. Check out the new 5-stars for…

Here’s your chance to sample one of my thrillers… FREE!

One week.

Two thousand miles.

A crazed serial killer.

A trip into madness!

FROSTPROOF

On a winter night in 2009, Niles Goodman risked his life to try and save a woman and her newborn infant from a terrible car accident. The injuries he sustained left him unable to work and the financial strain is taking a heavy toll on his marriage.

Enter Cody…

Okay, so I’ve unpublished all my books except two from Smashwords to concentrate on working promotions with Amazon and have been busy getting my stuff out there. Joining Kindle Unlimited and KDP Select is a risk and it does put small limits on my sales outlets but I still think it is the right move at the right time in book publishing today.

Here’s what I’ve got coming up in the next 30 days.

On August 18 – 25 both my five-book and four-book Omnibuses will be…

After almost a solid month of plotting, characterization, pacing, and creating setting, I finally wrote the last sentence to my new novel before I start the revision process. Feeling elated I sat back in my office desk chair and beamed, enjoying the pleasurable sensations of finishing this stage of the project. Then suddenly, I was stricken with horror. I had written the story to completion. There was nothing more I could say or add to the story. It was done in my mind.

But……

I’m sure if you’re a reader or author you’ve heard about Amazon’s new prime membership for books. For a monthly fee a reader can now purchase an unlimited amount of ebooks for as long as they remain members. I’ve done a bit of research and here’s what I’ve discovered.

Although Amazon Prime does sound ominous to the author when it comes to royalty payments it actually does have some pretty fantastic perks. For one, an author will no longer see that dreaded return unit in their…

Writer’s are transport machines. We put words on the page and transport reader’s minds to other places and times. But at what cost to a writer’s psyche?

A great author once said that being a writer is like having to do homework every day for the rest of your life. There is always something to do; editing, rewriting, better setting details, characterization, etc. Not a day goes by that I don’t spend time working on one of my books or upcoming projects. Tens of thousands of…

It never fails to amaze me how we have become such an instant society, a society in which entertainment, whether television, movies, or books can be had at the ready with the press of a button almost anywhere in the world and at any time. As a writer, you must have a constant presence in order to stand out among all the clutter.

I have been on vacation for the last few days and have not written any new posts to my groups or made my presence known on the internet. You would…

I’ve been reading a lot of threads and forums lately dealing with the topic of marketing your book. It seems there are a lot of “newbie authors” out there in this relatively virgin explosion of indie publishing and many can’t understand why their book isn’t selling. When asked if they market and promote their books most do say yes, but often complain of the time it takes in a world where we all have limited time.

Well, here’s a hard truth. To be a successful indie author you…

Thanks to everyone who purchased DROP OUT, the book continues to affect lives. For those of you who don’t know the origins of the story and its message, I thought I’d share a portion of a biography interview I did when the book was published. Then please decide if it is right for you.

I’ve been a thriller, sci-fi writer for more than twenty years and over that span of time my books garnered the attention of numerous literary agents and publishers. In 2005, I signed with a…

Touching again on the subject of unpaid reviews from unknown readers, I would like to point out just how personal taste is reflected in each review. I’m not going to mention the 23 – five star reviews I’ve gotten for DROP OUT, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U but mention quotes from the two worst reviews I’ve received. Why focus on the worst? Because they are perfect examples of opinion and preference.

The first quote is…

          I’ve been contemplating the future of the author in today’s high technology society. What will become of us and the books we write? Will the paperback go the way of the compact disk and disappear forever? Will publishing houses dissolve into nonexistence the way most record labels have? Will a paperback…

          Nobody said it was going to be easy making a living as a writer. Nobody said it was always going to be fun. Nobody promised me that after spending twenty-plus years holed up in my office writing novels that anyone would ever read them. Nobody promised me anything would ever come of my writing, and yet I still do…

I’ve touched on this subject many times but it warrants repeating. Never pay someone to read and review one of your books. Paid reviewers give glowing reports on the books they read even if the books are terrible. Why? Because they want your repeat business. Would you pay someone a second time if they gave your book a bad review the first time? Of course…

I recently completed and published my tenth book. It took nearly fourteen months working at my computer from three to five hours a day. Seeing the book for sale worldwide is both exhilarating and relieving. I had planned to finish it while on my recent vacation but since I completed it a month ahead of schedule I found myself on vacation with nothing to write.

This has never happened before. I’ve always had a project that…

I recently published my tenth ebook in the last three years. I didn’t write all of these books in that time frame, some are decades in the making, but all have been meticulously proofread and edited. In my quest to sell books I’ve made every mistake a new author can and spent thousands on promotions that didn’t work.

As my latest book begins the process of getting noticed and reviewed, there are still a…

When it comes to marketing and promoting your book nothing beats grassroots marketing and word-of-mouth promotion. That said, I’ve joined an exciting new online writers group devoted to paying it forward through various methods of promotion, including tweets, Facebook, and word-of-mouth promotion.

   Getting noticed above the massive flood of new books is hard, but the task becomes easier when authors help each other. That’s what this group…

I’ve been reading a lot of threads and forums lately dealing with the topic of marketing your book. It seems there are a lot of “newbies” out there in this relatively virgin explosion of indie publishing and many can’t understand why their books aren’t selling. When asked if these new authors market and promote their books most say yes, but complain that they have…

What a great day! First, this new 5-star review for DROP OUT.

***

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring,

By LisaC - See all my…

Well, after nearly exactly 15 months my latest book, THE END TIME is about to be birthed. The cover is complete, the blurb and pitch are complete, and I just sent all my material to Chris O'Byrne at Jetlaunch. Chris is the man who formats my manuscript for ever ereader imaginable and places the book on all the sell sites for me. Like my cover artist, Judy Bullard, I've used these same two people for all my ten published books. This gives my titles and format and consistent…