Get read!

 

It’s the end of the month, which means my book sales stats will again be reset to zero. As I’ve mentioned many times before, it’s a little depressing to start each new month from scratch. Sometimes I think it would be nicer if they just kept the numbers going.

That said, I sold a pretty fair number of books this month. It helped that I ran two promotions and that Kindle Nation Daily gave me extra free publicity by presenting me with an interview by a fifth grader and then publishing it on their site.

I’ve also just finished up with my two-month long marketing frenzy and I am anxious, really anxious, to start back up on my latest Dystopian series. I finished the first draft of the first book back in January and have been letting it stew and simmer for the past six weeks. I’ve fleshed out the characters, setting, and plot and am ready to jump head first back into this one.

My marketing frenzy included downloading long samples of each of my novels to many popular writing sites. I don’t outright solicit my books, but do make mention at the end of the sample that the whole book is available. This seems to be working as my sales have continued to increase even weeks after my promotions ended. The sites keep a counter of readers and collectively, on all sites, I’ve had @ 9,000 reads in the last week. Not bad.

Here is a list of those sites. All of them are free, easy to download, and get great traffic. Do not spam the sites with self-promotion or you will be removed. These sites get readers, use them.

Nothingbinding.com

Scribd.com  

Writing.com

Writers.net

Book daily.com 

Published.com

Bookhitch.com

Writetobreathe

Worthyofpublishing.com

Wringroom.com

Bookmatchers.com

Writerscafe.org

Bookpleasures.com

Wattpad.com

ABCtales.com

Fictionpress.com

Shelfari.com

Authonomy.com

Ficwad.com

As I now plunge back into my latest book, I am still dedicated to placing writing samples on at least three new sites a week and will continue to update my existing samples. The more you update your samples the higher you will be placed on their new additions list. Good luck.

My blog: http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Interview time

My first ever interview with a fifth grader. Check it out!

http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com/2013/02/fifth-grader-interviews-kindle-author-neil-ostroff-looks-at-the-kids-book-of-the-week-silent-invasion/

Millions will see this!

I read a funny disclaimer on a website the other day. It was a site dedicated to posting samples of author’s writing. The disclaimer warned that any material posted may be seen by millions of people. I nearly burst out loud laughing.

If only that were true? Can you imagine if each one of my book samples got read by millions of people? If only a very small percentage of those readers purchased the book I’d be rich. The reality is the internet allows you the opportunity for millions of people to read your work, not a guarantee. And that’s if they know your book samples exist at all.

Today’s cyber exposure is limitless for authors, but it is up to the author to get noticed. I’ve spent thousands of hours marketing my books and I’ve estimated about 150,000 samples have been downloaded. That’s a far cry from the warning that millions may see this.

In an era when websites can easily manipulate an uninformed author into spending hundreds on advertising, one needs to check the rankings before hopping headfirst into purchasing an expensive advertisement. There’s no site in the world that can guarantee millions will see your ad or sample chapters when the site only has 300,000 lifetime hits. If anyone out there knows of a website that can guarantee a million people will see my promotion I’d readily spend a big portion of my budget for that exposure.

 As of now, I have long samples of all my books on more than two dozen FREE sites and have collectively received a decent amount of hits (in the thousands) and that’s okay with me.

They key to getting discovered is not to place all your eggs in one basket, because no one basket gets that much attention. Spread your samples across the vastness of the cyber-world. Download to as many sites as you can find. Eventually, and with time and patience, you will get the millions reading your samples, and hopefully a few might buy the book.