Today's deal

The promotion for SILENT INVASION is going on right now. I haven't noticed too much of a bump in sales but the forums tell me that sales usually bump up later in the afternoon. I guess we'll see. I'm trying not to think about the cost of the promotion vs. the amount of sales and am spending the afternoon marketing PULP onto the various writers sites that I belong. I'm starting to think that the fact that this is the first week of school being out that the kids are not ready to sit inside and read. This date may have been a huge blunder for a middle grade book promotion. I should have done it later in the summer. I'll know within a few days and record the results.

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal -- Saturday, June 16 Don't miss Neil Ostroff''s SILENT INVASION http://bit.ly/LQTPrL

Part strange

One of the strangest things about being a writer is people’s reaction when you tell them that you are. Most of the time there’s a slight admiration followed by the general expression that “yeah, everyone says they’re a writer”. But then when I tell them to Google my name and see what comes up, the admiration becomes real. Here’s what I’ve discovered about the nature of the arts and you can feel free to disagree with me, because like I say, these are only my biased opinions. Most people can paint a picture and most people can draw a picture and most people can play an instrument. I’ll also say that most people can write a story and most people can create a sculpture from clay. But when it comes to writing novels; that is an art form that most people can’t do. And it is not because of a lack of talent or differentiation of talent that separates these art forms. All require great skills. But unlike writing a novel: a song, painting, sculpture, short story, etc., can be composed, drawn, or molded in one day, or at least the majority of it if the artist is talented. There are numerous stories of hit music written in fifteen minutes or a painting that a great artist completed in one day. But with novel writing, I dare you to find anyone who can write a novel in one day. What separates novelist from all other arts is the time needed to create a great work. There are no fifteen minute hits, but there can be fifteen-year-in-the-making novels that hit it big. I think people are fascinated by novelists because of the commitment it takes to write several hundred pages that make coherent sense and tell a great story. The seclusion and isolation novelist must endure to create their masterpiece. It usually takes me about eight months to complete a book. That’s a lot of hours alone.

Future is now

As I watch the price of ereaders drop, I feel the excitement of a bright future for indie authors much the way musicians must have felt when the first Sony Walkman came into existence (I know I’m showing my age). Readers can now take thousands of books with them anywhere they go; on vacation, in a plane, in a car. And now with Nook and Kindle introducing the backlight, people can read in bed while their significant other sleeps with the lights out. Just a few short years ago, seeing someone reading off an electronic device seemed odd. Many people said they’d never buy an ereader because they liked the feel of paper and the texture of a book. Now, those same people are realizing the convenience of carrying copies of their favorites in a small, lightweight device. And with airlines charging fees for baggage, readers are fully realizing how much space and weight they’re saving buy not lugging around their written entertainment. Now, when I see someone reading from a Kindle or Nook, I don’t do a double take because it is an unusual sight. Now, when I see someone reading off an electronic device I smile, knowing my potential audience is growing. And speaking of audience, AFTER is still free until midnight tonight. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q8D8U

Right now, I’ve had close to four hundred downloads from three countries and sales of my other books are getting a little kick, too.

Becoming the character

I’m very happy with my new cover for PULP. I’ve contacted my editor and formatter, so the process is underway for my eighth novel to be published electronically. It’s been a long, twenty-year road to get these books complete but now that I’m nearing the end of my backlist of previously written novels, I can now concentrate on future projects, namely my latest, IMAGINATION. It’s been seven months of work and I’m about seventy percent complete. The book is written and the characters and plot are flushed out. Now begins the part I like best when writing a novel, creating the back story for the characters. This is when I get to create personalities and live vicariously through them. There are six main characters in IMAGINATION ranging from a dying old man, to an innocent man convicted of a hideous murder, to a downtrodden rabbi whose faith is renewed as he starts experiencing visions. I still have three chapters at the end of the book that need to be written, but I can only finish those after I’ve sorted out character details. I’m anticipating an early fall completion of the book and to have it on the market by the holiday season. After that, I will probably spend a little time tweaking my YA literary novel, WASTED and then decide if it is worthy of publishing. And after that… who knows? But I do have a manila folder stuffed with ideas for novels that I’ve been keeping for over two decades. Maybe I’ll break into it and see what’s there. Also, I’m running another promotion on Amazon right now. AFTER is free!!! That’s right, free! Until Sunday night. Here’s a chance to sample the type of novels I write for free! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q8D8U If you like it, please check out my other books. One more thing, I’m going to be adding a link on my blog to buy my books on devices other than Kindle. My exclusive contract has expired and it’s time to start marketing to all devices. I had almost 1000 sample downloads and more than 100 sales through Kobo and Nook before I went Kindle exclusive so it’s time to open up new floodgates. We’ll see what happens.

New cover

Here's a picture of my new ebook edition of PULP. Pretty cool.

Back then

It was announced that Amazon.com has acquired Avalon books. While this move by Amazon proves that the digital publishing revolution is gaining strength, it hits me personally for two reasons. One, I think it will give new respect to indie writers who are publishing through Amazon, and two, I almost had a publishing deal with Avalon many years back. Well, kinda. It was for my novel, FROSTPROOF and it was a very exciting time. The internet had just begun to develop into the huge creature it has become, cell phones were still too expensive for most people to own, and the ereader hadn’t even been invented yet. Those days I used to hand address and sign each individual query letter. There were no mass emails. When a publisher or agent was interested in a book they would call you personally, at home, to speak with the author about the book. Back then, research required a trip to the library and most people still used typewriters. I remember the day I got that phone call from Avalon. I was out in my garden picking tomatoes when I heard the phone ring. Rather than run in and answer it, I let the answering machine (remember those) pick it up. Well, when I finally played the message of (I can’t even remember his name) at Avalon Publishing is very interested in reading the full manuscript of FROSTPROOF, I nearly exploded. Right then, I printed out a copy, replayed the message to get the address correct, and zipped off to the post office in my 1998 Nissan Sentra. Every day I checked the mailbox for a reply and would literally jump out of my skin when the telephone rang. Finally, it came. My self-addressed-stamped-envelope. I read the first paragraph about how much ( Mr. ?) enjoyed the book and how talented he thought I was. My hands started to shake. Then I read the next paragraph about how with a few changes and a bit of editing I’d have a real winner. I nearly screeched with joy. Then I read the third paragraph and my whole world collapsed. Although he loved the book he didn’t think he could champion it through all the hurdles it takes to publish a bestseller. I was crushed but elated at the same time. His reply held hope that someday my books would find readers and an audience. In that rejection there was encouragement and enthusiasm for my work. I never forgot that moment.

Big royalty check

Being a writer means experiencing dizzying highs and terrifying lows as a novel transforms into reality on the page. There are times when you believe that everything you’ve written is total crap and there are times when a character reveals something or does something that you hadn’t expected and you find yourself on this emotional high. This is also true when it comes to sales. Unfortunately, I’m obsessed with checking my sales numbers so my emotions can swing greatly from one day to the next. Today is a good day however, even if I end up having no sales. Why? Because I just received my largest royalty check yet from KDP. It isn’t just the amount that excites me (and it’s a pretty good chunk) it’s the fact that I’m only receiving about sixty-fives cents a book in royalties. That means that hundreds upon hundreds of people have purchased copies, which for me, is the reason I write. Sure, I’m happy for a big check, but I think for many artists and musicians having an audience for your work is as soul-satisfying as hitting it big. If I never write another word, I’ll always be happy in the knowledge that all the time I’ve spent alone writing has been worth it. I wish I could express how it feels to not only entertain readers with stories that I love telling, but for readers to think highly enough of my work to shell out their hard earned cash to retain a copy for themselves. Thanks to all my readers for making this possible. I do have two big sponsorship coming up this month, both on Kindle Nation Daily. One is for SILENT INVASION on June 16^th, and the other is for DROP OUT on June 29^th. I’m hoping the timing of these will coincide with the start of the nation’s vacation season and push my books to a new level of sales and an even bigger royalty check next quarter.

10,000 books!

As I write this, I’ve reached a milestone in my writing career. As of last count nearly 10,000 of my books have been downloaded. Not all were sales as some were free promotion giveaways, but enough of a percentage of them were purchased that it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. As I’ve always said, it’s all about exposure. The more people who read my books and talk about them, the more grassroots, word-of-mouth sales will grow. I just contacted my cover artist and formatter about turning PULP into an ebook. PULP is the last of my hardcover books to be converted into electronic format. I’ll now have eight novels for sale worldwide on all portable devices and ereaders. Wow! I must stress that none of this would be possible without Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords. And of course the internet and access to readers. As dismal as this month started out with sales, I’ve now seen a surge this last week. The four and five star reviews that I’ve gotten on Amazon.com and Goodreads are from real readers that I do not know, so my stories are having an effect on people. Sleeper hits are what Kindle Nation Daily called my books and a few are starting to stir. With the finalization of PULP, I can now concentrate on finishing IMAGINATION. Nearly all my novels that have been tucked away in my desk drawer while under representation by my former agent will now see new life and find new readers thanks to the electronic revolution. Many writers I’ve talked to who are under traditional publisher’s contracts fear what the new wave of indie publishing will do to their sales, especially when they have to distribute the royalties among so many players while also competing for advertising dollars. I wholly embrace the freedom of the entrepreneur author. I can write what I want, design the cover the way I want, and sell the book at the price I want, all while being able to reach a global audience of billions. I’ve sold books in almost every state in America, all throughout the UK, and even sold a few titles in France and Italy. Not too shabby. Now, if I could only add one more zero to that 10,000 mark, it would really make my year.

What works

The Kindle Daily Nation sponsorship for DEGENERATES yielded okay results. I was hoping for a few more sales than I actually made, but at least the exposure was good. It caused several dozen more hits on my blog than usual and I have now surpassed the 170,000 hit mark. That’s a lot of hits, but even with that I didn’t reach my total sales goals for the month. Though I did have enough that I’m pretty satisfied a momentum will build over time. I’ve also discovered that posting on Amazon.com meet our authors forum and KDP boards actually do get results. I stopped posting for a few days because of real-life work related issues and then started posting again the other day. I did see sales increase after posting. Keep in mind, I don’t recommend self-promoting as a topic of discussion because you can get some pretty mean replies. But there are many topics set up for authors to self-promote without fear of repercussion. I blast out a different book each day and then monitor to see if the sales have increased more for that book. I also keep track of what sites to promote on and then alternate so I can see which sites get results. I have seen pretty good sales from this technique, almost as good as paying for sponsorship. As I continue to promote (which is easy when we’re sweltering on the east coast), I’m also getting ready to publish PULP in ereader form. Unlike my other novels published through iuniverse, PULP was never in electronic format. It should be interesting to see how that one sells. I’m excited to see the cover. As always, I recommend Judy Bullard. She’s done all of mine.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Writing vs. Working vs. Reality

As summer approaches and the breezes grow warmer, I find myself more immerse in the reality of life than the fantasy world I create while sitting at my desk. The job that pays my bills gets busier this time of year and I find myself with less and less hours to write, and a miniscule amount of time to market and promote my books. Thus, the dismal May sales. We are an impulse society and without a constant web presence, you’re quickly lost in the ocean of advertisers. Though collectively my books sold pretty well, I feel I could have had a lot more success if only I had more time. As I wrote in DROP OUT, ‘time is the most precious thing.’ Individually, my books had pretty wide spread sales. Some like DEGENERATES and DROP OUT did fairly well, while AFTER didn’t fair well at all. Looking at sales over a long term, as I am beginning to be able to do, I can now concentrate on more promotion of books with less sales, and rely on less promotion for the high sales. Hopefully, this will increase all sales overall, if that makes any sense. I do have a promotion going on right now which I am about to market throughout my sites. Today, I am Kindle Nation Daily’s sponsor. I chose DEGENERATES for this promotion because of the genre switch from my last promotion which was DROP OUT. Here’s the link please check it out.  http://kindlenationdaily.com/2012/05/kdd-may-27/

If I’m lucky, this promotion will help hit the sales figures I need to maintain my three-year plan to live solely off royalties from my books. And in the new book department, I’m still writing IMAGINATION (about 500 words a day) but it’s nowhere near where I wanted it to be at this point. Chalk that one up to the busier paycheck workweek. I’ll report on the success or failure of this latest sponsorship in a later post. So far, sales have only increased slightly but an email from KND this morning said I probably wouldn’t see results until later this afternoon when they blast it out to their Facebook, Twitter, and email accounts. Guess we will see.

Anything can happen

When it comes to indie publishing on Kindle I’ve learned to expect the unexpected when sales are involved. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to why books sell on some days and don’t on others. The key is to market and promote on a regular basis. That said, I’ve been feeling frustrated with my sales lately, having set sales goals that far exceed what my actual sales are this month. I set these goals several months ago when it was colder and my books were selling, and it seemed like my writing career was well on its way. But then something happened and sales remained stagnant and then actually started to fall. I went into a kind of panic (I’m sure all writers are familiar with this) that no one would ever read my books again and that I would never have another sale. Feeling a bit like a failure, I decided to give SILENT INVASION a free three-day promo this past weekend. I didn’t really hype it all that much as truth be told, I didn’t really have time. The promo went well and I gave away about four hundred books in three countries. That made me feel pretty good that I got a new group of readers, but what made me feel even better was that when I checked sales this morning I saw that INSECTLAND was way up. INSECTLAND is the second book in the three book series. DREAM TRAVELER is the third. I’m assuming my sales of INSECTLAND are directly related to the free promotion. If that’s the case, I should see sales of DREAM TRAVELER rise over the next few weeks. Also, I’m now in the process of getting FROSTPROOF on all my sites and then will begin a marketing and sponsorship campaign for that one. Iuniverse gave me back all rights to the electronic versions of my books so PULP is my next novel to go live worldwide. I’ll probably have that one ready to go by end of June. I do have a sponsorship for DEGENERATES coming up on May 27^th on Kindle Nation Daily. My last sponsorship on that site was for DROP OUT and it ended up selling a lot of copies. My fingers are crossed for DEGENERATES because it will open up my YA readers to my adult noir thrillers and once readers get a taste of them anything can happen.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

The chill is live!

Get ready to meet one of the world’s creepiest serial killers. That’s right! FROSTPROOF is now live on Kindle and available world-wide.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083WSXL0
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0083WSXL0
As always, with the release of a new book come all the back-breaking, sore-eyes, aching-fingers, promotion and marketing that comes along with it. Here’s my new book marketing plan in detail. First, I’ll place FROSTPROOF on the twenty-seven writer’s sites that I belong. Next, I’ll go on all the writer’s forums and announce the book. I’ll encourage people to ‘like’ the FROSTPROOF webpage and to tag the book on AMAZON. This should help increase exposure both through social networking and search engine optimization. Next, I’ll book a few sponsorships on Kindle Nation Daily and Kindle Boards. I’ll also tweet on Twitter and announce the book on Facebook, and then set all the links to buy it. Whew! FROSTPROOF was the first of my serial killer books to come out in hardback and I’m very excited to see what the new Kindle version will do in sales. The hard copy did pretty well and I got some great reviews. As far as my other books, sales have dropped significantly since last month, though I am still selling better than most people according to what I’ve been reading on forums. I’m hoping it’s because it’s May and that’s when everyone finishes school or graduates. I also think it’s may be that I’ve been a bit lazy in my marketing efforts lately. I’ve still working on my latest novel, IMAGINATION for two hours every morning, but it’s been hard to sit and market in the afternoon when the sun is pouring golden light across the emerald lawn of my back yard while the birds call for me to come out and play. I’m hoping the release of FROSTPROOF will kick me back into high gear promotion. I’ve got a long way to meeting my sales goals this month and it’s a bit disappointing.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

The zone

The other day as I was writing I heard a sudden, loud knocking at my office door. I turned my head to see who could have caused such a ruckus and behold, it was my wife.

“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked.

“Uh, no,” I replied, somewhat in a daze from being pummeled out of my imaginary world.

“I thought you were ignoring me,” she grumbled. “The trash stinks. It needs to go out.”

“I wasn’t ignoring you,” I replied. “I’m working on my latest novel. I was in the zone.”

She turned to head back into the hallway and said; “Well, can you break away from the zone for a moment and take out the rotting refuse in the kitchen?”

“Sure,” replied, doing my best to appease this woman who puts up with all of my eccentricities, quirks, and obsessively reclusive writer ways. “I’ll do it now.”

Not a very glamorous discussion by any means but it makes my point. When I start to really get into a story I go into a zone where all distractions are muted. Time will slip away and my surroundings will blur. This is creating something from nothing at its finest. There is no television show or video game that can compare to playing with characters and scenes inside your own mind. There is no drug or alcoholic drink that can take me to the places my imagination can. The zone is a place all for myself and I sometimes regret that I cannot share the zone with anyone else. My wife doesn’t understand why I sometimes get miffed when she calls me out of the office for such trivial matters as taking out the trash. My biggest problem is once that bubble of solitary thought is burst it’s very hard to re-inflate it. She doesn’t understand that the stinky trash may have just disrupted the war between the Cyderion and the Defenders in INSECTLAND or allowed Tommy Fielding to murder another innocent victim in DEGENERATES (had to get some plugs in here somewhere). I’ve heard athletes talk of the zone, but that’s a physical dimension. The zone for me is purely mental. And as I finish this blog entry, I feel the tingly beginnings of the zone coming on and a writing session to follow. I already checked that the trash cans were empty so I’m good to go.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Creating Characters

I’m often asked how I create my characters. At last count I have somewhat in the neighborhood of seventy-five to eighty relatively strong characters. By strong, I mean these characters actually have back stories and personalities that come across on the page. Some are absolutely terrifying, like Cody Larson in FROSTPROOF and Tommy Fielding in DEGENERATES. Some are adventurous, like Tim Madison in SILENT INVASION, and Jamie Richards in DREAM TRAVELER, and some are tragic, yet beautiful, like Nathan Cruz and Miriam Kanter in DROP OUT. All of my characters have one thing in common. They are not modeled after any single person. You see, my characters are a conglomeration of people I’ve known and associated with over the course of my life. I can’t say that one certain character has more of someone than another character. This always seems to perplex my friends and associates who often tell me this or that character is just like them. It seams most people are hoping their personality will be immortalized in story form. I’ve even had an old girlfriend get angry with me because she thought the character Astor in DEGENERATES was too much like her. I had to assure her that Astor was NOT based on her, but on at least eight different people, most of whom I went to college with. When I write I transform and become my characters. I become the clairvoyant prostitute in PULP and the daring young man fighting an alien insect invasion in INSECTLAND. I immerse myself in that world and create the fantasy. It would be hard for me to pretend to be someone I know, if that makes any sense.

Fresh month

Another fresh month is upon us and that means another start at zero for my books sales count. Last month ended pretty well with a last couple of days blitz that netted enough sales to reach my goals. However, it was a tough struggle, not helped by the fact that I was on vacation for nine days and did little in terms of marketing and promotion (not that I’m complaining). My sales goals for this month may be unreachable since I don’t have any sponsorships planned for this month. It’s going to be sweat and tears, grass roots marketing for a while. I really need to do the interview thing again because I’m craving exposure. Here’s a website that was sent to me that lists over 100 bloggers and sites that are looking for interviews. http://www.gregscowen.com/2012/02/a-few-indie-book-reviewers/ I haven’t tried to contact these yet, so I don’t know how effective they are. But I will soon. FROSTPROOF is in the hands of my ebook editor and should be available for purchase later this week. I’ve already gotten some rave reviews and the cover is one of my best, I believe. The hardcopy sold well, but it was too expensive to ever become a blockbuster. This was the result of my publisher setting the price. With the Kindle version, it’ll be priced alongside my other books at $1.99, opening it up to a whole new audience. Also, as my ninety day exclusive KDP select contract starts to expire, I’m beginning to set my books up with Smashwords and the world of other ereaders that the site opens you up to. I’ll admit, I’ve been lazy lately when it comes to the hardcore, hours-long, back-aching promotion that it takes to garner sales, but it’s just been so freaking nice outside. And as I wrote about in DROP OUT, you only get so many days until your time on this dimension are up.