Great new review!

Thanks to all who bought a copy of DROP OUT.  New review from Australia. Check it out.

***
4.0 out of 5 stars Drop Out, May 24, 2013
By
Cphe (australia) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Drop Out (Kindle Edition)

Novella length story from an author I've never read before. Nathan Cruz had "Survivors Guilt", he walked away in the aftermath of 9/11. Hailed a hero, a concept and reminder he wanted no part, he was anaesthetised to all feeling. For 10 years Nathan was just marking time, he had nothing left after his wife, unborn child and family had been sensely killed and he unable to save them or be with them.

Years later existing as a scarred recluse on a houseboat in Florida, his life is again turned upside down when a Hurricane strikes. Again he survives insurmountable odds......and then he meets Miriam....who shows him how to live again.

For a novella length book the author has really run the gauntlet of emotion, from despair and guilt through to hope and rebirth, the reader is certainly put through an emotional wringer.

The author's strength lies in the detail. Both Miriam and Nathan were well fleshed out fragile but believable characters.

Comprehensively written, with a few typos but not enough to halt the flow of the story, it was certainly a thought provoking and unusual novella.

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

Image sells books

There’s an old saying that more than anything the image of the author helps greatly to sell a book. And although I hate to admit it, I wholly believe that is true. For example, if you had two romance authors sitting side by side at a book signing; one is a beautiful woman with slender legs, an hourglass figure, and a face like Aphrodite, and the other looks like a frumpy housewife… which author’s book would you be more interested in reading? Let’s be honest. That’s why romance covers feature beautiful people.

Same goes for thrillers. When I see a crazy-looking, long hair, biker-type author compared to an author who looks like he just came out of a glee club, I’m going to be interested in what the freak author has to write about. Different genres have different images. If the same geek writer had a sci-fi book out, I’d be more inclined to read his than the freak author. The geek writer would seem know more sci-fi facts and data.

How do you create the image to sell the book? Well, first of all, the image cannot be fake (Justin Bieber). You have to be true to yourself and what you feel inside and how you want to present yourself to the world. Don’t try and be a tough guy if you’re not. And don’t try and be all cuddly and sweet if you’re not. My advice is to be yourself intensified, don’t fake trying to emulate someone else.

I believe my image is that of a solitary writer creating art while letting his physical appearance get a little ragged. I wear old clothes because they’re comfortable and I let my hair and beard grow long because I’m writing all the time and mostly alone and don’t get too many visitors. When people see me they know I’m not a normal 9-5 businessman. That uniqueness stirs curiosity and that curiosity is what helps sell a book.

Great promotion!

Thanks to BookGorilla.com's sponsorship I got DROP OUT's rank down in the 6,000 range on Amazon's bestseller list. Not too shabby if you consider the millions of books now available. I highly recommend using the service through Kindle Fire Department and Kindle Nation Daily before it loses its' punch.

Ready to change your outlook on life?

Please check out my powerhouse novel, DROP OUT. It’s Kindle Fire Department’s Book of the Day! Thanks.

http://fire.kindlenationdaily.com/2013/05/21/when-the-twin-towers-fell-nathan-cruz-saved-the-lives-of-strangers-but-the-one-life-he-couldnt-save-would-send-him-in-isolation-neil-ostroffs-gut-wrenching-thriller-drop-out-now-1-99-on-kind/

A writer’s calling

I recently received my ninth unsolicited review for DROP OUT ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U ) on Amazon and I am quite pleased with the five star rating and comment. It seems the book is really having an impact on people. I’ve been getting fan email (for the first time) and reading a lot of discussions on social media about how the story has changed reader’s lives. That’s what I had hoped for when I wrote the book.

I knew the plot would question the reader’s outlook on life but what surprised me most is by how much. I wrote the first draft of the story during an eight day period when my wife was performing hospice for a friend who was dying of pancreatic cancer. This friend went into the doctor with a backache, got the horrible diagnosis, and passed away a week later. The second half of DROP OUT is based on this experience of dealing with those last days of life.

The first half of the book examines loss and tragedy and how one man couldn’t cope. He drops out of society to live out his days in isolation and loneliness. Disfigured and depressed, the main character learns the importance of living life to the fullest by someone who has little life left. The same lesson learned on the day our friend died in his apartment leaving behind a long list of regrets and unfulfilled dreams.

Funny thing about DROP OUT, it’s the only manuscript that my agent didn’t want to represent, saying it was too literary and that he signed me to be a thriller/YA sci-fi writer. When I became adamant that he give it a chance in the marketplace he dropped me as a client. I went through a phase of depression and anger, and cursed everyone and the world. What saved me from giving up the dream of becoming a published author was the very theme I had written about in DROP OUT. Live your dreams no matter what.

Now, three years after losing my NY agent and two years after publishing DROP OUT, I find that the book is by far my best seller out of my nine books now available worldwide. I’ve sold thousands of copies and given away even more. Although I’d like to say it’s made me rich… it hasn’t, but I’m no longer thinking about writing just for the money. I believe reading DROP OUT will affect a reader deeply and give pause to reflect upon the meaning of life, love, and loss. If I have achieved that, then I have achieved all that I ever hoped my writing would do. 

Fooled! Beware!

Attention writers looking to book promotions for their novels or are considering paying for one or more of the thousands of marketing opportunities out there, watch out for booksandauthors.com. They solicited me without my having any previous knowledge of them and I decided to try it. I know, I know, at this point I should have been smart enough to know better.

Having had a particularly bad sales day, their gmail ad caught me at the worst time, somehow getting passed my spam folder. They claimed to have a Twitter account with 180,000 eager readers and followers. They have several author’s blurbs on their site claiming how the tweets took their ebooks to the top of the bestseller lists and, like I said, having had a bad day I thought to myself for $150 bucks, the site tweets my blurb for DROP OUT (After overcoming incredible personal tragedy Nathan Cruz meets a terminal, young woman who helps him find the strength to piece his shattered life back together. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U three times a day for a month. Seemed like a good deal to me.

Well, it didn’t go well from the start and after I realized that somehow the site had gained and lost tens of thousands of followers each day, anywhere from 120,000 to 240,000 followers in any given twenty-four hour period (I don’t even know how that is possible) I realized something was amiss. I emailed the site and asked to stop the promotion immediately and refund my money. I did this several times over the next two days, and each time an answer was given to just be patient and wait and see the results. I didn’t want to wait and they refused to refund!

It was right then that I realized I was f**ked. It just wasn’t worth the emotion and mental effort to pursue legal action so I gave up and swallowed my pride realizing that I had been had. The tweets to a hundred thousand ghost followers continued and my sales remained about the same as they did before the promotion.

Now that this Twitter promotion is ending and the wasted money is behind me, I will say one more thing to all writer’s out there desperate to do almost anything to get noticed: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.