What will happen?

Here is the link to my author spotlight on Kindle Nation Daily. It will be posted on Kids Corner's Facebook and Twitter this afternoon and on KND's Facebook and Twitter this evening. This interview will also be featured in the Kindle Daily Digest. I can’t wait to see what will happen to sales.

http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com/2012/04/kids-corner-at-kindle-nation-daily-author-spotlight-neil-ostroff-author-of-silent-invasion-and-sponsor-of-the-kids-corner-book-of-the-week-talks-about-ya-sci-fi-aliens-on-earth-and-more/

Promo machine!

My Kindle ebook of the week sponsorship for the kid’s corner has begun. Sales are slow however, I’m guessing because of the Easter holiday. Perhaps, they will pick up more when my author spotlight interview comes out. That’s right, I was chosen for author spotlight on Kindle Nation Daily. This is a great FREE promotion offered by Kindle for me. They will post an interview, a picture of my book SILENT INVASION, links to buy the book, and links to my blog, all for nothing. They claim the spotlight will reach more than 70,000 opt-in readers. As you can imagine, I’m very happy about that. The author spotlight will be on the site either tomorrow night or Wednesday. I’ll post it. Also, I continue to reap sales of DROP OUT from my Kindle Fire Department sponsorship and I’ve begun to show some numbers off of the select lending program for my other books. I’m almost halfway to my sales goals for the month. One other plus, most of my books on the ninety-day Kindle exclusiveness are nearly up. That means I can re-publish with Smashwords and sell to the Nook again, possibly doubling my audience. I’ll probably find a few sponsorships for the Nook and I’m dying to start getting involved in the Nook forums and discussion groups. On a slight downer-side, my sales in the U.K have dropped off significantly. By my own admission, I haven’t been paying much attention to the overseas market and it obviously shows. I’m off to the Florida Keys soon to do some serious marketing and writing. Hopefully, warm, salty breezes, the cries of wayward seagulls, and the gentle rustling of palm fronds will conjure weird tales from my IMAGINATION (first draft nearly complete).  

High praise… I think

“A sleeper hit”, that’s what the reviewer on Kindle Fire Department said about DROP OUT. Well, when is it going to wake up? Seriously, the Kindle Fire sponsorship has been the only sponsorship so far that has made back its cost. I’ve also achieved half of my sales goals for the month of April and it’s only the 5^th. I’m not sure what made this sponsorship such a success but I think it has to do with my previous notion that not enough kids own Kindles, yet. DROP OUT is an adult book and all my other sponsorships so far have been for my sci-fi/fantasies aimed at a younger audience. I do believe as time goes on and ebooks become more the norm, than kids will discover my stuff. I’ve already gotten emails from people who downloaded the book yesterday and have read it, saying they were hooked from the start. As always, I appreciate the feedback and compliments, it makes me want to work harder at getting discovered. I have another sponsorship for DROP OUT on June 29^th and one for DEGENERATES on May 27. Both are with Kindle Nation Daily. This will be a true test of my theory. If these two sponsorships yield good sales numbers than I believe I’ve discovered the secret to my future success -- published the rest of my adult novels in ebook form as fast as I can; which is exactly what I am going to do. First, with FROSTPROOF and then PULP. As I’ve posted before, I’ve been in contact with iuniverse to cancel my ebooks published through them. I’m also working furiously on IMAGINATION, another adult-themed book. I hope to have three new adult novels published before the end of the year. This will give me a base of eleven novels to market and promote which in turn will give me the peace of mind to relax for once and not be so feverish when it comes to writing yet another new novel. Here’s the link one final time to my Kindle Fire Dept. review and sponsorship before it disappears forever into cyberspace.

http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2012/04/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day.html

A sleeper hit! Yeah!

Kindle Fire review 4/4/12
Drop Out is a beautiful tapestry of life, love, and acceptance that is moving, romantic, and real. In Neil Ostroff's stirring short novel, down-and-out Nathan is rescued from a storm by Miriam, a woman who quickly comes to take a special place in his life. Opening his eyes to truths he never could've guessed, he finds that things can still go wrong even after coming back from the brink. I'd say this is definitely a sleeper hit that is waiting for its chance to shine!
http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2012/04/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day.html

Powerful, powerful book!

Just a quick announcement that DROP OUT is Kindle Fire Department’s ebook of the day. The story just may change your life. Thanks.

http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2012/04/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day.html

Interview info

Well, my second free promotion for INSECTLAND didn’t go hardly how I thought. I only sold a measly 75 copies for the giveaway, which leads me to wonder if the rumors are true about the KDP select free promotions; that mostly book hoarders download the books and not read them. And that the same few hundred book hoarders download whatever becomes available. It would explain the low numbers. The last free promotion for INSECTLAND yielded hundreds and hundreds of downloads. I’ll guess I’ll never know. Anyway, I exceeded my goals last month by nine books sales, which came on March 30^th. I’ve set my goals even higher this month. With three really big sponsorships coming up soon, I’m hoping things will work out. I’ve started doing the interview thing again, trying to boost my exposure. I acquired a list (thanks to Dennis Rosen) of bloggers who are interested in interviewing authors and have them listed here. I’ve been interviewed by three of them and directly after I saw my sales increase. They are pretty backed up, but if you can get in I believe it’s worth the wait. In other news, I’ve nearly completed the first draft of IMAGINATION, and thanks to help from my hairdresser friend, I have the crucial scene I’d been missing that takes place in a salon. I’m still hoping to have IMAGINATION on Kindle by fall. I’ve also contacted iuniverse to remove my ebook versions of FROSTPROOF and PULP. I’m planning on contacting my cover designer soon and re-releasing the titles on my own. They both sold okay in paperback so I’m curious how the Kindle versions will go.

Here are some bloggers who interview authors - an excellent way to promote your book:

Eri Nelson: Wonderful Reads of the Month - http://www.wonderfulreadofthemonth.blogspot.com/

Teddy Gross on Jewish-themed books - http://bit.ly/GEhQR8

Jon Bloch: http://www.jonpbloch.com/interviews.html

Sylvia Browder: http://bit.ly/z0nKjQ

Paper Dragon Ink: http://bit.ly/vZpdXG

Kris Wampler: http://bit.ly/ymaBEw

Morgen Bailey: http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/blog-interviews/

Sylvia Ramsey: http://www.thoughtfulreflections.blogspot.com

Kate Brauning writes excellent book reviews: http://katebrauning.wordpress.com/

MUTT: http://www.muttonline.com

Indies Unlimited: http://www.indiesunlimited.com

Ritesh Kala's Book Reviews - http://riteshkala.wordpress.com/

Fiona Mcvie at http://www.inspirationforum.co.uk/index.php

Jenn Wright at http://www.jenniferwrightauthor.com/index.html

Wendy Siefken at http://siefkenpublications.blogspot.com

A. F. Stewart at http://afstewartblog.blogspot.com/

Amy Miles at http://www.amymilesbooks.blogspot.com/

Meredith Zeitlin at http://writerinspired.wordpress.com/

Nothing to do this weekend? How about a free adventure?

Just wanted to let everyone know that my sci-fi adventure INSECTLAND is now free until Monday. And if you like it please check out my other books for sale. Thanks.

Imagine a world where humans are pests and insect-like aliens rule over them. Imagine that world is Earth.

INSECTLAND

Be frightened! Be very frightened! Tiny, dragon-like creatures hiding in our homes are going to harm us. They will shrink us to the size of ants, enslave us, and turn our world into their own. But there is hope. Legions of insect robots intent on stopping them have recruited high school sophomore Dan Larson for help. Thrust into danger, Dan risks everything in a desperate attempt to thwart an attack and prevent the end of society as we know it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P81J48

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005P81J48

Millions upon millions

Just about everybody has lottery fever right now with Mega Millions jackpot over $500,000,000 dollars. And just like everybody else, I’ve been daydreaming all morning about what I’d do if I win. (I’ve got $20 in quick picks). I could fulfill every dream I ever had. Buy big houses, a yacht, a private jet. Eat the best food prepared by master chefs. Would that make me happy? Of course. But what if I had all that and stopped writing? What if having every desired fulfilled drained me of the passion to tell stories. Would I be happy? I can’t imagine ever not writing books. Even if I had that kind of wealth, I would still publish and promote my books. It’s an addiction that I can’t stop. So if I win tonight I may not blog for a few days but I’ll be back writing soon, sitting on the deck of my waterfront palace. But enough of fantasy, back to reality. I’ve got another free promotion for INSECTLAND tomorrow through Monday. The last one netted pretty good sales for a few days after the promotion ended and sales of my other books did go up for that period. I’ll post what happens this time. I’ve been reading on forums that the free promotion only attracts book hoarders who will download anything, but I don’t believe that to be wholeheartedly true. If it were than my sales wouldn’t be affected. I’ve also started a goal-setting spreadsheet for book sales-per-month. If I can keep my sales to the numbers I’ve come up with I should be able to equal my “real job” income in about a year. If that happens, I’ll have to make a decision about what is more important. Of course, after tonight and I win the half-billion, I won’t really need to worry about such trivial things as making a living.

Ye Old Query

Continuing my series on effective query letters that got interest in my books by industry professionals, I’m posting the original query letter for DEGENERATES that drew huge interest several years ago before anyone had heard of Kindle and ebooks. I had several agents request the entire manuscript from this query and it is this query that got my first power agent Gary Heidt really interested in my work. As I’ve posted before, Gary eventually signed me after reading the query for SILENT INVASION, but he always believed in DEGENERATES as a good story that needed to find its niche. Although Gary was unable to sell the novel, my subsequent indie published version has had many sales and those sales continue to increase. And just today I got the direct deposit into my bank account of my latest royalties. They are half as much as what my royalties will be this month so things are definitely heading in the right direction. I’ve got a couple of big sponsorships coming up in the next two weeks so this should boost sales even more. I have DROP OUT scheduled for a sponsorship on Kindlefire.com for April 4^th and the one I’m really excited about is a whole week on Kindle Nation Daily’s new YA site starting on April 6^th. This one is for SILENT INVASION, and I got the sponsorship for half its normal cost because of a promotion they were running. If all goes well, this could be the first sponsorship that may make the sales worth the price. I’ll post the results of both promotions when they are complete. Here’s the long ago, days of handwritten query letters and telephone calls, version of the DEGENERATES query. Just reading it brings back memories of those horribly long, wasted hours addressing these pleading bits of self-promotion.

Dear ?

Who are the degenerates, what are their pasts, and what random tragedies bring them together? DEGENERATES is a 65,000-word character-driven thriller that offers a raw, powerful look at a segment of our society founded on drugs, violence, and day-to-day survival.

DEGENERATES tells the downward spiral and interlocking stories of an alcoholic writer, a self-destructive teen, a burnt-out waitress, an abused young wife, a good-natured cook, a tormented serial killer, and a cop unwittingly assigned to stop him. Marred with addictions, poverty, and personal loss, each degenerate overcomes incredible obstacles and finds his or her own salvation working in a restaurant named City Café. They form new friendships and relationships, and in a short time turn their lives around — until Tommy Fielding is hired. Seeming innocent at first, Tommy is a schizophrenic who believes murder will ensure for him an existence of perfect happiness. What happens next places the group in grave danger and leads them into a horror that will change everything they have achieved.

Written in short, captivating chapters, DEGENERATES is more than a story; it is also an anatomy of the human condition, exploring the daily dramas of those less fortunate. Born from stories told to me by hundreds of restaurant employees that I’ve worked with over the years, the novel will especially appeal to fans of Bret Easton Ellis, and Michael Chabon. I believe DEGENERATES would fit well among the genres your agency represents.

My publishing history spans sixteen years and over forty magazines. My degree in psychology, coupled with my experience writing psychological profiles for the New York Judicial System helped create the complex character biographies in this book. I’ve worked in restaurants for more than fifteen years as a chef, bartender, and manager. Please feel free to call or email. Thanks for your time.

How’d this happen?

I woke up this morning and like every morning, the first thing I did after brushing my teeth and washing my face is go down to my office, wake my computer, and check my sales on KDP. Lo and behold, AFTER is moving copies. I also sold a few copies of INSECTLAND, DROP OUT, and SILENT INVASION, but AFTER is the winner today by far. So, I started thinking what I could have done differently the last few days that attracted the extra attention. I really haven’t been concentrating much on AFTER this week, spending a far more percentage of my time marketing my other books. Then I thought that perhaps the Substance Books online search engine generators were kicking in. But when I looked down at the heap of papers on the floor (I’m currently re-carpeting and painting my office) I got my definitive answer. Yesterday was my Kindle Nation ebook of the day sponsorship. http://kindlenationdaily.com/2012/03/kindle-nation-daily-bargain-book-alert-neil-ostroffs-after-is-our-ebook-of-the-day-at-just-1-25-or-currently-free-for-amazon-prime-members-via-the-kindle-lending-library-and-heres-a-free-sampl/  Obviously, the sponsorship created sales, but I’m more than a little bummed out in myself for not informing KND that I had raised my price of the book from $1.25 to $1.99. It all goes back to my “perceived value” post from a few weeks back. KND has the book advertised at the lesser rate which I’m sure disappointed a few readers when they went to the site. It was an expensive lesson to learn because this sponsorship was $150. I’ll know for next time to keep my sponsorship prices up to date.

The raw deal

Okay, for all my new followers, here’s the raw deal of what I’ve done in the way of promotions in the last four months and what the results are. First were the fiver ads on fiver.com. For five bucks people put your books and links on their blogs and websites. I did about fifteen different blogs with little result. My advice; don’t waste that hard earned five bucks. Then I did the article service where an article is ghost-written for you and then sent to thousands of journal sites and logs. It is supposed to drive interest and traffic to your book. The result; a complete waste of fifty bucks. Next, I ran an ad on Kindle Nation Daily for a whopping one hundred and fifty bucks. The result; some sales but not enough to justify the cost. Then I did a bunch of interviews on blogs and websites. The results; sales did increase on those days as well as followers to my blog increased. My advice; do as many interviews as you can. All while I’ve been doing this extra marketing, I’ve also been active on all the writers sites I mentioned a few posts back. The results; sales of my books are increasing every week and I’m getting lots of exposure. My latest sponsorship: http://thefrugalereader.com/2012/03/20/the-frugal-find-of-the-day-silent-invasion-neil-ostroff-1-99-or-borrow-free-with-prime/ has yielded some extra sales, but again, not enough to warrant the fifty dollar price tag. I still have nine more sponsorships this year on Kindle Nation Daily, Kindle Boards, and Kindle Fire Department. As I mentioned before, I’m focusing my ebook efforts on selling through Kindle. All in all, I think the best results have been through free promotions on KDP Select and posting and keeping active on the writer’s sites aforementioned. If my sales keep increasing at the same ratio month after month, I calculate that my books should be able to support me and my wife within five years. Pretty cool, eh?

Sponsorship

With all the hoopla surrounding my KDP select issue I almost forgot that one of my sponsorships started today. Here is the link for SILENT INVASION’s Frugal Ereader Book of the Day. http://thefrugalereader.com/2012/03/20/the-frugal-find-of-the-day-silent-invasion-neil-ostroff-1-99-or-borrow-free-with-prime/  I signed up for this sponsorship because it was cheap and would give me more exposure. So far, I’ve only seen a few sales from the placement, but like I said, it just started. I’ll post the results in a week or so. Also, I’ve decided for now to not re-publish my books on Smashwords for at least ninety days. Kindle is just too important to me and Smashwords isn’t giving me enough sales to warrant using them for now. If I start to get a name for myself that may change, however.

KDP select solved!

Well, I got my issue with KDP select solved… kinda. In a panic over the email I received, I quickly unpublished all my books from Smashwords, including my six that are in the premium catalog. I figured the trade-off was worth it considering I sell about five times as many books through Amazon. I also de-selected the automatic renewal for KDP select just in case any heat came down about my books being on Smashwords. Here’s the kicker. I got an email earlier today from KDP informing me that they are sorry to see me leave the program and I can join back up anytime. I checked, and I’m still enrolled, I guess until the ninety days are up. So, I re-published all my books back on Smashwords with the letter as proof that I tried to cancel. I still find it strange that Amazon would even offer me KDP select for books that have been out in e-form for almost two years. They had to know they’d be available in other outlets and that I would have no control over their distribution. Here’s the kicker. I’m having second thoughts about being on Smashwords at all. I know that I am eliminating possibly millions of readers but the honest truth is that Amazon is being very good to me. In fact, my recent free promo for INSECTLAND has resulted in many paid sales whereas before I had none for the month. Now, I am conflicted again. Should I unpublish on Smashwords again and then keep renewing the Amazon select program? I believe once the ninety days are up you can publish anywhere. I need to think about it for a few days and see how sale continue. Here’s the letter Amazon sent me.

Hello,

We’re sorry to hear you’d like to cancel your content’s participation in KDP Select. If you don’t want to renew, simply go to the book’s “Edit book details” page anytime during the current term and uncheck the box next to “automatically renew this book’s enrollment in KDP Select for another 90 days.”

If you have additional questions about KDP Select, be sure to check out our Help pages. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

KDP select blues

I just received a form email from KDP informing me that my titles on the select program were also discovered being sold by about a half a dozen different outlets, including Kobo and Nook. They gave me the sites to check out, which actually is pretty cool that my books are so readily available now, but also informed me that I was not following the policy. Now, I absolutely do not want to piss off Amazon and it’s too late to have Smashwords remove all my titles from all the sites, so I figured I would cancel my participation in the select program. Well, guess what? There is no way to cancel it. This has set me into a wee bit of a panic. Getting booted from KDP would be devastating, though I don’t think it would get to be that drastic, but still, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers. I have contacted the KDP customer service and I am waiting for a reply. If you’re on the select program be careful because it seems that KDP now has search engines for books in the program. I know for a long time that most of the books on the program were available elsewhere so I guess KDP got smart. If I have to unpublish everything from Smashwords, I will. Amazon is far too important. I’m still getting residual sales from the free promotion for INSECTLAND, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P81J48 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005P81J48 and I hadn’t any sales for the first week of this month. Love the select!

So freaking nice!

Right now, as I sit inside my house and write this, it’s 75 degrees and beautiful sunshine here in Penssylvania. A perfect day. So, why am in front of my computer writing this blog post? Because that’s the only way I’m going to sell books. And if I sell enough books I can enjoy the nice days for the rest of my life. But I haven’t gotten to that point yet, so here I am making my presence known. Sometimes, I think I’m wasting away my life sitting in this office writing stories. Truth is, I make more money on a Saturday night bartending than I do in two weeks selling on Amazon and Smashwords. But as I’ve learned to accept myself as an artist, I’ve learned that it’s not about the money. A compulsion is a compulsion and the thrill that thousands (yes, I said thousands) of people have read my books gives me more of a rush than all the questionable substances I experimented with in my younger days. Alas, I am curse/blessed to be a writer for the rest of my life. Man, it’s so nice outside!

Okay, my free two day promotion of INSECTLAND yielded 165 downloads in U.S., 37 downloads in U.K. and 9 downloads in France. I made the mistake of running it from Saturday until Sunday instead of Friday until Sunday, mainly, because I got the dates screwed up. I think I would have had more sales had I done it properly through the weekend. I did notice a few extra sales after the promotion ended. Also, to my delight, the experiment over raising my prices so the “perceived value” of my books seemed higher appears to have made no difference in the sales per day. I guess if people are interested in reading something they’ll pay for it. One more thing, I discovered a new site for bloggers and/or writers who want free advertising. It’s free to join and you can post a promotion on their thread once an hour. http://www.purebloggers.com

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com