It's happening again

Well, it's happening again. I've got the cover nearly complete for my new ebook DROP OUT. I'm currently tweaking the pitch for it and I must say, a website called http://www.mywriterscircle.com helped greatly. I posted my summary and got lots of free feedback which was awesome! I can't believe how much time some people took in editing my sample. It was like getting a dozen free edits. I highly recommend that site ansd also the Kindle forums. They've helped a lot, too. Again, my cover artist is Judy Bullard and she can be reached at Jubu@cox.net. She is fast, easily reachable and very good. As soon as I get the final draft I'll show it.

Change of mind

So after much thought and consideration of the current writer's market I've change my mind on what book to publish next. I was going to publish my middle grade sci/fi INSECTLAND but instead I've decided to publish my very literary novel, DROP OUT. I've come to this conclusion because I feel the vast majority of Kindle readers are adults right now, though I do believe that will change rather quickly in the future. That being said, most of the people on the forums are adults and most of the contacts I've made through various sites are adults, therefore it makes sense to publish an adult novel. DROP OUT needs just a few weeks work and then it should be ready for the world. It's a pretty heavy-duty emotional novel; a far cry from my other books but something I felt needed to be written after one of my friends died from cancer. Here is the summary and I'll keep everyone updating on the process of turning it into an ebook once again:

                                                                 DROP OUT

Believe that life is worth living and that belief will create the fact. Nathan Cruz is a 911 hero who escaped from the twin towers and saved the lives of dozens of strangers, yet lost his pregnant fiancé and entire extended family in the catastrophe. Grief-stricken and tormented by survivor’s guilt, he ‘drops out’ of society to live self-sufficiently on an isolated houseboat in Key West, Florida. Spared the fate of his family only to be given a life without purpose, he believes his loss prevents him from finding true happiness. Fast-forward ten years, Nathan spends his days existing in limbo, existing with no purpose and no ambition. His bubble-of-a-world changes forever when a category three hurricane forces him from his boat and into the home of Miriam Kanter, a young, fiercely independent woman alone and on her final days battling pancreatic cancer. Miriam had spent the time since her diagnosis experiencing life to its absolute fullest, but now death is upon her. Cut off from medical assistance by the storm, Nathan faces the most important challenge he’d ever imagined when he’s forced into the role of primary caretaker and must treat and comfort Miriam as the disease rapidly takes hold.

Great site for free editing and critique

I recently discovered a great site for free feedback on your writing. It's: Mywriterscircle.com.  I put up the first chapter of my new sci/fi novel INSE#CTLAND and already have more than 60 views and ten comments on improvement. Wow. The only catch is that you have to read and comment on others writing. But hey, there's no longer a need to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for editing when you can get it free!! These writers on the site are good, too. The feedback I've gotten already is making the novel better. Seriously, check it out. 

Time to move on

Thanks to all who commented and followed me on the tour. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to comment on everyone but I did manage to leave a few and like and repost most of your blogs. But now it's time to move on. I've been marketing AFTER for several weeks now and it's exhausting work. I have managed several sales and have gottten a lot of exposure but it is taking away from my true love... creating my own worlds. I've decided to publish my next book by mid-July, now that I'm more experienced with this Kindle and epublishing world. My next book is something I've been working on for years. It is a middle grade sci/fi fantasy adventure called INSECTLAND. All it needs is a week or two of tweaking since it was considered "finished" by my then agent many years ago and then I'll start the process of getting cover art and formatting again. Here is the brief synopsis.

                                                                   INSECTLAND

Robot insects called Defenders have recruited average fifteen-year-old Dan Larson for a mission. He is to rid Earth of a scouting group of Cyderion: tiny, intelligent, dragon-like creatures that exploit a planet’s ecosystem. They have taken residence in his backyard. The Cyderion discover Dan's assignment, abduct him on their spaceship, and take him to their planet. Having been shrunk to insect-size, Dan is forced into a slave camp with a multitude of strange, alien creatures. Starved and worked to exhaustion, Dan meets Emily, a human doctor who refuses to accept this fate. Racing against the possibility of lifetime imprisonment and being a miniature forever, Dan seizes an opportunity and escapes. Except, his escape wasn't luck. It was planned by the Defenders who are living covertly on the Cyderion planet. The revolution has begun.

I'm trying goshda**it!

Again, I apologize to all the blogalicious participants who have taken the time to comment on my blog; I still can't seem to leave comments on some of the blog sites. I've gotten to a few of you but it takes like ten minutes for my computer to unfreeze after each post so it's going to be some time before I get all of you. I have been "liking" and tweeting about the tour though, so that should help drive some traffic to your sites. Other than this glitch, some good news is I'm starting to sell more copies of AFTER. Feedback has been good. People are getting really into it and say they love the descriptions of the hereafter and that the story is really unique. Would love to wake up one morning and see a 1000 sales. That's the beauty of the new publishing world; you can literally wake up rich if the book goes viral.

Why am I so dumb?

To all of you on the blogolicious tour today I apologize. My computer keeps locking up for some reason when I use the links. I'm "liking" and posting everyone's blog on Facebook and Twitter as best I can but I'm having a hard time commenting. Unfortunately, I'm running out of time to figure this out and have to go to my job that pays my bills soon. If this helps, I'm posting everyone's blog here.
Again, I apologize to everyone participating that I'm too dumb to figure out why my computer keeps locking up. If I figure it out I'll definitely start commenting.

1. Dora - http://peacefrompieces.blogspot.com/
2. Kriti - http://kriti-howaboutthis.blogspot.com/
3. Sonia Rumzi - http://soniarumzi.com/
4. Paula - http://hardlineselfhelp.com/
5. Kate & Ashley - http://backofthebookreviews.com/
6. Roy - http://royd-spiltmilk.blogspot.com/
7. Shaeeza - http://shaeeza.blogspot.com/
8. Anna - http://annalwalls.blogspot.com/
9. Lisa - http://misclisa.blogspot.com/
10. Jessica - http://findingonesway.com/
11. Corinne - http://www.everydaygyaan.com/
12. Nicole - http://riverarunsthroughit.blogspot.com/
13. Tosh - http://totsymae.com/
14. Desiree - http://www.desireeholttellsall.com/
15. Shelley - http://bookfare.blogspot.com
16. Tessa - http://tessadick.blogspot.com
17. DK Levick - http://dklevick.wordpress.com/

18. La Vonya - http://www.Battered-not-broken.blogspot.com
19. Janet - http://jlbcreatives.blogspot.com/
20. Jim - http://holesinmysoles.blogspot.com/
21. Linda - http://bookorbust.blogspot.com/
22. Sibylla - http://divaluscious.com/category/mad-moms-manifesto/
23. Amber - http://wosushi.wordpress.com/
24. Lori - http://www.girlparker.typepad.com
25. Neil - http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
26. Tina - http://tinahoggatt.wordpress.com/
27. Babz - http://lovebabz.blogspot.com/
28. John - http://jmountswritteninblood.com/
29. Violet - http://rhiannonpaille.blogspot.com-

30. Dora - http://blogaliciousblogs.blogspot.com/

Promo and more promo

Spending three hours a day plugging away at Kindle sites and forums is finally starting to pay off. I've had sales. And not sales from family and friends. But actual sales from strangers. It's pretty amazing what the new technology is offering writers who don't like to travel and promote outside the house. I only dream of going viral and waking up one morning to a hundred thousand sales. I'd appreciate if my blog followers participated in this dream. LOL. I have AFTER priced on Kindle at $1.79. I think this is a good number. A lot of authors are advertising their books for 99 cents, but in my opinion, it seems to cheapen the value. I worked long and hard for years perfecting AFTER and I think it's worth more than the lowest price allowed by Kindle. Do you agree?

AFTER available on Kindle for $1.79:             

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q8D8U

Man, does time travel fast

Sorry it's been a while since I wrote. Nicer weather means more work and less time to write, which I hate. So anyway, on to AFTER and what's been happening. I've been promoting pretty heavily on Kindle forums and the results have been pretty awesome. Not so much in sales, but exposure. My posts so far are averaging about 100 views per day, which is pretty awesome considering each post lists my sites. I've noticed an increase in hits as a result. I've also started commenting on other people's post which has also given me a lot of exposure. I'm getting about 30-50 emails a day directly related to my books, either people telling me they've seen them or friend requests for writing groups. Looks like things are steaming ahead.

I will admit, that I spend about 3 hours a day solely on marketing. It does take it's toll.

Marketing time

Spent much of the day marketing and promo on Kindle sites. Can't believe I'm actually starting to sell books. This Kindle thing is great! More marketing and promo tomorrow and then conventional work at night.

Must start tagging my stuff and figuring out exactly how it's done. This seems to be the way most writers are getting their books noticed. Once again, buy a copy of AFTER for just $1.79.

AFTER available on Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q8D8U

It's Done! My baby is born!

Well, after many long weeks and many refinements, AFTER is complete and available for sale at the Kindle bookstore for a mere $1.79. I've been approved with Smashwords and am just waiting for it to appear in their premium catalog. Then it will be available everywhere. Here is the pitch followed by the link to purchase. I've hardly started to market and I've already sold a few. Major marketing promo blitz starts June 1st.

On the day we’re born we’re all destined to die. But what lies after? For fifteen–year-old Nick Murray, death is only the beginning. His entire human life has been an illusion in preparation for the epic role his soul will play in the destiny of the universe.

Nick always believed he was an ordinary kid until an unusual cardiac arrest strikes him down. Leaving behind his mother and girlfriend, his soul enters the hereafter and finds it is nothing like the fire and brimstone he’d always imagined. Incoming entities are distributed to levels according to the good vs. evil they had done in their lives. There’s only one problem, Nick never had any real human experiences. Fostered to be a celestial super hero, he must prevent the devil from damning for eternity all who ever lived.

Swept up by dark adventure, Nick learns the devil has caused global war in the mortal world. The devil intends to collect billions of souls and then turn them into a massive zombie army to take over creation. Spirits intent on stopping the apocalypse insert Nick’s soul into the human body of a prominent, young army commander who lives in the future. Thrust into the center of a historic battle, he takes on almost limitless enemy forces using skills learned from this other person’s life; only to die a second time and come face to face with the ultimate adversary.

AFTER available on Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q8D8U

Book is up and ready to sell... damn, I screwed up the description

I decided NOT to pay the $25 for my epub guy to put AFTER into the e-world. I did it myself. And it was pretty easy. I would recommend people try to do it themselves and only if they can't then hire someone to do it. Getting on smashwords is a little harder but I think I'll be able to figure it out. I'll let you know how it goes. That said, and being all proud of myself, I realized to my horror that I made a mistake in my description. I have my character being two ages. Fifteen and seventeen. I was easily able to fix the problem but now it will take another day or two until Amazon makes the changes. Good thing I hadn't done hardly any marketing since the book just went live yesterday. You can still purchase AFTER on Kindle right now, just don't laugh when you read the description.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q8D8U

Ebook finished... now what?

So I just got the "it's finished" email from my conversion guy. Now what? First of all, I'm having trouble downloading it and then I still have to figure out how to place it on all the sites. After much thought, I've decided not to place it on the sites... myself. For a mere $25 my guy will set up the book on all the sites (Kindle, Apple, etc.). I know it's copping out nto doing it myself, and I know Smashwords is easy to setup, but for $25, I can't resist just saying  "do it!" I'll let the conversion guy know my plans and then, I guess, it'll go live. I've still got June 1st as my big online promotion and announcement day. This means I'd better start marketing.

First look at the finished ebook, AFTER

Got the first look at the ebook file for AFTER. Looks great. My ebook guy did an excellent job and is very quick to get back to me with answers to my questions. Again, I used ebookeditor.com. I'm assuming the conversion will be completed shortly and then I can get them on the Kindle and Apple ereader sites. I've scheduled the official release for June 1st. The new logline is:

Everybody dies eventually. But what happens after?

So much to do so little time

Work. Work. Work. That's all I seem to be doing these days. And not the good kind of creative work, but the work that pays the bills. I'm still waiting for AFTER to be editted into professional ebook form. While I wait I continue to work on my new YA novel, WASTED, which is nearly complete. With WASTED, I'm going to try to get an agent, which may be a mute point in publishing. I guess wanting representation is just a desire to fill my ego. There are blogs saying all agents will be gone in five years. Still, I'd like to get a professional publishing contract before I die. 

Work Sucks

Ain't that the truth. Work means no writing and no writing makes Neil a dull boy. Finally a day off, but of course it's beautiful outside so now I'm torn whether I should do some outdoor things, like mow the jungle that the lawn has become. I think I'll re-read a chapter of WASTED, my forthcoming gritty YA novel. I can't do anything with AFTER now that it's out of my hands. Oh by the way, the Paypal finally went through so we're getting the machine rolling.