Neil D. Ostroff's Blog, page 10

Bearing the writing soul

In the nearly three years that my blog ALWAYS WRITING http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com has been active, I’ve seen my following grow and my hit counter exceed 250,000. I’ve tried to provide valuable writing and publishing advice based on my own trials, tribulations, and mistakes when marketing my work.

My original intention when starting this blog was to relate what it was like trying to succeed as an independent (indie) author. Three years ago my posts were about my personal journey and what material I was currently working on. However, in browsing over the past year’s content, I believe I am losing my way.

Instead of posting about MY own life as a writer, I see my posts becoming more content marketing than actual grassroots advice. I am a member of more than one hundred online writer’s groups and forums and I’ve been unconsciously gearing my posts to a mass market instead of the core audience and fans who follow (what’s supposed to be) personal insight into my writing life. So… I’ve decided to change the content of this blog and reverse course.

Instead of the once or twice a week content marketing post that I’ve been writing, I’ve decided to post nearly daily about the REAL writing life. I plan on opening my soul to my followers and talk about the up’s and down’s, the depression and elation, the successes and failures of being a real, independent writer in today’s publishing environment. I understand that I may lose a few followers or that some readers may be turned off on days when the struggle for success seems fruitless and I may be angry that my sales aren’t what I’d hope. Some might find it boring to read about my next novel-in-progress, or how hard it is some days to ignite my imagination, or what promotion made one of my books an Amazon best seller.

I feel it is important to put this blog back to what I had intended it to be, not just so others can relate to me and maybe gain encouragement in this evolving publishing universe and world marketplace, but to keep my own sanity and realize I am not alone in my endeavors. Please take a look if you’d like to explore the journey with me.

Kickstarter

Hello. My name is Neil Ostroff and I have started a project on Kickstarter that I am hoping will get fully funded. I am an author of twelve books (nine published) with a tenth coming out this spring. You’re welcome to learn all about me and my books by clicking the links on Kick starter.

I am hoping to raise funds for a huge marketing and promotion campaign for my latest sci-fi series, THE END TIME. If you help fund this campaign I will publish your full name in the book either under the acknowledgements section or, depending on the size of the donation, to actually have a main character named after you. I have a large fan base and my books have hit the Amazon best seller list. Here is a chance to have your name immortalized forever in a published book!

Please check out my kick starter project and the benefits of contributing. Thank you very much for your time.

Support to complete new sci-fi series
http://kck.st/1gk5ErL

A thousand thank you’s

Wow! Another great review for DROP OUT. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U I never expected the book to have such an impact. Thanks to all who have written to tell me how much the book has affected them.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Drop Out has drama filled action in spades, January 26, 2014
By Roland Cheek "Roland Cheek" (Montana) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Drop Out (Kindle Edition)

I was once told a story needed three things: action, suspense, and resolution. I found all three in Drop Out. The first 35% of the book moves from one panic situation to the next so fast I felt exhausted and needed the calm break that came in the middle. The break didn't last long before Ostroff took off on another drama filled action. This action, filled with teaching. Valuable lessons on the importance of life and how to deal with the cards we are dealt are learned. I highly recommend this book.
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To learn more about my books and myself, please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

My KDP story

Exactly three years ago today, I first discovered Kindle Direct Publishing while desperately searching for a new agent to represent my books. A few weeks prior, I parted ways with my then agent, a powerful New Yorker with dozens of big sales under his belt. Leaving the agency was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and the lowest point in my twenty years of continuous writing, but I immediately saw potential in KDP as a way to get my books out into the world. With renewed fanaticism about the future of publishing, I hired an editor and a cover designer and a few weeks later I published my first book, a science fiction novel.

A week went by with absolutely no sales, and then another. My initial dreams of indie publishing as a writer’s savior was diminishing quickly and I was petrified that I might never achieve any level of success. And then one day something magical occurred at Amazon.com. I checked my dashboard and lo and behold someone had purchased my book. It wasn’t a friend or relative, but a total stranger. A total stranger had purchased my book! I can’t describe in words how exhilarating it felt. Like a light bulb had ignited in my head. I realized right then I no longer needed an agent or publisher to unleash my creative children into the world. All I needed was an outlet, and KDP provided one.

With the fury of a newly published author, I spent weeks researching how to market and promote online. Being an introvert I knew I didn’t want to do grassroots sales, i.e. book signings and such so I joined dozens of online writers groups and participated in forums and discussions. I downloaded samples of my book to every major writer’s site. I spent money on advertising promotions (though I wouldn’t recommend that anymore since the market is oversaturated). I joined Facebook, and Twitter, and Linkedin, and Google+, and many more social media sites… and slowly my book started to sell.

With my platform in place, I began publishing my other completed novels, one every three months. I started to see sales of my books increase and with that came more exposure. I was asked to do blog interviews and was a featured author on numerous established websites. I started to receive awards and accolades from strangers. Reviews of my books came in the four and five star range. Sales skyrocketed and a few of my books briefly hit the Amazon bestseller list. Though I wasn’t getting rich from my sales the pride of knowing that strangers loved my stories was reward enough.

Now three years later, sales have quieted a bit as I get ready to release my tenth book. I still have a large platform and a huge base of core readers which I hope will enjoy my latest as much as my previously published books. I have outlines for many more to come. Thanks KDP, it’s been an amazing journey.

To learn more about my books and myself, please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Will people still read?

I watched a television special the other morning highlighting the electronics show in Las Vegas and what new products are being launched this year. Some of them were absolutely amazing, like glasses that project images right onto your eyeballs and gaming devices that the user controls with their own muscle movements instead of using their hands. These new devices led me to think about the future of my craft; writing.

With all of these fascinating new products coming out will there still be people who rely on words and their own imaginations to transport them to new and exciting worlds inside their minds? Can sitting alone in a silent room reading a story really make up for immersion into a 3-D world filled with noises, colors, and great heroes?

I’m always intrigued when I’m out somewhere and someone has a book in their hands or holding an ereader instead of playing a video game or trolling on the internet. As a writer, I hope the art form doesn’t disappear and go the way of the public orator. Personally, I can’t find one other means of entertainment more stimulating than reading a good story.

As I see the future of gaming entertainment unfold before my eyes, I wonder what the future of books and writers will be. Will the written word win over the simulated society we are evolving into? Or will all stories be mere baselines for a more advanced video game. One will have to see.

To learn more about my books and myself, please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING.

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Write and get rich!

Yesterday, I watched a morning news segment highlighting a couple who were about to lose their house due to foreclosure and how publishing and selling their books on Amazon had saved them. The authors went on to explain that they write romance novels together and once they realized the popularity of the genre due to the success of Fifty Shades of Gray, wrote feverishly producing more than twenty novels in six months. Quite a feat, I might add.

Consumed with a mix of curiosity, admiration, and jealousy I delved further into this story and researched the books this couple had published. What I discovered may have just changed how I perceive the future of books and writing and how to make a living at the craft.

Turns out that most of these romance “novels” are merely glorified short stories. Several averaged around forty or fifty pages in length with the shortest at seventeen pages and the longest running about 150 pages. I clicked on each one and saw its rank. Most were in the low thousands which I’ll admit is pretty darn good if you’ve got income coming from twenty books. All their books had dozens of reviews and many were favorable, although several did state that there were grammatical and spelling errors throughout the pages.

The last thing I did was read samples of each book even though I don’t normally read romance. And you know what? They were quite good. The books had quick hooks and engaged me right away. The end of the samples left me wanting to know more. So, what am I to make of these mini “novels” by so-called “authors”?

I believe they may be the wave of the future.

The indie revolution in publishing has opened a floodgate for writers and readers allowing experimental stories and characters to be published in forms that were never available before. There is no longer a minimum requirement for anything when it comes to publishing. These short romance novellas that these two authors are getting rich writing would never have been tolerated by an agency or publisher just five years ago. No longer does an author need to work for years to meet the 80,000 word minimum requirement to classify a book as a novel. A talented writer can pump out a 15,000 word masterpiece and have it available for sale in a few weeks (and make a fortune) as long as the plot is engaging.

So, what does this mean to the future of bookselling? Are these “pop” novels that take just a few weeks to write and a few hours to read really going to take over the literary marketplace and drive away the 300,000 word behemoths? I don’t think so. But I also believe that writing short, interesting, exciting books, and selling them for cheap can build a pretty strong following pretty fast. And writing these books in series could be very profitable.

If the general public can lose the stigma that a good book has to be such and such length and contain so many twists and turns and that incredible stories come in all lengths and with all kinds of characters, they will discover a whole new enjoyable reading experience with these “pop” novels.

To learn more about me and my books please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING
http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

The new informed writer

When I first started to think seriously about devoting my life to the pursuit of publication finding instruction was like walking through a desert. There was almost no information about how to go about getting published (this was prior to the internet). I remember buying my first issue of Writer’s Digest and literally digesting every page. I read the how-to articles over and over and marveled at the process of birthing a book into the world. When I realized I needed an agent I went to the local library (remember those) and took out a copy of the LMP (The Literary Marketplace) a behemoth of a book that listed every agent and publisher in the U.S..

I spent days painstakingly going over every listing, jotting down notes on which agent and publisher best matched my genre and style. After compiling a very long list, I devoted the next several weeks to typing personalized query letters to each one and sending those along with SASE’s. The cost was roughly sixty-four cents a piece. No small change when you’re talking hundreds of letters. I rented a post office box just for my query responses so that it wouldn’t get mixed up with my regular mail and carefully kept up with the latest agent hires and openings on editor’s lists.

When the one in a hundred positive SASE would come back asking me to send a sample or even the entire manuscript I would fly through the roof. I’d hastily print out a copy, address it, and drive down to the post office to mail it off. For days after, I’d lie awake at night with fantasies of getting that elusive telephone call that I had been signed and was about to get rich and famous.

One day that call did come and the next thing I knew I was signed to an exclusive contract with a major literary agency to represent all my current and future books. I was in heaven to say the least. My agent edited my rough copies and helped strengthen my plots and characters all at zero cost to me. Through the years we had several contract close calls and nearly signed with Random House. Then everything changed. The ebook revolution began and the once exclusive world of the published novelist became public domain.

Suddenly, there are thousands of newly published books and authors. Websites can track sales instantly. Search engines can show you where your traffic is coming from providing a better avenue to market your work. Services can provide SEO optimization, and select niche markets, and book trailers. Writers have to be on Facebook, Twitter, Utube, Linked in, and every other social media just to make a dent in the overpopulated marketplace. The days when writers put their books out there and went off to do a few signings hoping to sell enough copies to impress their publisher were over.

The informed writer can now use stats, and location, and all sorts of new and neat venues to promote their books to the world. Yes, it does take an extraordinary amount of time to get noticed but it is possible for anyone author to suddenly hit it big without jumping through corporate hoops or waiting years for their book to hit the shelf with a life expectancy of just a few short weeks (which never existed before in the publishing arena). Today’s informed writer has just as much chance of selling as many copies as any other signed writer.

I’m not certain if the LMP still exists or even if libraries will still exist in the near future. The internet now provides the informed writer with everything they need to create their own personal success. With a little research and a well-written novel nearly any writer can sell enough copies to call themselves a success.

To read more about me and my books please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

Thank You, Anne Rice!

Feeling frustrated over the current bookselling market, I went on a rant last week about how so many writers are publishing books full of errors and poor plots and that they are tainting the indie book publishing revolution. I pointed out that roughly eighty percent of the indie books I sampled had grave errors and horrible stories. I vowed to never use the reference “indie” when referring to the type of writer I am. Well, I was wrong.

What changed my thoughts on the indie title? Well, a little personal online conversation with Anne Rice (Yes, the Anne Rice) gave me a new perspective. Mrs. Rice pointed out that in the inner circle of publishing that “indie” writers are a revered group. They alone are changing the face of publishing and are taking the power away from the big corporate decision makers. I was surprised to learn that many of the NY publishers and agents themselves are pondering going indie and publishing their own material, seeing a new golden gateway into the book reading scene.

Mrs. Rice also told me that:

“I frankly admire indie authors and always have. Yes, it's a jungle out there, indie publishing, and there are people struggling to become gatekeepers, etc. and a lot of confusion. But it's an exciting revolution all right.”

She took her valuable time to help me realize that instead of becoming embattled and bitter, I must realize that it truly is a wonderful time to be a writer with a world-wide marketplace available at your fingertips. I struggled for years in the traditional publishing arena, went through a top agent and many close calls, still nothing ever moved forward or got published. Time just kept slipping passed.

Now, two years since my first published ebook and thanks to the indie publishing revolution I’ve sold thousands of copies of my nine ebooks, done interviews, and appeared on local media. None of this would have been possible before. True, the floodgates are open for anyone to become an author, but like everything else in life and art the best material will rise above the subpar. Getting discovered is the challenge all artists face, those will the unending drive to succeed will, whether labeled indie or not.

If Mrs. Rice reads this post I would like to thank her again for re-illuminating my mind to the wonder and excitement of this new publishing game. She gave me a beautiful psychological Christmas present. She told me that when she finished writing Interview with the Vampire in 1973, that she would have done anything to see it in print. She even considered self-publishing before the book was signed and history was made. Back then, self-publishing was a loathsome endeavor where failed writers turned their labors of love into family keepsakes. Mrs. Rice’s words of wisdom made me realize that indie publishing is a gift that I should be grateful to be a part of and relatively successful at. Merry Christmas everyone!

To read more about me and my books please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

No longer indie

Tis the Christmas season and where I live everything is covered in about six inches of snow. It would be beautiful if I didn’t hate the cold so much. Alas, it just gives me an excuse to stay inside and keep writing. I’m about ninety percent finished with my latest novel. A sci-fi adventure that takes place fifty years after humanity has driven off an invading alien force. I’ve been working on it for eleven months to the day and I hope to have it finished and available for sale by early February. I plan on a strong marketing strategy with a new twist. I am no longer labeling myself as an indie writer.

I recently read in several separate articles that the stigma associated with labeling oneself an “indie” comes at a steep price. It causes immediate views of amateur writing and storytelling with pages littered with grammatical and spelling errors. So many new writers are publishing throngs of books that are no higher quality than first drafts and that the practice is starting to give a bad name to all the devoted indie writers who take the time to make certain their story is tight.

I’m not saying that these new writers don’t deserve a chance in the new literary ocean of manuscripts I’m saying that many of these books need time to mature and are sent out into the world way before they are ready. To prove my own point, I recently went on Amazon and read the sample pages of nearly fifty books that were published by indie authors. Some of these authors used fake publishing names to make the books appear legit, some had covers that they obviously made themselves, and some had Amazon rankings of more than a million.

Out of the fifty samples I read, only twelve had zero errors and a story that engaged me. Most appeared to be mere attempts at starting a plot and some were so bad that I couldn’t even follow what was happening. No wonder readers are more leery than ever about giving new authors a chance.

I say go ahead and read my sample pages. I’m proud of my books and the enormous time, energy, editing, and drafts it took to write them. I’m not publishing books to impress people or to get rich. I’m publishing books because that’s what I’m hard-wired to do. I’m all for the proliferation of art in any form and consider writing one of the most challenging. A creative person can write a hit song or paint a masterpiece in one day, but writing a novel takes tremendous time and devotion. I just don’t believe some of these new wave indie writers are giving their own work the commitment it deserves. Therefore, I am no longer going to refer to myself as an indie writer, but rather just a writer. I’ll let the readers decide if I’m worthy of that title.

To read more about me and my books please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com

The results of what may or may not work part #3

Okay, now that my latest promotions are nearing their ends I can safely post my opinions of each of them. As I said from the start, I was trying something new with these latest promotions. Instead of booking one-day sponsorships for large amounts of money on some very popular websites I figured I’d try more long-term placements for less money and see how they fare.

First I’d like to say that I have had some success with sites like Bookgorilla and Kindle Fire Department. Their one day sponsorships are expensive but I did get quite a few sales from them. If it’s all about exposure than these types of sponsorships do work, but you have to sell an awful lot of books to make back your investment. Most of my latest experiments with promotion cost less than $20 with only one costing more.

If you’re trying a bookbooster service (where for a fee your book is sent to dozens of freelisting websites) don’t bother. Although I did get a few emails saying my books had been listed, I saw nothing to indicate that these listing had any effect on sales. I’d say it’s better to contact the site yourself and manually input the data needed. I’ve found that these sites are way more willing to place your book for free if you inform them personally that you will be promoting their site on your own sites.

I also placed my books on the sites AskDavid, Goodkindles, and DigitalBookToday. These sites offer long-term placement. After two weeks on the sites I can say that my sales have increased. Here’s the kicker, though. The most expensive sponsorships have yielded the least sales while the cheapest investment saw the most increase. So, what’s the best you ask?

Believe it or not, I can trace the most sales through AskDavid, which is strange because I’ve read threads that say the site did nothing for author’s sales. At $15 for a lifetime placement of all of my nine books it’s a steal. The day I uploaded my material and the sites went live I saw an increase in sales of all my books (even one that hasn’t sold a copy in two months). For the money, AskDavid sets up a nice page that you can also promote separately yourself. This is just my own experience and opinion. The site may not work for you.

The worst sales came from DigitalBookToday. I saw almost no increase when the placement started, yet it was the most expensive sponsorship at a combined $100 for two spots on the site. It is a good-looking site with a pretty good Alexa ranking, but it just didn’t seem to attract readers.

The last site, Goodkindles, also increased sales but the book I sponsored, DROP OUT was only at the top of the site for one day. You can boost the book back up to the top one time after thirty days, and the book stays on the site archives forever if a reader wants to delve. At @ $20, I’d say it’s iffy. Though like I said, I’m looking for long term placements of my books.

All in all, I am a big fan of getting my books on as many permanent sites as possible for a minimal amount of monetary investment. I may never pay big money for a big placement on a big site again. Though the anticipation of results from a big promotion can be exciting, it’s usually a letdown when the results aren’t what was hoped or expected. I’ll stick to grassroots marketing for now.

To read more about me and my books please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING

http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com