December 30, 2015
As 2015 closes, you may be interested in where things stand with regard to my fiction. Amazon is the measure of how well each of my books is doing, although they are also for sale in half a dozen bookstores in upstate New York and on Barnes & Noble, iTune and Kozo websites. Here are my Amazon numbers: House Divided, which was introduced at the end of January 205, has received 22 reviews, earning an average 4.5 stars. It is ranked #1,210 in the Kindle terrorism category. The book with the highest review average is my suspense novel, Last Stop on Desolation Ridge. Reviewers found it worth 4.8 stars. The Expendable Man, my first novel, has received the most reviews […]
August 28, 2015
Thank you to blogger Cy Weiss for the 4-star review of House Divided. Weiss wrote, “The philosophical discussions of the Palestine/Israel conflict alone are worth the read, and as someone not highly versed in the conflict, I appreciated Pollak’s balanced and nuanced views. Overall four stars, a book I recommend reading for its strengths.” And thank you to Dee of Mum’s Writings Mystery and More who posted an interview with me on her website @ http://bookread-mumswritings.blogspot.com/2015/08/interview-with-peter-g-pollak.html. And thank you to Audrey Austin of Small Town Authors for featuring me on her website for September. Here’s the link: http://www.smalltownauthors.blogspot.com/. My small town is the village of Speculator in Hamilton County New York which is where I spend my summers. And “thank […]
March 27, 2015
If you’re a first time novelist and you think your novel is ready for public consumption, you’re probably haunting author discussion groups looking for advise on whether to self-publish or not. While any analysis can’t cover all circumstances, I hope this broad overview will help you begin to ask the right questions. There are clear benefits to being published by a for-profit publishing house. These include Professional editing Professional cover design Professional marketing (cover blurb, branding, marketing pitch, etc.) Pre-publication publicity, including advance distribution to trusted reviewers Listing with distributors that feed bookstores and libraries Inside edge for subsequent titles The disadvantages of Traditional Publishing are: In most cases you need to find an agent to represent you Finding an […]
February 2, 2015
House Divided, a thriller depicting how Islamic Terrorism could bring dire consequences to America, is now available in print and ebook formats Peter G. Pollak’s fifth book tells the heart-wrenching story of a war no family should have to fight ELKRIDGE, MD – February 2, 2015 – House Divided, Peter G. Pollak’s 88,000-word thriller, is now available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Although fiction, this novel paints a very real picture of the devastating impact that Islamic terrorism could bring to America. What Advance Reviewers Say “Peter G. Pollak gives us a thriller that hits close to home in House Divided,” said Nathan Van Coops, author of In Times Like These and The Chronothon. “Writing from an […]
August 27, 2014
After self-publishing four novels in a relatively short period of time––The Expendable Man in February 2011, Making the Grade in April 2012, Last Stop on Desolation Ridge in February 2013, and In the Game in November 2013, I went back to a coming-of-age fantasy I’d started ten years earlier. That book is projected to run over 200,000 words, and has been a struggle to organize. Parts of it have come together easy, but how to handle other parts remain unresolved. Instead of continuing to bang my head against my keyboard, in March of this year I put that project aside and started working on a new thriller. The first draft of House Divided was completed earlier this month. I’ll be […]
December 1, 2013
Question? Why did you start writing novels? Answer: After I retired, I started writing novels because I’m passionate about sharing my stories with people who love to read. I first envisioned becoming a writer as a teenager, but did nothing to act on that desire, other than take a creative writing elective as an undergraduate. At times I would get an idea for a story or a novel and spend a few hours putting words on paper and later storing paragraphs on my computer. When I stopped working fulltime, I committed myself to finish the story that now exists as The Expendable Man. It took me eight months to complete a first draft and another six months to whip it […]