Cobwebs Of The Mind

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends Now In Paperback

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:23:00 +0000

Here is the link for "Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" in Paperback.

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends, a short story collection by Ted William Gross presents the reader with engaging and thought-provoking stories spanning the ages. Covering subjects of love, loss, pain, desire, need, frustration and hope these stories are meant to entertain as well leave an indelible impression upon the reader.
Ted Gross cleverly combines ancient lore in his "Tiny Slivers From A Silver Horn" weaving Unicorns, the story of Adam & Eve and the modern world into a tale of lost wisdom and gained hope. "Love In A Cafe" moves the reader within the soft aura of love until the surprise ending. "Elijah's Coins" leaves us wondering about the great "what if" of life and just how blessed or cursed it would make us to change the future. "Reverieing" is a glimpse of the slow descent of one individual into his own personal hell. "Addiction, Obsession, Love", "Tenuous Webs" & "And So They Danced" look upon love and loss from different perspectives. "A Tapestry Of War" is a real war story and the consequences of war upon the psyche of the soldier. "The Sunflower" portrays how hate can insidiously seep into the heart of man while "The Heretic" will leave you wondering who the real heretic actually is. "Kapparot" will let you delve into the mystical world of Hassidic philosophy while looking upon man's relation to God. "Jacob's Ladder" will introduce you to a world of angels and their mission of silence.

The Following Short Stories Are Contained Within Ancient Tales, Modern Legends
Love In A Café
Elijah's Coins
Reverieing
The Sunflower
Tenuous Webs
The Heretic
Kapparot
A Tapestry Of War
And So They Danced
Jacob's Ladder
Addiction, Obsession, Love
Tiny Slivers From A Silver Horn

This is not a book to dismiss easily. Enjoy it. Grow with it. You will in turn, be haunted by it and the stories will remain with you long after you have closed the pages.

From the reviews:

"Lyrical and moving, these short stories open a window into various lives and situations, allowing the reader to feel the depths of emotion of the various protagonists. It presents a broad spectrum of life written in a clear and precise literary style. I look forward to reading more by this author."

"With the completion of each story, I couldn't wait to begin the next.
My favorite, "And So They Danced", filled with so much hope and pathos.
Kudos and five stars to the author."

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends: Short Story Collection

How To Publish Your Book In Kindle - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:17:00 +0000

This is one of the cases where the description and rules are a lot more "wordy" than the actual process. However, some of the steps below will be completely clear to many people, while others who have little experience may have some trouble. I have tried to outline most of the problems that I know of and came across in my own experience. If you know of others as we post the step-by-step please feel free to leave them in comments.

The first thing we must do is deal with any formatting that you have in your book document.

If no formatting exists, and if you do not want formatting at all you can skip this step. However, if you have formatting or need to change formatting read this part carefully.

Please be aware that I am not dealing here with non-fiction documents which have things like footnotes or endnotes inside of them. These are basically a bit more complicated

Ebook formating software handles very simple and specific formats and nothing more. So you have to be careful with formatting. Any special formatting will simply not show up in your ebook or will cause some wonky unwanted effects.

One thing to be aware of. When we format things for underline and bold, if you are like me, you mark off till the end of the line sometimes, and then click the U for underline. Sometimes this leads to the following line or lines to be formatted with underline even though there is nothing on those lines.

For instance:

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

(this line is empty but an underline command exists) so it may appear as:
_

When this would be put in Ebook format in some of the readers, notiably the early Kindels, you will find that when you preview the document, an _ in the line. If you see this seemingly out of nowhere, chances are that your underline is on on that empty line. Thus the above may look as follows:

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

So the best way to avoid any of these unwanted characters showing up is to move your cursor over the empty lines in your document and make sure all formatting is off. This can be a tedious process but easy with Word. Just takes patience, and besides you do want your document to look the best possible. So what formatting can you use?

Bold and normal underline are ok.

To see a full list of the possible do's and dont's look here.
Simplified Formatting Guide

Let me copy from the section "Building Your Book" on Amazon's site some extremely important lines to remember in formatting:

File Format: Save your content in DOC (or .doc) format, not RTF (.rtf) or DOCX (.docx) as the latter do not translate well to Kindle. Save your work periodically as you make changes to ensure all changes are recorded.

Layout: Use indentations, bold characters, italics and headings, as they will translate into your Kindle book. However, bullet points, special fonts, headers, and footers will not be transferred, so be sure to avoid those.

Personally, I have not noticed with .docx format - however my books do not have complicated formatting so I would save it all to the .doc format just in case!

PAGE BREAKS

Again from Amazon's Instructions:

Page Breaks: Enter a page break at the end of every chapter to prevent the text from running together. To insert a page break in MS Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."

Once the document is formatted with your underlines and bolds etc. let us move to page breaks.

If you want a page break (essentially white space in ebook format) between say, chapter and chapter, position your cursor at the end of the chapter and FORCE a new page with Word. Do NOT rely on any natural page breaks. This may seem fairly logical to anywone who has ever formatted a document for an agent, publisher or magazine submission, but it is something to bear in mind if you are not used to it.

If you have images inside your book, (not the book cover we will discuss that later), then make sure you do the following: (Again From Amazon's suggestions)

Image Placement: Images should be inserted in JPEG (or .jpeg) format with center alignment (don't copy and paste from another source). Select "Insert" > "Picture" > then locate and select the file. If your book has a lot of images, it can be viewed in color by readers using our free Kindle apps for PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Otherwise, remember that images on Kindle are displayed in 16 shades of gray for great contrast and clarity.

HOWEVER, with the advent of Kindle Fire, and Ipad and Android Tablets, the gray only is necessary for the older Kindle. When you view your book on the older Kindle it will only be in black and white and shades of gray. This may or may not influence your use of images. It is something we will consider later when talking about the Book Cover Image. However, this is your decision. Many of your current illustrations may just not work well in the shades of black and white that are available. You must decide if it is worth to change them, or leave them as they are as soon the market will certainly contain mostly all color tablets and this will be somewhat of a mute decision.

Now Headers & Footers:

A Simple Header may be:

Gross - Ancient Tales, Modern Legends Page 5

THIS HAS GOT TO BE DELETED!
NO HEADERS. NO FOOTERS.

In Word you can delete Headers by going to Insert--->Headers then clicking while you are in your header and then click on "Remove Headers". If you have section headers you will have to do this for each section.

We still have a lot more to cover, but this is enough for this post. You should have your work cut out for you. Remember in all cases you can and should read the Formatting Your Book Section in the FAQ section of KDP on Amazon.

Meantime of course, I have do my own PR. :)
So..."Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" has had really good success so far. The books are priced @ $1.99 in the USA. (Other countries Amazon adds VAT etc.)

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

A Tale That Is Told - Part I (The Chronicles Of The Children Of Heaven Series)

Please remember to write a review as well!

Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

How To Publish Your Book In Kindle - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:58:00 +0000

As promised I will try and give a step by step pointer on publishing a book on Kindle. However before beginning, I should take the time to answer the comments made on my previous post If You Are Going To Publish Your Own Work... These comments were important and deserve some space.

My personal opinion, is that I have absolutely nothing against the query--->agent--->normative publisher route. Indeed, I still think after all these years that this is the route one should always attempt to follow. I do not personally agree that reputable agents are either greedy or do not earn their money. The exact opposite is true. I have dealt with and dealing with an agent who is straight, honest and does not try to BS at all. I think having an agent is still very critical and certainly necessary if you sell a book to the big publishers, and then have to deal with them about rights and subsidiary rights. I also think having a lawyer here is critical, (no matter what the agent and publisher tell you. Unless the agent has a law degree and has kept up with the legal ramifications in publishing.)

HOWEVER, I also believe that if your book for whatever reasons, cannot, will not, or is not making it into the normative "print" market, for whatever reasons, either objective or subjective, that currently, the market offers you, as an author, a viable alternative, to publishing that book ELECTRONICALLY. I never mentioned that this is a viable alternative to "print" and at this moment I honestly have no opinion on that one. There are many negatives to vanity publishing or self-publishing a book in "print", that do not exist in publishing it electronically and these should be explored in their own series of posts.

Additionally, any new author who expects to make "real money" from their first few attempts in KDP or in any of the electronic book markets is dreaming. Yes there are exceptions. But these exceptions prove the rule. What you are out to do, is to "brand" your name as a serious author in whatever genre you wish to be in. That should be your goal. If money comes, then consider yourself lucky and blessed. But your initial goal should be to equate your name with that of the title of "Author".

As to the comments made about Amazon and then the environment.

I have heard this environment claim before. I don't go for it in this case. Computers, tablets, Cell phones all are extremely non-green friendly. They are the tools we use today. Additionally, at least for the next generation, reading a book that is actually printed on paper, is still a very important thing. Or a magazine. Electronic publishing has not yet replaced totally the print medium. (Thus by the way the lack of a finely tuned "financial and marketing model" by the publishers and agents.)

Like it or not, the choices today, though not limited are certainly among the big names. Amazon, Apple, B&N, Smashwords etc. If you are an author you MUST pay attention to these markets simply because not doing so will guarantee failure. There may be other markets out there and viable alternatives, but to ignore the big names is catastrophic to any author who desires to get their work "out there".

Why begin then with Amazon & Kindle? Well that is simple and complex. There are a myriad of reasons for this and I will try to explain them all.

Let us assume, hypothetically, that you as the author, own a computer and do not own any of the tablets or devices.

Let us also assume that you are starting out and do not have any money.

1. Amazon is associated with books. The Kindle, though not the most widely used tablet, has entered the big-boy market with the Kindle Fire.

2. B&N in its e-Pub, and Apple demand from the author a CC and other information. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) makes no such demands except for a valid email and an address. (B&N makes some outrageous demands but we will get to them in a later post.)

3. The Ipad, Iphone and all Android phones have a Kindle reader application. This extends the reach of KDP books and all Kindle books to many platforms.

4. Producing a book in Kindle format can be done with absolutely NO COST (if you own Word) and even if you do not own Word it can be done. This is CRITICAL!

5. Finally, Amazon has made it the easiest and most cost effective to create and publish an electronic book. Like it or not, KDP, even if a lot of the documentation on publishing and formatting a book is not good, is still the best documented way of creating one, and does not demand any other outside sources that cost you money. Amazon also does not demand you join KDP. You can publish your book without adhering the KDP 90 day exclusivity. This denies you certain "perks" but then again, that is business. You publish with KDP enabled, you get the perks. You publish without, you do not get the perks. But in the end it is your choice, and you can always publish.

Caveat: Smashwords, will allow you to do all this, but with certain pre-conditions.

Now in order to lead to the next post of the first steps, this is what you will need to do as follows:

1. Go to Amazon KDP Select and open up an account. Make sure you read the terms and conditions so you do not violate their TOS when you publish your book or books. I will get into the more salient ones in the next post.

2. On the main KDP page scroll down and click to get to their FAQ.

3. Give it a reading - Top to Bottom - so you at least will be familiar with terms.

4. The next thing you want to do is to go to the Help Topic (Left hand side of the page) called Conversion Resources

5. You should download them all, BUT for now you will need the following for a PC on XP, Vista or W7

At the very least the Mobipocket Creator & the Kindle Previewer. (Links here are for PC if you need for a MAC links are on the Conversion Resources page). Install these programs on your computer.

***IF YOU ARE WORKING WITH WINDOWS 7 & INTERNET EXPLORER 9 READ THIS

Mobipocket is an old program. There is a conflict between Internet Explorer 9 and MobiPocket, which will not allow MobiPocket to work correctly. The only workaround I have found for this that really works, is to uninstall IE9. Since I do not use IE at all that was not a big problem for me. However, if you use IE and need MobiPocket you will have to go back to IE8. (I have found no other solution that actually works besides this!)

6. Now get out your MS. make a copy load it in Word (or in Open Office or whatever program you have, as an RTF file) and REMOVE all headers and footers. Electronic books have no page numbers the way we are used to them in Word or PDF format and these will not translate correctly. Save that file under a name you will know. This is the file we will work with!

Ok this is enough for one blog post. Next with pictures and steps I will show you how to convert that Word Document of yours into an Ebook ready for uploading to Kindle.

Meantime of course, I have do my own PR.

So..."Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" has had really good success so far. The books are priced @ $1.99 in the USA. (Other countries Amazon adds VAT etc.)

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

A Tale That Is Told - Part I (The Chronicles Of The Children Of Heaven Series)

Please remember to write a review as well!

Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

If You Are Going To Publish Your Own Work...

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:32:00 +0000

As I said in my previous post, the digital explosion in Ebooks has certainly created many an opportunity for those who want to get their feet wet. But first let me make this clear. It still is an excellent idea to attempt to publish your material via the "traditional" method of query letter ---> agent ---> publisher. However, whereas 3-4 years ago I would not have put caveats in that statement, today with just a cursory look around and reading the material that comes in, there is a big difference. So as not to disappoint my old readers of this blog I still do not follow the tried and true path, and I will just give some impressions here, before my next few posts which will try and explain in a step by step method of exactly where and how you can publish your E books. The three dirty words here are:

1. Self-Publish
2. Vanity Publish
3. Indie (a fairly new buzz term or old depending upon what you consider new and old!)

Now Down To Some Pointers & Observations:

1. Agents are more bitter about the business then they were a few years ago. The model they are used to has gone topsy-turvy on them and they are scrambling to keep up.

What does the above mean?

It means still the best way to be published is the old query letter--->agent--->publisher route. I will not argue with that point. It is definitely the way to go if you can.

[As an aside, and I am sure I am not the first person to say this, the fact that some agents and publishers today still "demand" snail letter queries and snail mail ms. is just ludicrous (and a few more choice adjectives can be put here, none of them endearing). But it does show how deep the publishing industry is entrenched in its own hype.]

However, the ability to write electronically - even just doing a blog post, has turned the writing world on its head. We consume more "information" whether needless or important, than any generation before us. We Facebook, Goggle+, Twitter, Blog, LinkIn and everything else you can imagine. Thus the actual "act" of writing a book is also part of this scenario.

The following may seem a digression but please follow. Any book on telling you how to sell and market your work, will tell you that even after you have a contract with a publisher, you will need to do a lot of your own self PR, unless you are a major league author, and even then - you still have to do it.

That little fact has come back actually to bite both publishers and agents in the good ole' backside. Technology passed them. People who know technology moved way faster than agents and publishers. So it was not a big leap of intelligence to say:

"I have to suffer this agent route, where half of them do not bother even answering me. I have to suffer the fact that my query letter must be one page, printed, sent in an envelope, and then wait 4 months for an answer. Then I have to wait until the agent does find a publisher. IF they find a publisher. Then I have to wait another year before the book may come out, if it is not cancelled. Then I have to market my own book which I have to do anyway if I self-publish. So forget that!"

Thus Ebook publishing, with self-publishing, indie, vanity publishing, whatever you want to call it was born. And it is exploding. Because there are now blogs, forums and web sites which actually recommend books to people. Books no one would have ever knew existed before. And these blogs and Facebook groups, and Lord only knows who else, do NOT look at who published they look to see if people actually read and liked the book to give their recommendations.

Agents and Publishers both, do not yet know what to make of this revolution. They do not know yet how to produce a "financial model" in which they can co-exist with the new technology.

One thing is clear. Beforehand the role of Agent was akin to God. Now they are not even ministering angels. Before they could be very picky, not answer email, let queries languish on their desk for months and months, or just junk them - and make an extremely good living. Now they have to figure out just how to fit into this model, where slowly, though not very slowly, they are being tossed aside for the direct route. They now have to rely on agenting and negotiation of rights that go beyond the scope of a digital book.

Why? Because most people reading this, can do more in "electronic PR" than any agent can. Because any person can learn or hire an SEO expert, take their book, whether it is junk or not, and upload it to a myriad of places for sale or free. They can "brand" their name better than any publishing house or agent can do at the moment. In other words the sanctified, mysterious and snobbish world of "Publishing" is slowly being taught a lesson or two in what happens when you wait too long and do not follow what is going on around you.

Writing is a lonely experience. Some, the lucky ones, manage to go that agent-->publish route without much frustration along the way. Others can rely on their names having already been "made". Some, each year will find fame and fortune and satisfaction in this route. And it surely is the way to go if you have time, patience and are very lucky.

Make no mistake. Go the electronic route by yourself and you still have a 99.9% chance of being delegated to oblivion. That is simply fact.

But it still gives you another option. And that option, once shunned, has certainly entered the world of legitimate.

In the next posts, I will share some of the experiences I have had with publishing and the actual HOW-TO of how to publish on Kindle, at the very least.

Meantime of course, I have do my own PR.

So..."Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" has had really good success so far. The books are priced @ $1.99 in the USA. (Other countries Amazon adds VAT etc.)

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

A Tale That Is Told - Part I (The Chronicles Of The Children Of Heaven Series)

Please remember to write a review as well!
___________________________________________________________________

Tags: books, novels, poetry, literary, agents, short stories, memoirs, fantasy literature, legends, tales, erotica, short story, romantica, publishing, writers, fantasy, literary agents, blogs, blogging, writing blogs, writing, freelancing, non-fiction, fiction

"Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" Published

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:51:00 +0000

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

I guess when you write and have been doing so for so long, it becomes part of your genetic makeup. Until 2007, this blog was fairly well read, actually more than "fairly" and enjoyed quite a following. But around that time, as my last post explained some 3 years ago, I moved towards Virtual World Technologies. Time goes on. You follow the path that either you create or leads you.

During this time the Digital World of print exploded. I stood on the sidelines, reading, researching and listening. I was never skeptical about it. I know that children growing up today for the most part, will lose that wonderful feeling of turning the pages of a real book. Yet, this too has its positive side, in that so much more information becomes available to the person when they are working on a digital format.

Yet, I was a bit wary of jumping into the "find the agent -- get the publisher" fray again. Having been burned so many times it is difficult to be positive about such things. Then a couple of months ago, one of my short stories, through my agent was bought and published by Istoria Books for publication in ebook format. They put "A Pot Of Gold" in their Lunch Books Series Volume 4 and once again I started paying attention to the digital world. You can see it here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EYTDU0

Which of course got me thinking. Which of course caused a small coal still burning deep inside to write and write to flare up. And as time went on that flare became a small fire. Friends, family and colleagues gently nudged me to enter the world of ebook publishing. I put it aside for as long as I could ignore those inner voices. Then one day I said to myself, "let me just see how difficult or easy this is to do".

For someone used to technology I found Amazon's KDP very intriguing. It had a lot of positive sides, and I felt that it would be a good starting point. So I read their documents (more on those in a later post as their documentation is not complete), but I jumped in. I decided the time had come to enter this world. Too much was languishing on my hard drive. Too many years of writing and writing and writing, were sitting there, with no place to go. Maybe it was all just plain horrible. Maybe it was good. Maybe it was mediocre. And maybe it was excellent. There was no way for me to really know.

I would never have taken this leap if it was the old scam of charging the author to read their work. But this was Amazon and could be trusted and it is totally free. I found all the right reasons in the right environment to go ahead. Yet still, as many of you will say, what if you wait for that agent and the publishing contract? It was and still is a question that each person must answer for themselves. I assumed it would not happen. Manuscripts mailed out languish or are never read on some desk of a publisher or agent. Rejection letters pile up. It wears you down. And even if you do have an agent, that is just part of the battle.

The digital world allows us to a great deal that would have to have been done by professionals just ten years ago. Not only the actual creation of the book, but promotion, marketing, public relations can all be done if you do know how to use and manipulate the electronic byways in the correct way. Of course, the real thing is to write, not to spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and using programs to create ebooks. However, as I realized in the old cliche - you just have to start somewhere.

I knew I would return to "Cobwebs Of The Mind". I actually enjoyed writing this blog. It was fun. People read it. They sent in letters asking why I had stopped. Actually, I had all the puzzle pieces. The question was did I have the strength once again to put them together and implement them correctly.

So I took my collection of short stories, "Ancient Tales, Modern Legends", sans "A Pot Of Gold", as it had just been published, went over it and began the process. To be honest once your book is ready and you know what you are doing, this process should take more than a couple of hours from beginning to end - the end being it is up on Amazon or Smashwords or Google Books. IPad is a different animal but then again you can use Smashwords for it. Running ahead of ourselves at the moment. I took a week, which was mostly an inner psychological fight, "why do it?".

Today the short story collection "Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" is up on Amazon. If anything, I enjoyed the actual process. Yet, as anyone who has been through it will tell you, once you start, there is a great deal more work all the time. For now, I will apply the social networking skills to try and move the book in the Kindle format.

In the next few posts I will share the process with you so that we can combine writing with the necessary and required skills of technology.

If you can afford to, and desire it, get the Kindle version of "Ancient Tales, Modern Legends". I think you will enjoy the read with 12 short stories, in approx. 320 pages (in Kindle format there really are no pages). Please also, pass this information on to others, and if you do leap in and buy it, leave a review. (I think you are required to wait 48 hours after purchase to post a review.)

Well I guess this means Cobwebs of the Mind is back. Not such a bad thing. Not such a bad thing at all. :)

Tags: books, novels, poetry, literary, agents, short stories, memoirs, fantasy literature, legends, tales, erotica, short story, romantica, publishing, writers, fantasy, literary agents, blogs, blogging, writing blogs, writing, freelancing, non-fiction, fiction

Now This Is All I Need - A Second Life!

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:18:00 +0000

It has been oh-so-long since publishing in Cobwebs Of The Mind. But like a wayward child it is gone and not forgotten.

I have much news to report from the writing world, and over the next couple of weeks some of the dedicated may learn about some really new and exciting markets opening up with serious people.

But first where was I? Oh my oh my. Writing, creating FaceBook Applications and more recently exploring the world of Second Life. Now for those of you who have no clue what Second Life is, and I am sure there are many, you should take a peek at the web-site Second Life.

Second Life is a graphic environmentally rich world, though not a social network like Facebook, put contains much power and some incredible things. For the techie in me it was hard to resist. So finally after being cajoled by a friend to finally in their words "would you at least try it!", I took the plunge into an avatar based system which certainly is at the cutting edge of 3D graphics on a computer screen.

Second Life can be anything you wish it to be. After all that is the purpose of a rich, animated (and I do mean animations!), graphic, colorful environment. It has gadzillions of SIMS (Simulated Worlds), it is based on real estate and you can shop, and buy and meet people and....and...and...

In other words, Second Life, in many ways mimics our real lives. It is fun and to the techie sometimes awesome.

But wait this is Cobwebs Of The Mind! Hits head! Smacks self. This is not a blog about graphics and technology. But as usual my dear readers, there is method to my total and complete madness (shush up those comments from the peanut gallery).

Second Life is replete with writers and authors. Lest you think we are only talking about the wannabes, forget it. Koontz made an appearance in Second Life. You can watch a Shakespere play in SL with voice. You can meet published and famous authors all the time in Second Life.

There are also various SIMS dedicated to writers, which I gravitated to. These SIMS have an ever growing amount of events for writers. Poetry, Novels and Short Stories are all represented. Readings, courses, workshops...it is really a growing and very interesting place for a writer to learn and to be.

Of course, as all over, the scammers are there as well, trying to take advantage of naïve writers. But we know this to be an evil we live with, and thus it should come as no surprise to any of us that some have invaded Second Life.

Well where are we going with all this? After meeting up with some published authors from all over the world, (and we will be doing some interviews with some of them, as their books are about to come out), it was fun to become an active part of the community. I teach three different workshops in Second Life, all well attended all fun, all with great people.

There are also some fairly interesting literary mags. available in Second Life. It of course is an extension of Internet/Ebook Publishing, though not in the same way. Protection in this closed environment is fairly good. And we will be doing an interview with an editor or two of these magazines to give you an idea of what they are looking for and how to submit.

They don't pay yet, this is a very expermental avenue, but a growing one, and most of the magazines have huge readerships, plus all have plans to move into the normative print medium. This is not something any writer looking for other avenues of publishing should ignore.

So, along with the normative posts we will be doing some on Second Life. Beware though, I have some really funny stories to tell.

By the way if you are already a Second Life member, come on over and visit me at Written Word in the SIM called Cookie. My Second Life identity is "Kitviel Silberberg" (shhhhh...don't tell anyone) and I am giving workshops on Blogging, Short Story Writing, and Ebook and Publishing Rights.

You will find the free Downloads of PDF summaries of all the Workshops by clicking here.

And if you are not then take a look at Second Life. Just don't get addicted!

Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

Throw A Rock And Hit A Writer...

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:39:00 +0000

One of the most startling things tourists from the US find in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv streets while they take a stroll, are the incredible amount of street cats that populate the cities. The city managers have over the course of the years, attempted to bring this blight under control coupled with the ASPCA, but cats are still all over. When my mother, years and years ago used to visit here, she would love to say, "If you throw a rock in Jerusalem, chances are you will either hit a lawyer or a cat." And certainly it is true there are more lawyers here then one knows what to do with, but I think most of us would kind of hope the arc of the rock would miss the cat and let us say, graze the lawyer. A gentle nudge as it were.

Well, things change. The world moves on. Technology has taken over our lives. And so today, the saying should be changed just a wee bit. "If you throw a rock in Jerusalem, chances are you will either hit a writer or a cat."

Everyone I meet these days is a "writer" or an "author". I do not say this with any embedded cynicism by the way. I think self-expression is a very good thing. But recently while I perused the pathways of the Internet, I have come to amend that statement once again.

"If you throw a rock on the Internet, 99% of the time you will hit someone claiming to be a writer. The other 1% of the time your rock will land in a no-man's land."

Recently with a bit of tongue in cheek I talked about the new Internet craze, Facebook. (The Book Will Not Make You Succeed - You Make The Book Succeed). And in truth Facebook is somewhat fascinating, in that gadzillions of people secretly found a way to waste their time by throwing kisses, hugs, booze, cats, balloons, and every object you can possibly think of at each other. They flirt, they take virtual showers together, they talk and they babble. It truly is a fascinating aspect of human culture in our day and age. And every time they do something you get hit with an email!

On Facebook there are groups. Much like the "old technology" of Yahoo groups and Google groups. Anyone, as far as I can tell, can start a group, about any subject under the sun. So of course one should not be surprised that there are quite a few "writing" groups on Facebook as well. Some have already garnered a few thousand members. And what is actually interesting, is that there is no snipping, no foolishness and certainly none of the Absolute idiocy one finds on other writer Absolute writer forum boards these days. Isn't it amazing that when people from all over the world get together, in a decent forum, they can actually deal with the topics at hand?

But back to the point. So these groups allow many of the writers to emerge from the closet as it were. Some of course, make the major boo-boo of posting their work on Facebook itself. Others publish it in their blogs.

But the major lesson is this:

Everyone is becoming an author these days!

To be sure I myself got into trouble when I joined a group whose Administrator had begun it to give some more PR to her own business. I did not realize this at first, however, it is perfectly legitimate to do such things. So when this person started posting about the great possibilities of self-publishing, I posted back a reply not in favor of it. Well I got smacked down! OMG! On Facebook yet! I still cannot figure out if the person is a PR company, or offering her services to be a go-between. One of those people who promises to get you an agent. Is this individual legitimate or just a shell for a scam?

But you know what? Everyone is an author. And no matter how many times we write about scams and such, grown people will often do childish things. Simple as all that. And they are often parted from their hard-earned money.

Back to the point... yet again!

Sites like Facebook (Gather as well) are slowly making inroads into our way of acting, reacting and thinking. It is a very swift exchange of information, and there is certainly an ever-increasing "information overload" going on. The trouble is no one person can cover it all. Trends come and go, but the art of writing certainly is loved and cherished still, if one is to judge by the numbers.

I assume, and this may be a faulty assumption, most of the writing is just for fun though many have professional aspirations. Still if one wants to get a handle on things that interest people today, and write about it, I can think of worse endeavors than to spend a few days looking at Facebook and Gather and studying the actions and reactions of people. You are not going to get famous on Facebook. It wont raise your Google ranking for your name. But it will allow you a peek into the changing world of things.

So when you do your research, go to Gather and Facebook and throw a rock. Make it a light one and don't hurt anyone. But chances are you are going to hit a writer or a would be author. Chances are as well, you will end up wasting an enormous amount of time. But it is better than watching and episode of Law and Order or CSI for the fifth time! And besides, on Facebook if you do publish your latest chapter, you can at least get all your listed friends to read it! Just throw them a hug and a kiss and a balloon!

Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

Manless In Montclair - The Genre Of Memoirs

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:57:00 +0000

It is rare that I will do a book review here at Cobwebs Of The Mind. And in truth the following book review for Manless in Montclair: How a Happily Married Woman Became a Widow Looking for Love in the Wilds of Suburbia is not so much due to the nature of the book but the story behind it. Let me be a bit clearer. Not the story in the book itself, which is basically a fictionalized account of the true story of Author, Amy Holman Edelman. It is due to the way one woman was able to take her own life experience and parlay that into a book which has garnered a great deal of interest.

In 2001, Amy Edelman went out one day, she returned to her home to find out she had become a widow with her husband's sudden death. At that point Amy did not give up on life, which is something very tempting to do. After a few years Amy decided it was time to try and find a relatinship which would lead to marriage. The story of this quest is documented in Manless in Montclair.

What I want to bring to the attention of readers of Cobwebs Of The Mind is the ingenuity and perhaps even gumption of how Amy turned an event into her life into a book, which is actually a memoir but a fictionalized one. The message here is there are stories everywhere, if you are willing to let the world read about your most intimate thoughts. The genre of memoir is usually reserved for the famous and infamous. However, even in this genre, one can turn around and find that specific niche and idea which will enter the market in a positive way. And while I certainly do not wish upon anyone the events which took place in Amy Edelman's life, it is an education for writers who are sifting through ideas and possibilities on what to write and how to write it.

It is true though one must be careful in this genre. You should have a story and a message. Few people want to read a fictionalized account of how wise your grandparents were. To be incredibly crass but completely realistic, tragedy sells, but it has to be written in a way which interests many people, and something the public at large can relate to. And again it is worth repeating, once you decide to go down this path, you must be willing to lay your soul bare and express its pain as well as the joy. If you cannot do this, memoir writing is just not for you.

The following is a review up at Amazon on the book by Jamie Driggers.

When Isabel went out to get her teeth whitened, she didn't know that she would return to a life she couldn't recognize. Husbands shouldn't die unexpectedly, leaving their happily married wives as widows. And young daughters shouldn't request a new daddy for Chanukah. Where is a suburban woman supposed to find love when she thought she was out of the dating pool for good?

Manless in Montclair is a fictionalized account of Amy Holman Edelman's own journey. Sudden widowhood was bad enough, but finding a new daddy for her girls through 21st Century dating had its own challenges. When internet dating, dating services and speed dating didn't work, she tried an email blast offering a free trip to the person who found her next husband.

In a journey back and forth through time, from dating her husband, through their relationship to his sudden death, we get to know what makes Isabel tick. She isn't just another woman desperate for a man; she is a mother desperate to honor her daughter's wishes. You have to laugh at her antics while also feeling sorry for her situation.

I admit that the time travel in the beginning of the book was disconcerting. It took a while before I felt relatively confident about what was going on. It also felt like we spent most of the book in about two weeks worth of time and then went into hyper speed because of the method. Also, East Coasters will probably better relate with this book than Midwesterners as many topics were rather foreign to me (I've been in the burbs my whole life). But overall, it did work, so give her a chance and stay with her.

Manless in Montclair is a witty and heartbreaking story of coping with sudden change.

You can also read an interesting though short interview with the author up at Yahoo News. However this book does on the market, one can only wish Amy Holman Edelman only joy and happiness from now on. And may she and all of you out there who celebrate it have a wonderful Hanukkah - full of light and love and chasing away the darkness.

Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

The Book Will Not Make You Succeed - You Make The Book Succeed

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:52:00 +0000

Way back on June 22, 2006, I published a piece here at Cobwebs Of The Mind, called, "Viral Technology - An Introduction". This piece was aimed at bloggers and trying to help them understand what in the end causes one site to be successful while another fails. MySpace and more recently, FaceBook, are excellent examples of "viral" technology at work. Especially Facebook, which seems to grow in astronomical terms.

Up until the other day I viewed Facebook as a curiouso. I thought of it as another MySpace only a lot more technologically minded, in that it's structure was open and allowed people to contact others with a unique method of causing everyone to enter the system and spreading the word. Even the Home Page of the user screams "viral system".

I personally used Facebook simply because a good friend asked me to join, and then I could be kept abreast of some parties and events they organize and go to. Most of the time I ignored it. Another click and a massive waste of time. Then one day, my nieces, somehow found me on Facebook and sent me messages. Of course they told me not to hit on any of their friends and to change my picture! But they also told me it is boring because I only have one friend listed!

So my nieces became my friends and then my nephew. I was up to four friends! Now, the original person who instigated my joining Facebook to begin with, started bugging me to "get more friends" as well. Relentless, she was. Drove me bonkers.

So one day I log in, and in a moment of madness, I allow Facebook to read all my Gmail contacts, saying to myself, "o.k. out of all these people in my gmail account maybe one or two will show up". Boy was in for a shock. My friends list went from four to Zoom.

So what does this all have to do with Writing?

Ahh two important points here. Here was my big shocker. In my private email account which I used for Facebook, there were quite a few agents, editors etc. Most of these agents I had queried at one time or another. And suddenly, they were showing up as friends in Facebook! Now that may not be astounding for you, but to me it was an eye-opener. And I will try and explain.

You see, I have always looked at the mysterious world of getting published, as being somewhat arcane and behind the times. Just witness the amount of agents who still refuse to accept any query or submission via email and you may get my drift. It also is a very slow moving world. Of course agents, editors and publishers think they move fast enough thank you very much, but truth be told they are no where near to speed as other industries.

Another factor is something I have noticed as well. In my mind I call them the "traditionalists". These are the people who resist any change, any nuance of innovation in the publishing industry. Any type of change smacks of a new way to take advantage of writers. And whereas, readers of Cobwebs Of The Mind know I am a great fan of sites such as Writer Beware, who does an awesome job, I still find much of the way we work and how we work to be in the middle ages.

So yes, I was kind of shocked at this sudden ability to view profiles and gasp!, even pictures of the agents who were second to God to me for much of my writing life (though no more).

And this whole experience got me to thinking about the nature of the game. Publishers and agents will tell you this, without any embarrassment, nor should there be, that if you want to break in to a non-fiction field, you must have what is known as "name recognition". This is just another term for "viral systems". In this case your own name is a "viral" system. Your own expertise. They rely on word of mouth in almost the exact same way that Facebook does.

So if you are an unknown novelist or non-fiction writer, what you must do in your search for a successful career in writing, is create your own "FaceBook". You must "market" yourself. You must be smart and allow people to know who you are and spread your own FaceBook around. This is not a secret by the way. It is simple common sense.

The day your ms. is accepted for publication is the day you need to start being a FaceBook. Not when the book is published, and not even on the pre-publication date. But months before. You need to "spread the word", "create the hype", and put notices up on your "wall" in your own Facebook. How do you do this? That is an excellent question, and I will share one failure which I had in this area.

I run quite a few blogs as hobbies. I am not one of those believers that you are going to make zillions on blogs. Topics of interest to me actually. One of those blogs is named, Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen. This blog is described by myself as:

A humorous look into the adventures of a single parent who learned the hard way and with a great deal of trepidation how to cook, feed his children, friends and the rare date with a measure of dignity and (hopefully) good food - Recipes Included! And it is all KOSHER to boot!

(No this is not a plug for the blog!) When I began Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen, it was a mixture of frustration and just a desire to entertain a few people. Frustration because I had tried to sell a humourous though "real" book on recipes and humor, to the publishers aptly named of course "Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen". My agent at the time loved the idea. But I had NO "name recognition" - I had no "Facebook". So the answers came back and almost all said, along the lines, "Great idea. Good reading. But no commercial name recognition."

Lots of terms were used but it all boiled down to "Who the hell is this guy who is writing recipes? Is he famous? Is he on TV or Radio? Is he a famous chef?" Witness the success of the new cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, Deceptively Delicious, (wife of the famous Jerry Seinfeld).

So on the advice of a friend I just took Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen from a book into blog format. And to my total shock, and I do mean complete and total shock, the blog "Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen" became famous in just a couple of months. It won awards. It had thousands of hits a week. People from all over the world were submitting recipes, and kosher ones to boot.

So after a few months, I tried again on the book vein. After all, I could now lay claim to the fact that "Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen", as a book was a viable and popular project. I could prove it with numbers. To me it was a no-brainer. And guess what? Again I got back:

"Who the hell is this guy who is writing recipes? Is he famous? Is he on TV or Radio? Is he a famous chef?"

My own "FaceBook" still did not make it in the big leagues. It was a frustrating lesson and a depressing one to boot. But a real one. In 99% of the cases, the book is not going to make you famous or rich or sought after - You are going to make the book! In other words: The Book Will Not Make You Succeed - You Make The Book Succeed.

Publishing is moving forward. But your work is not going to become an overnight sensation even if you have a thousand friends in Facebook. You need to create and work on, along with writing your book, your own Facebook. So anyone who told you the business of a new, fledging writer is to write, and only to write, is full of crap. You don't only have to write. You have to sell yourself. You need to create your own unique Facebook.

Oh, and by the way, before I forget. I am Ted Gross on FaceBook. So add me as your friend. My nieces are telling me that I really do need more friends!!!!

Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

The Kindest, Most Compassionate And Wisest Man I Have Ever Met On The Face Of This Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Teddy) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:21:00 +0000

I usually try and refrain from really personal things on my blogs, especially on Cobwebs Of The Mind, where the goal is to discuss the aspects of being an author and the life of one. However, today I will break from this tradition just once, as it is something that I think I must write about. Maybe, I am getting hit with "memoir disease" so excuse this post if you are not into it.

Tonight and tomorrow is the "Yureitzeit" that is a Yiddish word, which means "Anniversary of the Death" of my father. This year it worked out on Thanksgiving. The Hebrew calendar is Lunar and thus we go according to Hebrew dates and not English ones. It also is a fact that my Mom's birthday (who is long gone as well) is Thanksgiving. So I guess this year is a double whammy for walking down memory lane.

I am astounded that my father has been gone for 26 years now. One would think after so much time a child will no longer miss his father or mother. Time heals all wounds as they say. Certainly after 26 years it is time to move on. Or is it?

I have lived through a great many events in my lifetime. I have met thousands of people. I have seen pure goodness and pure evil. I have been the recipient of both evil and good. I have taken part in war and reaped the blessings of peace.

Through the years I have listened to a great many people express themselves. I have watched them and their actions. I have learned or try to learn from everything and everyone.

And I would still give my right arm for the wisdom my father possessed in his little pinky. In this sojourn upon the earth, I have rarely come across one whom I could hope to compare to Pop. And I have never, ever, come across anyone, who had the kindness and compassion for all humanity that Pop had.

He taught me from a very young age two simple rules.

"When you see," he would say, "someone better off than you, do not let jealousy take hold. Because you never know what that person is carrying around inside and what his sorrows are. And when you see someone worse off than you, always remember, 'If not but for the grace of God there goes I'."

That is great advice. Best you can get as far as I am concerned.

Pop was kind. Too kind, some people would say and have said. Perhaps you can never be too kind, I truly don't know. He knew the measure of compassion that people required. This was a measure of his wisdom.

This is not the place to eulogize Pop or Mom, nor is it the place to describe how much good they did in this world.

When I was all of 20 we went to visit my Grandmother's grave. At that time Pop had been without his Mother for 21 years. (I never met any of my grandparents.) I will never forget that day in the cemetery in Queens, off the Long Island Expressway when snow flurries floated down from the sky. Pop drove to that grave as if he had been there the day before. Not one wrong turn along the many pathways in that huge cemetery. Then Pop stood over his mother's grave and cried like a baby. And I remember thinking a not so good thought at the time. I remember wondering if I would be able to cry like that 20 years after my father died. I did not think it was truly possible to be honest. Pop was well, Pop. He was special beyond the words that a post in a blog can describe. I was not Pop. I could not see myself that emotionally upset 20 years after my parents died.

Well it is over 20 years since he died. I miss him terribly. Still. And I know I will always miss him, even if I live to be 120. It simply is the legacy he left me with. I have learned the hard way and with great pain, that when you know someone like Pop, well you have no control over the tears.

But this I also know. Pop was the kindest, most compassionate and wisest man I have ever met on the face of this earth.

In the end that is all I wanted to say. That is my thanksgiving on this holiday of Thanksgiving. Thank you Pop and thank you Mom - for being mine.

Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind