neolythic

News Release 05/17/09

Sun, 17 May 2009 09:16:47 -0700

Author Maxwell Cynn has updated the release of his popular eBook "CybrGrrl" under his own name. The book was originally released under the pen name "Jasmine Bale", a character from Mr. Cynn's "Ezekiel Strong" series. Both the MobiPocket and Kindle versions of the eBook have been updated with a new cover. The release was made under he same efile as the original so that anyone who has previously purchased the eBook through Mobi or Amazon can download the new version. The text has not changed - only the cover art and author.

Friends with benefits

Wed, 13 May 2009 13:33:02 -0700

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Writing is a lonely thing at times. We toil in obscurity pouring our hearts out on the page. No one can help us do it. The words are in us, and must come through our hands. Friends can encourage us, offer suggestions, read our rough drafts, but they can not tell our story. We do that alone.

In days gone by it was even more so. A writer had only a few friends and family members to turn to for much needed criticism and help editing her work. We all love these people, they are our greatest support – our strength. Yet this help is only beneficial to a point. They read our drafts, praise our efforts, boost our egos, but unless you are in the English department of a university your friends are probably not the best qualified to edit your work and offer impartial criticism.

Today we have the Internet, and social networking. Writers are coming together as never before with an ease not even dreamed of by writers a generation ago. We have online crit groups with people from all walks of life, from all over the world, people we would otherwise never meet in a lifetime of conferences. The new togetherness is available to us 24/7, whenever we need it.

There are some pitfalls to our new togetherness. As I said before, we write alone. We need that alone time for plots to develop in our minds, characters to come to life within us. Like kids at a candy store, we are tempted to gorge ourselves on our newfound social group. Then we are on facebook, or tweeter, or AgentQuery, instead of writing.

We need balance. I have meet some wonderful new friends online – fellow writers at every level from beginner to published authors. All have helped me along the path, and I try to help them all I can. We are a family, a fraternity of artists working to perfect our craft. Their critiques and inspiration are priceless. It is the single most important asset we can develop, friendships with fellow writers.

If you aspire to write, whether you dream of the New York Times Best Seller List or plan to self publish an eBook, those connections are critical. No one can critique your work better than a fellow writer. No one else can understand your passion, share in your pain at rejection or your joy over a good review. These distant acquaintances can become your greatest allies and dearest friends.

Use our network. Build it. Nurture it. But beware the seduction of the womb. We are not writing if we are all on facebook playing Vampires, or Mafia Wars. And as these friendships grow closer, their benefits change as well. A tight nit group, even a crit group, can fall into praising and supporting each other, and the criticism becomes less impartial.

New acquaintances are invaluable as reality checks. The criticism, or praise, from a writer you hardly know is a great boon. So keep reaching out, keep meeting new writers – offer critique, encouragement, invite them to your crit group. New eyes are the sharpest. The more eyes that see your work – before an agent, editor, or it is self published – the better.

One more little caveat about the eyes of strangers, or even friends. It is a mantra of publishing that – say it with me - Publishing is a very subjective business. Everyone has different tastes and styles. Each writer is unique, or should be. Again, at the end of the day, you write alone.

When you receive criticism or praise, consider the source. If I show a regency romance to a horror writer I will get totally different feedback than if the writer is a sci-fi or fellow romance writer. All crit is beneficial, not all carry equal weight. Your mother saying it's the best thing ever may not mean a lot, especially if she doesn't know Orwell from O'Henry from Obama.

The Internet has opened a new world for writers – from networking with fellow writers, to meeting fans, to self publishing your work. Use the tools wisely. Just because you can self publish doesn't mean you are ready, and just because Aunt Martha cried at the ending doesn't mean it's a best seller. Use the tools, and polish, polish, polish. All your writer friends are here to help.

max

#queryfail > #agentfail > writers self publish

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:53:11 -0700

With all the current bad blood between agents and writers, and the belt tightening at publishers, the industry seems to be at a cross roads. Many writers are giving up on the quest for an agent and querying small presses directly. The big houses still demand to work through agents. This is good news for the small presses, great manuscripts with lower advances. Some small presses could break into the best seller list. Perhaps we will see the days of "Breakout Novel"s again, not manufactured best sellers that owe more to marketing than literary excellence.

I'm not going to get involved in the mud slinging. To be honest, I am currently seeking representation. I still think there are good agents out there. There are good agents and bad agents, good publishers and bad publishers, good writers and bad writers. I'm not painting anyone, or any group, with a broad brush. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, our tastes and opinions.

One option for those who are frustrated with the query-go-round is self publishing. It has always been an option, but these times of eBooks and POD it has never been easier. The days of the maligned "Vanity Press" are, for the most part, behind us. The buzz now is Indie and Viral. Put it out there and see if it flies. I can see a day when a breakout novel hits the best seller list from a POD press or when eBooks are as common as paperbacks.

Self publishing has never been easier. With very little computer skill - no more than it takes to learn your favorite word processing program - you can publish a very professional product. With Amazon, and many other outlets, you can market your work to the world. The only drawback of the easy publishing is the huge amount of responsibility placed on the author/publisher.

When you self publish, it is all you. You write the ms, edit, and format. You need cover art, ads for marketing, etc. You are saddled with all of the book's production from start to finish. You don't have an agent to do leg work for you, editors to check your work, designers to make it all look good - you're on your own. Daunting, but liberating. You have complete control. If you sell one copy or a million you have yourself to blame or praise.

There are also a variety of new presses opening their doors that offer very flexible assistance with the process. These buffet presses offer anything from simply POD of your formatted files to complete publishing - editing to marketing. You can get the services you need and still do all the things you are capable of, and/or willing to do. Flexibility is the current trend - do all you can yourself then contract the things you are not comfortable with. This is breaking publishing up into a thousand little parts.

More and more options for getting your work, your art, out into public view is always a good thing. Most writers are more interested in being read than being rich. We write to share our gift with the world. That is why writers have trouble understanding the business of publishing. We just want our work published so people can read it. Agents and Publishers are in the business of making money. It is the same in all of the arts, and artists have always struggled to have their art seen by the masses.

As writers I think we need to take a serious look at ourselves and out aspirations. If all you really want is to be read, maybe get some praise or awards for our work, there are hundreds of options to get your work out there. Publish a website for you novel, offer it free as an eBook, print it with a POD press, enter it in contests or for awards. Marketing, to make money, is where it gets complicated. That's the domain of agents and traditional publishers.

As I said, I'm still on the query-go-round because I think I have a marketable ms, but not the expertise to market it. I want a best seller someday, I want to sit in a bookstore and sign books, and I would love to quit the day job and spend the rest of my life writing and interacting with readers. So I continue to assail the "gatekeepers" for entrance into the halls of commercial publishing.

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:36:31 -0700

From Amazon:

One hundred semifinalists have been selected for the next round of the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Each entry in the Top 100 has received a full manuscript review from Publishers Weekly, in addition to early customer reviews of excerpts posted during the quarterfinals. We will announce three finalists for the Grand Prize on May 15--begin reading and reviewing excerpts today and see if your favorite reads make it to the Final Three.

The competition tightens as Amazon, and Penguin, sift through the top 100 semifinalists. Several of my friends on Blogger and Facebook are among them. Of course I want them all to win, but now the field will be cut to three finalists. Then readers, reviewers, and anyone with an account on Amazon will be able to vote on their favorite.

I'm not about to pick any front runners, the excerpts I've read are too good to chose between. This contest could go to any of the 100 chosen. Once the field is cut to three I might voice a favorite. Then again I may not. I can see all three very easily being three of my new friends, and if that is the case I will vote in silence and pull for all three.

Good luck to all my friends, and to the others that I haven't had the pleasure to meet yet. 100 wonderful excerpts, now I need to decide which to read. I think I have already read and reviewed the excerpts for everyone I know in the contest. If I missed you let me know and I'll put yours at the top of my list.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards: Quarter-Final Round

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:00:02 -0700

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March 16, 2009 (Monday) Amazon.com will post the excerpts presented by the 500 writers who made the quarter-final round. There were approximately 10,000 entries in ABNA this year, so it is a huge achievement to make this cut. It was decided based on the writers' pitches of their novels and the strength of their excerpt.

Between March 16 and April 14 Excerpts and associated reviews will be posted at http://www.amazon.com/abna where Amazon customers can download the excerpts and write their own reviews. (Information on submitting reviews on Amazon.com can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/guidelines.html )

On April 15, 2009 Penguin will select 100 semi-finalists based on those reviews, among other things. Between now and April they all need your help. Get in there and read those excerpts, rate them, comment, make your voice heard, and support your favorites.

There will be 500 excerpts from the best of the 10,000 writers who entered. This will be some great writing. You may be reading the first chapter(s) of the next Best Selling Novel. ABNA has been compared to the American Idol of writing because you, dear reader, not only get to review and critique the top writers – on May 15, 2009 you will get to vote on the winner. More on that later.

For now, get ready for some great reading over the next few weeks. Visit Amazon.com, sign up as a customer or log in if you are already a customer, review the guidelines, and get ready to read. You can also friend one of our authors, Maxwell Cynn, on Amazon.com through your customer profile.

Http://www.amazon.com/abna

truck

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:23:45 -0700

mustang

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:23:14 -0700

sleepy

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:47:25 -0700

Kitty had a hard day

MySpace

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:46:46 -0700

my little corner of the world

Kitty

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:46:03 -0700

kitty thinks she can stop my rocking chair

Friends

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:45:17 -0700

kitty and friend take a nap

desktop

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:44:44 -0700

my desktop

Charlotte

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:44:13 -0700

Charlotte, NC
"The center of the known world"

Bricks

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:43:42 -0700

really cool brickwork

Why Kindle

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:48:08 -0800

Many of the new literary social networks that are popping up use the Amazon.com database to fill their book list, their author list, get cover art for your books, etc. If it is on Kindle it will be listed on all of those sites. They also give "buy" links to your book. Free advertising of your eBook without you doing a thing. It is better than high page rank on google.

Publishing your eBook on Kindle is free and easy. If you produced an HTML version of your manuscript for using in the MobiPocket creator you can use that same file on Kindle. Kindle uses the MobiPocket API so it also uses the same tags in your HTML for linking etc. The same file you fed into the MobiPocket creator to make your eBook can be uploaded to Amazon.com to create a Kindle version of your book. You can also use the same cover you used for your MobiPocket eBook.

Once your eBook is uploaded to Amazon.com your eBook will appear on the various literary social networks, and any other sites that rely on Amazon.com's database. You are automatically listed on dozens of sites. It only took minutes in my test. We hadn't published Jasmine Bale's book on Amazon yet so I grabbed the HTML file and uploaded it. I went to Goodreads and there it was, already available for people to find and add to their profiles.

If you are ePublishing, on any format, I highly recommend you also publish a Kindle version. My sales have been better on MobiPocket than Kindle but you can't beat the free advertising. Even if the Kindle version never sells one copy the name recognition is priceless.

New Year at The Underground Press

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:46:00 -0800

2008

It's been a great year. In 2008 the underground press stepped into the literary world with the release of my first book, ArchAngelxx. We set up an ASP.net 2.0 website, an on-line version of the book, and published an eBook through MobiPocket Books and Amazon.com's new Kindle Reader. We also set up pages on MySpace, Virb, and Helium to promote my writing.

ArchAngelxx quickly became a best seller on the MobiPocket Books web site, and remained there for several months. Since then I've been working on another manuscript, Ezekiel Strong : Haunted. It is the first in a series of suspense/paranormal romance with a hardboiled feel. I also edited CybrGrrl, by Jasmine Bale, which was then published by the underground press on MobiPocket Books and Kindle.

The underground press also published an anthology of sermons this year for Christian Underground Ministries. The sermons were originally presented in the 1990's as part of the underground church, one of the first churches on the burgeoning Internet. Neolythic also completed an overall face-lift of Christian Underground Ministries' web site.

It's been a busy and productive year for me and for the underground press. I have Ezekiel Strong : Haunted complete and I'm currently looking for an agent or publisher to help get it into print. Book two of the series, Ezekiel Strong : Lilith, is also complete and ready for publication. Book three is under way. I'm also working on editing some more of Jasmine Bale's erotic stories for publication through the underground press.

The new year looks to be even busier than the last. I'm looking forward to big things in '09. The underground press will be putting out more eBooks on MobiPocket Books and Kindle, and I hope '09 will be my year to see that big New York book deal. I'll also be putting out a few eBooks with the underground press and continuing to edit and write articles for various sources.

Hope you all have a great New Year. Keep writing, reading, and buying books. Everyone is worried about the failing economy but literature is still the biggest bang for your entertainment dollar. Nothing can bring more enjoyment for less money than a good book. Remember to support your local book seller and your favorite authors.

Max

CybrGrrl Cover

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:32:47 -0800

We have the cover art complete for the eBook edition of CybrGrrl. The artist, and model, chosen is a photographer and entrepreneur in Second Life named Stella Stapleton: owner of Stella's Mall on Stella Island in Second Life. She is also a fellow blogger. http://stellasmall.blogspot.com/ and photographer for the eZine Sexy Second. Maxwell Cynn, who edited CybrGrrl, found Stella's Mall searching for a good image to use on the cover. Ms. Stapleton's SL in-world photography is some of the best we have seen. You can see all of her work on her flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stellastapleton/

Author : Jasmine Bale

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:02:13 -0800

We are proud to announce an upcoming release from the underground press. We will soon be publishing the first of the CybrGrrl series by Jasmine Bale. Ms. Bale has written a very hot, very cutting edge novel about an emerging Artificial Lifeform: a sexy virtual companion who reaches the level of self awareness. The plot is intriguing, following the emergence of the Artificial Intelligence, and steamy. Some of the smoking hot love scenes run the gamut from wild three way sex to romantic and sweet first time love. The eBook, which will be available on MobiPocket and Amazon Kindle Reader, will release in the next few weeks.

Antivirus XP 2008

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:32:26 -0700

My son picked up a nasty little piece of malware the other day. It popped up like a normal windows warning message, the kind you see all the time. You click anything - ignore, OK, X, anywhere on the screen - it downloads and installs. Once you click the link to go to a web page with the virus you are caught, before you can do anything. It was a Google link, nothing suspicious.

The program is called Antivirus XP 2008. The hacker has spent a lot of time and effort to spoof a legit windows app. The graphics are nice - professional. The program claims to be an antivirus scanner and begins scanning. It reports a host of system files infected and offers to remove the infestation of viruses, worms, and Trojans... for a fee. It wants you to purchase and register for the full version.

I hate to think what happens to the poor sap who registers and gives the hacker their credit card number. The program will not close and your system is tied up and useless. You can cntrl+alt+delete and stop the process, but the malware digs in deep. It also replaces your screensaver with a fake blue screen of death and your background image with a screen size virus warning.

Symantec has a write up on it, but it was hard to find. I found a lot of information googling but not much help. Here is the Symantec link, it will tell you how to remove all of the files the maleware drops on your system.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2008-071613-4343-99&tabid=2

You need to either reboot in safe mode, or as i did use msconfig.exe to restart without loading the startup files. Then remove all of the files listed in Symantec's article, and make the registry edits. The version I had to deal with went the extra step, as mentioned above, of overwriting the screensaver and background and then locking them out. Even after getting rid of the infection we could not reset them.

I found the screen saver file in the system32 folder. It has a random name, so you have to look for a screensaver file with a random name. You can look in the registry to see what that random string is on your system. Then I had to edit the registry to allow access to the screensaver and background tabs on the properties control.

Here is the regedit. Keys added through the cmd prompt:

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispScrSavPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispScrSavPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispBackgroundPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispBackgroundPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

That gets the tabs back on the properties control so you can set your background and screensaver.

WARNING: If you are not comfortable poking around in the registry... DON'T!! You can quickly do more harm than good. I have not been very descriptive on how to do the registry edits on purpose. If you are familiar with regedits the information will be all you need. If you are lost at this point, get some help.

Good luck

neo

ePublishing with PDF

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:14:30 -0700

One of the simplest ways to ePublish your manuscript is by saving it as a PDF document. These files can be uploaded to many of the websites that sell eBooks, they are compatible with most of the eBook Readers available, and they can easily be attached to an email or offered for free download from your existing website or blog.

PDF files are as simple to work with as typing your manuscript. If you use Open Office, which I highly suggest, converting your manuscript to a PDF file is simple. Just choose "export as .pdf" from the file menu.

PDF files are not as reflowable as documents based on the Open eBook specifications, such as MobiPocket, which makes them a little less mobile friendly. There are ways to set up your PDF file to make it more friendly to smaller screens, and some versions of the Adobe Reader software do the conversions for you. The only problem with that is editorial control. It is hard to predict how the text might appear on different devices.

If your target readers will be printing the manuscript or viewing it on a standard screen, then PDF is a very simple solution to provide your manuscript to reviewers. As eBooks become more popular I am sure Adobe will update the PDF format to make it even more user friendly and device friendly. For now I prefer MobiPocket for my finished eBooks, but PDF is a good, quick way to offer the manuscript to friends and others who will help polish it.