Book Proposal

 

Table of Contents
 

 The Concept
 

 About the Book
 

 About the Author
 

 About the Market
 

 About Promotion
 

 Books on the Subject
 

Production Details
 
Elements of the Book
 

 Table of Contents
 

 Chapter Synopsis
 

 Sample Chapters

 

"I talk.. and don't recite.. at all.. just "feed" ... off the wonderful words of others... ramble.. I call it.. when i feel "possessed".. with overflowing thoughts.. I am just an clunky old rambler... *smile*... and love words"

 

The Concept
 
Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat will:

by telling real stories help chatters who often feel alone and sometimes ostracized, feel part of a growing community made up of millions who chat around the world.

give people who have never chatted a glimpse into a cyber community where people are connecting with each other across gender, income, racial, and national boundaries.

it is a book about relationships and journeys on the net.

On any given night there are over 30 million people chatting on the net. Chatters come from all walks of life: upper and lower class, career and unemployed, teens to retirees. Those who live in this country may end up chatting with someone from the Middle East, Japan, South Africa, or the North Pole. They become intimate with chatters they may never meet or choose to interact with in "real" life. The one thing in common about these people is that they are all part of the new global village on the internet.
 
Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat is an insider's book for and about chatters. For chatters who often find themselves alone at night in front of their monitors while the rest of the world is deep in sleep, it is a reaffirmation that millions of people are also doing the same thing. For those who have not yet chatted, it exposes them to this new cyber community being built across racial and national boundaries. It is a book about relationships and journeys on the net. Utilizing real conversations and anecdotes, author Sheila Franklin gives faces to some of those millions of chatters. Just as people who are interested in fishing or gardening, buy and read books about fishing and gardening, those who chat will be interested in reading a book about chatting.
 
A recently released successful movie starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, "You've Got Mail", about two people who meet and fall in love on the net is just one in a growing trend of films on this subject such as "The Net", "First Kid", "Ransom" et al. It is almost impossible to turn on a television set now without seeing references to chatting. For example, many talk shows have utilized the theme "When Chatters Meet".
 
There is still very little written about this new and rapidly growing national past-time. During a search of amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com about two dozen books on the subject appeared. Most focus on how to meet someone you have chatted with, software and technology available to facilitate chatting, and a few novels. One of these, "The Joy of Cybersex" by Deb Levine, is on barnesandnoble.com's best seller list.
 
Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat is the only book that examines the actual experiences of chatters and of life in a chatroom. Franklin has spent thousands of hours over the last three years chatting and has become a bona fide chat-expert.

 

"We search the world over and find just within the reach of our fingertips some one that we can share...and grow with..."

About the Book
 
There are millions of people in the nineties turning to cyberspace to find a community in which he/she can be a part and not be judged by looks, physical appearance, or lifestyle. Each sits alone in front of a computer chatting to an individual or room full of others who are also sitting alone, looking for company. Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat is a book about chatters and their lives on the net.
 
The net has opened up a whole new world where anyone can end their sense of isolation. There is even software available that can simultaneously translate foreign languages on a chat page. In a time when societies face increasing isolation. Often the only contact people have with the outside world is through their place of employment or via the news media. Through the media one sees a world divided into factions that are often at war or facing a crisis. There is no opportunity to personally interact with people.
 
In the blink of an eye, a computer monitor is turned on and two strangers meet. They get to know each other and exchange ideas and a relationship is formed. This delicate association binds them to each other and yet can be severed with an instant disconnection of electricity. Hence the title "Spiderwebs" is created.
 
These chatters are not the stereotypical computer "geeks". For example, an expectant mother will relate to her chatfriends from the time she first discovers that she is pregnant through the time of delivery. Her friends in the chatroom become "cyber-aunts" and "uncles" to the newborn. Chatters talk about their jobs, family and friends, lovers (or the lack of one), hobbies, music, or a recently released movie.
 
When major events occur around the world, chatters hear a wide range of opinions on the subject. During crises situations, i.e. the recent hurricane in Central America, they may meet others involved or those with family members directly affected by them. The recent bombings on Iraq exposed chatters to debate on both sides of the issue.

Although a few of the books found on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com are in part about chatting, they mostly focus on one aspect of that world, that of the age-old mating game. They concern themselves with topics such as "how to meet your next mate on the net" or "instruction in cyber-sex". While this is an aspect, be it a big one, of chatting, there are many who chat about other aspects of their lives. Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat covers the entire range of people's lives on the net.

 

"i am incredibly awed by the words...by the power of chat....and how it affects people... we turned a cold and horribly boring day for chatters into an escape...we made them forget about the cold of r/t...see why i am writing the book? *S*"

 

About the Author
 
Sheila Franklin has been chatting for over three years and has been writing of this book for almost that long. She has logged over 5,000 hours of chatting and visited many of the more popular chat sites on the net. She has done extensive research on chat sites and those who visit them, taking hundreds of pages of notes. She has not only been one of the millions around the globe who use this tool to communicate but has also been a trend setter in the chat world, helping to develop some of the etiquette and terminology commonly used now in her own favorite chatrooms.
 
Franklin has a total of over 14 years experience in the telecommunications field. She has an extensive background in the area of radio, television, and film. While a student at Palomar Junior College in San Marcos, California, she helped to create a radio station and was its first program director. While there, she also wrote, directed, and produced, a 20 minute teleplay. She created two short films at San Diego State University and worked as crew member on several projects at Palomar College and the PBS station at SDSU. She has received various awards and citations for public service work including "Home for Guiding Hands" and a special merit award for camera work on "Hope, Help and A New Beginning", a video made on the homeless in San Diego. She served as public service director, copy writer, editor, disk jockey, and newscaster for several radio stations.

For over four years she was owner of Games Etc., a retail store which specialized in new and used video games and accessories. She recently sold that business to return to her former career in telecommunications. As the sole operator for the store she developed extensive promotional and marketing skills.

 
She has recently completed a video documentary on the human rights situation in Colombia entitled Fiction of War as well as a 20 minute promotional video for the Colombia Support Network. She has just begun the postproduction phase of her next documentary concerned with child labor in India, entitled Caution Children at Work.
 
Franklin recognizes the potential of this medium in creating a global community, one that surpasses all national and ethnic boundaries. Her extensive knowledge of the chat world gained over the last three years combined with the thousands of hours spent on the net makes her imminently qualified on the subject. Her passion combined with her writing abilities and editing skills makes her most qualified to write this book.
 
In addition to working on Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat, Franklin has started work on her next book Before There was Chat, There was E-mail. She has taken the concept of using e-mail solely for correspondence one step further. She has written to literally hundreds of individuals and companies via their e-mail addresses and received replies from most of them. She has conscientiously gathered the best of these in her forthcoming book.
 
You will find them to be charming, poignant, witty, and sometimes obscure. They will amuse you, entertain you, even perhaps pull at your heart strings a bit, but no one who reads these e-'s will ever think the same again when composing or receiving one of his/her own.

 

"Its was (the 60's) a great common denominator. No one had to be good-looking or smart or rich; we all just accepted people as they were. It is similar in cyber. People from all over meet and connect. They can be living in a trailer or a mansion, but they can still connect."

About the Market
 
The prime audience for Spiderwebs is the over 30 million people who chat on thousands of sites on the net. In an informal survey done of five popular sites, over 750,000 chatters were on "ICQ" (I See You), 80,000 in "Bianca", 8,800 in "the-Park", and 1,400 in "Chatropolis" at that time.
 
According to ICQ, they have over 23,000,000 chat subscribers as of 11/98. Over 800,000 users have been online simultaneously, 80,000 new subscriptions occurred in a single day, and over 5,000,000 users participated daily.
 
Quoting from PowWow's home page, "More than three million users worldwide
communicate with each other and participate in more than 4,000 Communities using
Tribal Voice's PowWow software."
 
The-Park is one of the largest chat sites on the web. They claim that they are visited by 4,000,000 chatters every month.
 
AOL Instant Messenger is another popular chatting vehicle. According to their homepage, "AOL Instant Messenger is FREE for anyone who tries it today! Don't wait,
see how over 35 million users are already experiencing the fast, easy, and more efficient way to communicate online".
 
The recently released movie "You've Got Mail" grossed over $100 million during its first 6 weeks of theater release. Spiderwebs is a book about chatters and as such will be of interest to the millions who use this tool as a way to communicate. It will also be of appeal to thousands of others who have heard the term "chatting" from friends and/or family members, or who have seen such movies as "You've Got Mail", "First Kid", "The Net", and "Ransom". The book "Joy of Cybersex" by Deb Levine is a best seller according to barnesandnoble.com.
 
It is estimated that 3/4 of people chatting on the net are women. This would also hold true for the audience of this book. While the age of chatters ranges from teens upwards, the intended audience for this book are those in their mid-thirties to mid-fifties. The typical reader will be middle class professionals as well as high school graduates of mid-level income..
 
Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat would be categorized in one of the most popular sections of any bookstore, the "relationship" section.

 

"Sure seems like fun but when you don't know the names it is hard. Guess I have to tune in every nite to get the hang of it plus learn the short form for most of the words!!!"

 

About Promotion
 
Ravi Khanna is the agent, manager, and publicist for the author. Khanna will help promote the book in cooperation with the sales and publicity department of the publisher. He has extensive media and promotion experience. He is committed to supplementing the promotion done by the publishers of Spiderwebs.
 
Khanna has had years of organizing and public education experience. Most relevant is his experience in the education and outreach department of the renowned international aid organization, Oxfam America. As a consultant to the Mexico-based National Center for Social Communications, he organized a media event in New York attended by over 60 journalists. He is also a fund-raiser, which requires him to sell ideas to raise money. This skill will be very transferable when helping to market the book.
 
He will organize book tours, appearances on radio and television talk shows, contact book reviewers, and organize book signings. He will also contact prominent people who chat, people in the field of personal growth and psychology, and reviewers to solicit blurbs for the book jacket.
 
Specific Promotion Strategies:

 
Chatroom Sites

A couple of small banner ads in chatrooms would be a strategic use of promotional budget. Chatters will be fascinated to read a book written by another chatter that does not portray them as either a strange species or "computer nerds".

 
We expect Spiderwebs to be a topic of conversation in actual chatrooms and sell many copies by word-of-mouth. The room that the author has spent the majority of her chatting hours in is frequented by over one hundred people on any given day. They will be fascinated to read a book written by one of their "roomies". Many are quoted in the book and have expressed a keen interest in its progress.

 
There are frequent "reunions" of chatters from the hundreds of chat rooms that exist. The author will attend as many of these as possible to promote Spiderwebs.

Book Reviews

We will approach magazines like"Rolling Stones" (get readership) "Wired", "Yahoo", and "Family PC" as potential places where reviews of the book will be natural.

 
Television/Radio Talkshows

The topic of the book is already a popular topic on TV talk shows. "When Chatters meet for the First Time" as a topic has been featured on Jerry Springer Show, Oprah among other programs. These productions may be interested in doing a follow-up story on the subject. The National Public Radio program "Talk of the Nation" recently featured Esther Gwinnell, author of "Online Seduction" and Lisa Skriloff, who co-penned the book "Men are from Cyberspace".

 
The author and agent are eager to contribute time and, if need be, some personal resources to facilitate book sales. Both look forward to a promotional book tour.

 

"I am not addicted to this, i am not addicted to this!! I can walk away any time i want... click it off and not think about it!!! I am not addicted to this!!!!! *L* YEA RIGHT!!!!"

 

Books on the Subject

 
Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat is a book about chatters and their lives on the net. Sheila Franklin utilizes the thousands of hours she has spent chatting to document this unique life. What she has to say is amusing and poignant as well as witty and urbane. She is a true wordsmith in every sense of the word. She includes samples of real conversations and real events that occur in chatrooms.
 
Research was conducted at the online sites amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com for books on the topic. Approximately two dozen books on the general subject of chatting were found. Most of these books are how-to books ranging from guides to meeting people, finding romance on the net, cyber sex, different chat systems and software, and a couple of novels. Spiderwebs gives a very different treatment of the subject; it is about life on the net.
 
Most of the books on the subject are about love and sex on the net. They include:
 
The Joy of Cybersex : A Guide for Creative Lovers by Deb Levine (Paperback - 288
pages ~ Ballantine Books, September 1998) a best seller.
 
Online Friendship, Chat-Room Romance and Cybersex : Your Guide to Affairs of the Net by Michael Adamse and Sheree Motta (Paperback - 250 pages ~ Health Communications, October 1996).
 
Net Chat : Your Guide to the Debates, Parties, and Pick-Up Places on the Electronic Highway by Michael Wolff (Paperback ~ Wolff New Media, 1994).
 
Online Seductions: Falling in Love with Strangers on the Internet by Esther Gwinnell Nancy Cooperman Su (Hardcover - 256 pages ~ Kodansha America, Incorporated, May 1998).
 
Men are from Cyberspace: A Single Woman's Guide to Flirting, Dating and Finding Love Online by Lisa Skriloff and Jodie Gould (Paperback - 208 pages ~ St. Martin's Press, Inc., November 1997).
 
Deeper: My Two Year Odyssey in Cyberspace by John Seabrook (Paperback - 288 pages ~ Simon & Schuster Trade, January 1998).
 
Person-To-Person on the Internet by Diane Reiner and Keith A. Blanton (Paperback - 490 pages ~ Academic Press, Incorporated, November 1995).
 
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sex, Lies, and Online Chat by Sherry Kinkoph, (Published 1995).
 
Chat-Up Lines and Put Downs by Stewart Ferris (Paperback - 128 pages ~ Summerdale Pub. Ltd., July 1998)
 
How to Chat-Up Men by Amy Mandeville ( Paperback 160 pages, Summerdale Pub. Ltd., July 1998)
 
How to Chat-Up Women by Stewart Ferris (Paperback 160 pages, Summerdale Pub.
Ltd., July 1998)
 
Romancing the Net : A 'Tell-All' Guide to Love Online by Richard Booth, et al
 
The Little Book of Online Romance : How to Find It, How to Keep It by Lorilyn Bailey
 
Beyond Cybersex : Charming Her Online, Meeting Her Offline : (Or If You Prefer) :
Beyond Cybersex : Why Get Off Online When You Can Get It on Offline? by Dan Theman.
 
They are books that show a reader how to meet people on the net, flirt, find steamy chatrooms, examine cyber-sex, relationships, and on-line seduction, and the use of special chat software.
 
The author Nan McCarthy has written a three part novel Chat : A Cybernovel (Cyberseries, No. 1) by Nan McCarthy (Paperback ~ Pocket Books, 1998), Connect : A Cybernovel (Cyberseries, No. 2) by Nan McCarthy (Paperback - 144 pages ~ Pocket Books, Reprint edition October 1998), Crash : A Cybernovel (Cyberseries, No. 3) by Nan McCarthy (Paperback - 144 pages ~ Pocket Books, October 1998). The novel follows the relationship of two people on the net. She allows the reader to eavsdrop on this relations, from the time they first exchange e-mails till they meet face-to-face and their relationship grows more intense.
 
There is even a novel for young readers that tackles this subject. Crime at the Chat Cafe (Nancy Drew Files, No 124) by Carolyn M. Keene (Paperback - 160 pages ~ Archway, December 1997)
 
Some of the more interesting books that examine some of the fascinating three- dimensional worlds one can create in some of the chatrooms and soft ware that helps people navigating through these worlds, include:
 
Avatars! : Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet by Bruce Damer
(Paperback ~ Peachpit Press, 1997)
 
IRC & Online Chat by James Powers (Paperback ~ Abacus Software, September 1997)
 
The Official Palace Tour Guide; Experience Visual Virtual-World Chat on the Internet
With CDROM by James Barnett and Daniel Gray (Paperback - 314 pages~ Ventana Press, May 1997)

Spiderwebs: I Am, Therefore I Chat on the other hand, gives real life stories of people who the author has met on the net. It encompasses the complete life of a chat room and its inhabitants and is written by a chatter who is part of that new growing world of global chat. The above list confirms the belief that there is a market for such a book.

 

"take a deep breath...
I will type faster
I will type faster
I will type faster...
*S*..."

Production Details

 
Already portions of the book are available on the inter-net. In the first week of its posting there have been more than 250 people who have visited the site. All of them through word of mouth.
 
Length: The book's length will be 30,000 - 35,000 words divided into 14 chapters. In addition, there will be a Forward, an Introduction, an Afterward, and an appendix with a List of chatroom sites and Glossary of chat terms.
 
Delivery Date: The book will be delivered in approximately six months of signing a publishing contract and receiving an advance.
 
Computer System: The book is written on Microsoft Works 4.0. It can be available on a 3.5 inch disk or electronically transferred.
 
Permission: Permission has already been obtained from about a dozen people for use of original cyber art and poetry. No payment will be offered, for most of them are already aware of the author's use of their work and are pleased by the inclusions in her book.
 
Front Matter: Introduction will be written either by a nationally known physiologist or someone who "manages" one of the better known chat sites. Both of these individuals are personally known.
 
Back Matter: Appendices will include a glossary of chat terms and a listing of chat sites.
 
Artwork: All artwork used in the book is computer generated and will not need any special treatment.

 

Spiderwebs: Table of Contents

Foreword

 
Introduction

 
I. I Am, Therefore I Chat

 
II. Anatomy of a Chatroom

 
III. The Addiction

 
IV. The Wedding

 
V. Multitasking as an Art Form

 
VI. All is Not Fair in Chatlove and War

 
VII. The Obsession

 
VIII. Before There was Chat, There Was E-mail

 
IX. The CyberLife of a Wordsmith

 
X. Transition - When Cyberchat Becomes Real

 
XI. The Reunion

 
XII. Cyberchat in the Extreme

 
XIII. The War - The Manipulation of Chat

 
XIV. The Separation

 
Afterward

 
Appendices

 
Chatroom List

 
Glossary

 

"YEP, we are all here for the "educational pursuits" that chat brings.... RIGHT????... *LOL*.... Hell, I am here for the idle babble.... and adult company.....*wink*"

 

Siderwebs: Chapter Synopsis

I. I Am, Therefore I Chat
 
This opening chapter explains how and why author Sheila Franklin became a "chataholic". She introduces the reader to her world and some of the people encountered there. It is an overall look at her membership in a community that she has come to know as her "second home". As with the rest of the book, it is done from Franklin's point of view, using examples of chatters she knows personally as well utilizing the unique "lingo" of chat when quoting those interviewed.

 
 
II. Anatomy of a Chatroom
 
This chapter deals with a detailed description of chatting: how it is done, who does it, where it can be found, etc. It illustrates just how one goes about joining a chatroom and introduces readers to Franklin's own favorite chatsite. It also aids the reader in becoming acquainted with the subtle nuances that are involved in chat, i.e. language and verbal etiquette.

 
 
III. The Addiction
 
Chatting is an addiction like any other. Once a person becomes "hooked",
she/he will often spend as many as 14 hours a day with chatfriends. Using her own
experiences as well as those of personal acquaintance, Franklin recounts just how strong that addiction can be. She candidly describes her own history of how and why she became a chataholic and depicts others that share in this compulsion.

 
 
IV. The Wedding - The Manipulation of Chat
 
In this chapter Franklin relates a tale of how she and another chatfriend actually
got cybermarried in a chatroom. She illustrates with incidents leading up to it (i.e. the cyber-engagement). She also describes in detail the event itself and its bittersweet conclusion. Throughout the narrative she relates both her feelings and those of her "roomies" about the occurrence.

 
V. Multitasking as an Art Form
 
This chapter describes the way in which chatters commonly combine their
chattime with their real lives, whether that be at place of employment or home. Franklin
uses examples such as chatting while taking a lunch break or performing household chores. She includes personal experience and quotes of chatters as they recount such unique events as "witnessing" the death of Princess Diana at the moment it occurred.

 
 
VI. All is Not Fair in Chatlove and War
 
Franklin recounts the "reality" of chatting, i.e. how those that do it discover their
friends to be as close to r/t (real time) as is possible without the use of all five senses.
She does this by using examples of those she has personally become acquainted with in addition to first hand interviews and comments by other chatters who have fallen in and/or out of love on the net.

 
 
VII. The Obsession
 
In an almost fairy tale-like setting, Franklin relates "becoming" half of a romance novel. She describes how she met, fell in love with, and had a lengthy cyber-relationship with a man she shared nothing with beyond the printed word.

 
 
VIII. Before There was Chat, There was E-Mail
 
In this day and age, almost everybody with a computer has at least one E-mail address. This chapter encompasses how and why it is used in a general sense as well as recounting some of the more interesting and creative e-mail that Franklin has received during her time on the net.

 
 
IX. The Cyberlife of a Wordsmith
 
Included here are examples of poetry, prose, and cyber-art that Franklin has
collected from various chat sites she has visited over the last three years. These are
original creations most of which might have been lost had she not preserved them in her book.

 
 
X. Transition - When Cyber Becomes Real
 
At some point in a chatter's life, she/he begins to think about the next step,
meeting those only known "cyberly". Franklin recounts the exchange of pictures, phone
calls, and real meetings with other chatters in her own life as well as others.

 
 
XI. The Reunion
 
During the writing of this book Franklin took part in a chatroom "reunion", a gathering of "roomies" in actual fact. She candidly describes the event in great detail so that readers will know what actually goes on during events such as this one.

 
 
XII. Cyberchat in the Extreme
 
It is in this chapter that Franklin discusses the more exceptional forms of adult chatting and chatrooms. These include the realms of cybersex, homosexuality, and sadism/masochism. She utilizes descriptions as well as personal interviews to back up her statements. She also includes how phonesex often becomes a followup to chatting.

 
 
XIII. The War- The Manipulation of Chat
 
The author describes how chatrooms parallel real life civilizations as "cyberwars" occur in them. She expounds on the verbal abuse that often happens during such events and how its effect often carries over to the real life of the victims.

 
XIV. The Separation
 
Eventually the chatter realizes that he/she must lessen the amount of time chatting or leave the net completely. Franklin openly discusses her personal experience of doing just that and also includes examples of others doing likewise.
 
 
Appendices

Chatroom List
 
This listing includes approximately 30 of the largest, most popular, and in some cases the most unique chatrooms that Franklin researched. Included are the net addresses to reach those sites as well as a brief description of each. Because Franklin personally visited them, she effectively rates them in terms of difficulty of chat, options, and style.

Glossary
 
Franklin defines terms that are used in chatting as well as some that are used in
the writing of her book. Over 50 words and phrases are used in this chapter as well as common "emoticons", the shorthand used by chatters to denote action or attitude.

 

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