Player-Published Books

Is anybody here an author? I'm interested in starting some in-game fiction and maybe publishing it in the game world, and I was wondering if anybody had any insight as to the process or whether anybody even wants that. :3

 

@Womby and @Vyrin run a big bookstore for player-made books and can give you all sorts of instruction. yes, there is a demand.

 

Thank you, @Alley Oop! I will try to get in touch with them

 

But not a very great demand.

 

If nobody wants to read what I've written, then I am in familiar territory! ^_~

 

There is a group of folks who enjoy buying one of a lot of things that are published, however, there isn't much demand outside that group. I'm hoping once the game is officially launched that perhaps that will change, but there really isn't a great way for booksellers or authors to inform the general audience of new books within the game.

 

Maybe we need an Adventurer Book Club or something ^_^

 

I think the book and information publishing idea for SOTA is very exciting, it opens up some interesting possibilities for us writers to share our thoughts, experiences and our stories.

Of course, writing is easy but getting people to read is akin to balancing a copper halberd on your nose whilst trying to put on your Augmented leggings with bronze bindings. Dyed glowing black of course.

Iftmay be that the format of the Sotarian book requires a different way to communicate our narrative. It's a new form of publishing, so perhaps we should create a new way to tell our stories and experiment a little.

It might be interesting to get feedback on the books that actually do get read and why people read them.

 

I suggest some market research! xD Summon the Marketing Executives!

 

Hello Ushimimi. Happy to talk about the world of in-game writing with you. I will send you a PM!

 

The biggest thing missing right now in the Book/Note system is the inability to "Lock" a book from being re-published without consent. Much like Teaching and Reteaching Recipes, the Books and Notes need to be able to be locked in order to protect the authors work. This is the main reason I have not released more then one preview Chapter. It takes time and effort to be creative and once you make a book, you could simply never see another gold piece from it because players can simply make as many copies as they want an resell them for their own profit.

Vyrin and Womby are excellent Boooksellers and I recommend them highly. Its just a shame that when the books leaves their possession you have no control over the player-base to re-profit on your hard work.

 

Very true about the republishing aspect with no book locking.

That is why Dara Brae book stores all across New Britannia does not charge anyone who wants to put their books for sale on our bookstore vendors any fees.Plus we dont limit our authors from selling their books anywhere else.

Just some benefits of using Dara Brae bookstores.

 

Unless the Sun and Moon turn to blood and ravens invade Central Brittney, I can't see any of the developers spending time on this issue. That isn't to say it's not important,because I think it's very important. You can't write books not knowing if copies are going to be made and sold of which you will never see any coin from.
To put this into perspective, if Richard Garriott, aka @Lord British found out that his book Explore/Create (Shameless plug https://www.amazon.com/Explore-Create-Pursuit-Frontiers-Creative/dp/006228665X ) was being bootlegged and sold without him seeing a dime of it, you can bet that the wheels would be put in motion to get it shut down.
But alas,this is just a game,so all of you who publish your works and get them distributed thru bookstores,vendors have no protection or legal recourse. Maybe because there isn't a bulging market as of yet,maybe because no one has ever been a victim of copying or having proof of it being done,more likely because of a small market most people see no need.
In the past I traveled to bookstores and purchased works from the community. One day I hope to redo a room in my keep just for community books,so I have chest containing them at the moment. I also asked for a publishing number as many in the community have. I guess at this point it's creators beware.

 

They've mentioned that they would like to visit this, but that it wouldn't be an Episode 1 thing. I just hope they approach some authors, booksellers and buyers to create a good foundation of rules and features before starting on it.

 

They should simply force copy/pasters to flag for PVP. There is no greater incentive for PVP than theft of intellectual property.

 

Process =

1. Wow, I think I will make an in game book.
2. Procrastination
3. More procrastination
4. Finally some other pressing obligation that you also procrastinate convinces you that you 'must' get that story done right now, dammit!
5. Write stuff
6. Forget about it until some other pressing obligation reminds you that you are a rock waiting to become a diamond. Well at least until you read the stuff you wrote and you console yourself with the fact that crude plastics can also sparkle...
7. Rewrite stuff
8. Get the brilliant idea to show your stuff to someone who can appreciate it.
9. Rewrite stuff just because you want to and specifically not because someone pointed out that some of the stuff makes no sense.
10. Postpone doing anything because being a misunderstood artist might have a value in and of itself.
11. Realize that in order to be truly misunderstood you need to get it published in the game.
12. Finally read the Player Instructions and try to work out how it is done technically in the game.
13. Buy a new keyboard just because you want to and specifically not because the old one had an accident due to the marvel of manuals vis-à-vis UI reality.
14. Come to terms with the game definition of 8000 characters and it including things like the code to make things bold and change colors and that there is no center nor tab functionality so all your marvelous editing is for naught.
15. Rewrite stuff
16. Press the Publish button and come to terms with that 8000 characters is still a very minute amount of characters.
17. Rewrite stuff
18. Press the Publish button and finally with a deep sense of pride make your first proper in game book.
19. Realize that you might need more than one copy in order to have a proper amount of people misunderstand your work.
20. Try to find out - A - how to get extra Blank Books - B - get a recipe for blank book - C - hunt for that Pulp thing that must be somewhere - D - get the Pulp recipe from that same NPC who sold you the Blank Book recipe but who conveniently forgot to mention that one might need a recipe for the ingredients in the first recipe - E - do the same thing with Wood Scrap - F - craft a dozen hard earned Blank Books - G - find out on discord chat that one can purchase Blank Books from an NPC for 2g each - H - make an appointment - I - complain to your bartender about how your psychiatrist doesn't understand you
21. Try to find players wanting to accept a Trade request from a stranger so that you can give them said copy of masterpiece so that you can be properly misunderstood.
22. Google "rolling a rock up a hill" so that your analogy gets the right term and giggle at the original sissy name.
23. Read up on how vendor works, then on how Public Vendor works.
24. Make new copies of the masterpiece just because you want to and specifically not because you missed the part where if others don't want to waste gold on copies of your masterpiece then that which you have put up for sale is utterly destroyed by the end of the week.
25. Complain about step 1 through 24 in the forums, get helpful tips from others which would have reduced the amount of time spent by a couple of magnitudes but of which you convince yourself was a fun learning process.
26. Have a bookstore in game help you vendor the book and revel in soon being properly misunderstood.
27. Wait
28. Wait
29. Wait
30. Rejoice in the news that a single book has sold and that you are now truly a misunderstood artist.
31. Find out the person didn't read it but instead only bought it to chunk out cheap mass copies of your book undercutting any hope you had for some small fortune to go along with the infamy.
32. Get depressed.
33. Get even more depressed when even that mass cheap version of your masterpiece doesn't sell...
34. Get drunk and forget about the whole thing
35. Get even more drunk so that you actually forgot what you were supposed to
36. Sober up
37. Get the ingenious idea that you might want to write an in game book.

I boiled it down to only list the crucial parts, you might want to insert your own additional steps along the way as you find them.


Edit:

 

I have written two books thus far in-game, but haven't mass-produced books for sale yet... for two reasons: first:

I don't want to spend time publishing an in-game book, just to have someone steal it. It might "just be a game", but my creativity is just that... MINE. Game or not. Sad that I can't share it without piracy and plagiarism being an issue.

And second: Though they have given us the ability to apply a custom skin— or "pattern"— to a book, the custom pattern isn't currently carried over when the book is duplicated in a Magic Printing Press. So if you want each copy of your book to have a custom cover, it will cost you 200gp per book. I've filed it as a bug, and @Vas Corp Por is looking into it, but they aren't sure whether or not they consider it "a bug".

But I will publish my works in-game as soon as I know my works will be protected! And I will be giving @Womby and @Vyrin a shout when that time comes!

 

@Ushimimi

...on a more serious note.

Check out these:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...and-publishing-in-shroud-of-the-avatar.67785/
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...n-prizes-every-month.54464/page-2#post-852963

Also there used to be competitions run by the scholars and bards where the prize would be to get your work added to the game asset props, but I think those days are long gone.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-sisters-grim-starts-september-24-2014.14712/
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ontest-2-valorbook-of-the-vale-winners.21768/

 

Boy, I would love to see this come back! I love to put full collections on my bookshelves in my Verat Chaos home, and it would be even MORE amazing if I could contribute to it!

@Berek

 

Absolutely. That was a great feeling finding your own piece "in the wild".

It was such a nice sales pitch narrative as well. When showing new players I could showcase player written assets, plus I could showcase custom books etc. it truly added to the story of the game being created with the players.

Alas, there are reasons why we can't have nice things.