Books!

[Rias]

Hello, aspiring authors! I've wanted to fill out the book stores in towns for a while. I'd love to get some player submissions added, but here are a few stumbling blocks that I or players tend to hit, or points that I'd like to explain:

1) IC payment/compensation. The bookstore isn't going to give you a cut of the riln for every book sold, sorry. They'll probably give you a one-time payment based on their assessment of how well they think it'll sell, and that's it. It won't be a huge amount, either. We don't want book writing to be the thing everyone does just to get some passive, semi-constant riln flow from "NPCs buying the book" or something like that. I foresee people considering this less than ideal and not especially motivating. But hey, you get your name out there and the fame!
2) Editing. I'm going to be snobby, picky, and sort of mean. The books need to be reasonably well-written. Grammar and spelling are important. If you know you have a problem with this kind of thing, maybe have a friend edit it for you before you submit it.
3) Expectations. People hear the word "book" and think, you know ... a book. But these "books" don't have to be full-length novels. A paragraph or three per page for 10ish pages is fine. They don't have to be long books, they just need to have some sort of substance that's interesting. With IG "books", I always just sort of assume what you as a player read is a summary of all the good, meaty stuff, and the book itself is actually much longer and more detailed ICly. I think we can all agree to be accommodating in that way.
4) Content. What do you write? It can be a work of fiction (in a fictional world - double fiction!), it can be account of an extraordinary experience you had, it can be a compendium of lore you've come across and researched, it can be a guide to this or that activity, it can be a compilation of songs or short fables - just about anything.
5) Accuracy and Positivity. While it's understood that people may just misunderstand or get things wrong and that PCs don't have a perfect knowledge of lore, things that go extremely against lore or just get things really, really wrong will be denied. I don't want misconceptions to be perpetuated too badly. Same goes for slanderous, aggressive, or otherwise attacking material, like "The Hypocrisy of the Church" or "Why We Should Destroy Those Evil Corvites" or "Bob's List of People That Should Be Shot On Sight". Write about things you like or want to build up, not things you dislike or want to ruin. Rita Skeeter need not apply.

Feel free to discuss, or just start writing up your own works you'd like to submit!

[Dakhal]

Tempted.. to.. write. To.. hide between the lines.. that the Church is evil. Yes...

[Dorn]

I wish their was a button to click to discover who Bob is and his list. I'd like to know more!

[Akila]

Rita Skeeter need not apply.

But but! A scandalous gossip rag about just what goes in in the Lands would be wonderful!

"So tell me, Dorn. Just why do you do these things?"
Tears filled his eyes that he quickly dashed away, his voice cracking as he spoke of his deeds, an undercurrent to his tone that suggests he just wants to be loved...

Back to the topic, where would we submit our entries? Would we email them to you or is there an NPC we could send them to?

[Rias]

I'd say email them to me, for now. And possibly send your idea first, so we can establish early on if it'll work. Then we can move on to sending it to your local bookstore/library owner.

[Acarin]

How about a saucy Viali novel in the style of Apuleius?

[Tangela]

Hi! So I've got a couple books I've been working on off and on over the years, and one of them might hopefully be ready to submit in the not too far off future. Firstly, are we still doing these? Secondly, to whom should we now send books, ideas, etc? Since one of the books will be as part of a set with other things, it might be best to simply distribute, manage, and sell those entirely IC without submitting the usual way, save for one copy for approval.

[Jirato]

I'd love to see this still be a thing. Please email any submissions yo support at clokmud dot com.