Choose

The Books are Arriving

Mar 9, 2010

Word on the twittersphere is that the Choose: Volume 1 books are arriving at their new homes!

What do you think? Do you like them? Good quality? Anything you’d want to change for the second volume?

I’m especially curious to know what you thought of the Homage and Poll Archive sections of the book. Thumbs up, thumbs down?

If you’ve not actually read the text yet, you might not realize how much work went into editing and improving the story itself. This isn’t just a copy/paste from the website; a lot of work went into making it polished and professional. Steve Hall kicked in a good chunk of time and effort doing the copy editing for it, as well (thank you again for that, Steve!)

The paperback and eBook versions of Choose: Volume 1 are now available for purchase from Lulu.com.

BIG Tuesday & Informal Polls Ahoy!

Dec 1, 2009

Installment

Today’s installment is going to be BIG – about twice the size of a normal Choose installment.

I try to keep them to about 1k words intentionally – I want them to be short enough that they can be comfortably read by someone with only a short time to spend checking the site.

Sometimes 1k words just isn’t enough, and this installment is one of those.

So – fair warning. Tonight’s will be a BIG installment.

Poll

Secondly, the poll which will accompany today’s installment will ALSO be big.

Tonight’s installment will officially end the first chapter of Choose – “The Search For a Captain” (as it’s titled in the Read the Story page).

Chapter 1 is ending –

– and I’m not sure where I want to start Chapter 2.

So tonight’s poll will be one of the rare Very Important Plot Polls.

All polls affect what happens, sure, but some of them shape the fabric of the story itself.

Tonight’s poll is not one that I’ll be tying in multiple winning options, nor is it one that I can write the chapter ahead of time and plug the answer in.

What does that mean? It means that if you’ve got a favorite poll choice, I encourage you to sound off in the comments! Rally folks to your cause!

Have fun with it! <3

And Then What?

This being the end of Chapter 1, I have some options as to what I can do with the story as it’s been written. Consider this an unofficial poll (that I may turn into an official poll if I need a break over the Christmas holidays).

What should I do with Choose?

Not the website – I like the way the site is currently set up, with the voting and all that –

What should I do with the story?

It’s not a novel, really. It’s more like one of those slim mangas that you see at the bookstore, all lined up with numbers on the spines. This would be volume 1, I suppose.

Sure, I’d like to make the compiled version available, but that could take a while at the rate the story is currently progressing.

So! Informal poll time!

Publishing?

I have many options available. Choose as many as you like, as I can do them all so long as there’s a reason for it.

1. I can publish a hardcover version through lulu.com (I’ll admit, this seems the silliest – as slim as it’ll be, hardcover doesn’t seem worth the expense)
2. I can publish a softcover version through lulu.com
3. I can publish an eBook version through lulu.com
4. I can generate a pdf of the volume and make it available for download on the site.
5. I can create an iPhone app for the story and make it available for download via iTunes (I think)
6. Anything else. (Please comment)

Poll Formatting

Beyond that, there are questions of formatting. I think it’d be fun to include the poll options in the book.

1. Should the polls be added in front of the installment they pertain to?
2. Or all together as a compiled block at the back of the book?

Timing

It takes time to compile even an eBook version properly – longer than you’d think, given it’s already all typed up. (Nice thing is it only has to be done once, and can be used for multiple publishing types thereafter).

1. Should I try and get a published copy ready before Christmas?
2. Or take my time and get it out early next year?

Cashmoney

I am in no way trying to actually make money on Choose – you’ll note the lack of advertisements on the site. However, if I were to charge a few dollars’ markup on the books sold through lulu.com, I could then invest that money back into Choose. I think it’d be fun to get some more commissioned art of the characters and scenes, but the colored art commissions I’m looking at cost anywhere from $15 to $50. (And up, of course. Sky’s the limit on that. I suppose I could commission a bronze statue of Bones….)

Anyone have any advice with regards to whether I should charge for Choose, and how much if so?

Special Features

I’d like to add some “Special Features” to the published book, if possible. The art from Rhinne, for sure, but perhaps I should save up the homage stuff and only reveal that as part of the published book?

I could also go through and do some more editing on the chapters – they’re published dangerously close to the time I write them, so I’m sure they’re ripe to bursting with editorial oops’s that I just didn’t have time to catch. No plot changes, just tweaks.

Any other ideas on what I could add, things you’d like to see or know?

Homage Update

Nov 20, 2009

Chapter 1 of the Homage Page has been completed.

I missed Lord Snow’s catch of the Hellsing reference when I originally put the page together, but I’ve correctly attributed it now. Only one reference wasn’t found, and it’s not one I would really have expected someone to get. It was more than a little subtle AND obscure.

Chapter 2’s references have been cataloged and the four missing (yup, that’s right. FOUR missing!) references have hints attached to them. In a week or so, I’ll update that chapter’s Homage page with the unfound ones and start looking in the rest of them.

I think this is the heaviest reference chapter I did. There will be a lot later where I was just plotting and didn’t have time to add in references, so I don’t expect them to appear in every one. =]

<3