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Post by Oiseau on Mar 27, 2019 19:13:13 GMT
Have you contacted Ben Dever re: publishing all 5 through Holmgard Press? No. I'll only do so if I finish all five books.
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phuc
Kai Lord
Posts: 14
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Post by phuc on Mar 28, 2019 15:43:53 GMT
A, would be cool if section 350 was still the you win section but yea 480? go for it!
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aggsol
Kai Lord
Thinking about gamebooks...
Posts: 53
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Post by aggsol on Mar 28, 2019 17:27:25 GMT
B. 350
The limit will help you, constrain you to finish the work you started. keep up the spirit!
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Post by milleniumbaby on May 4, 2019 5:52:02 GMT
A. Go nuts. More Autumn Snow for us.
My option if you think you can manage it.
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Post by timbit on May 6, 2019 15:49:33 GMT
March Update…It's still going, although the struggle is real. Still can't shake the feeling I'm doing all this for nothing. But at least I'll have the complete series done. Only thing is, even as I find myself questioning and second-guessing everything, my creative mind is going a bit crazy with the Cheez-wiz. So, quick opinion poll: must a Lone Wolf fan-gamebook necessarily clock in at 350 sections to feel authentic? Because I'm looking at 480 per book right now, with the fifth one going even higher… A. Go nuts. More Autumn Snow for us. B. No, they really should be limited to 350§. How are things going? I'm still very excited about this and am hopeful to one day purchase all 5 books from Holmgard Press. Regardless, I hope you are well and at the very least have enjoyed the creative process so far.
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Post by Jägren Ulf on May 7, 2019 14:50:01 GMT
March Update…It's still going, although the struggle is real. Still can't shake the feeling I'm doing all this for nothing. But at least I'll have the complete series done. Only thing is, even as I find myself questioning and second-guessing everything, my creative mind is going a bit crazy with the Cheez-wiz. So, quick opinion poll: must a Lone Wolf fan-gamebook necessarily clock in at 350 sections to feel authentic? Because I'm looking at 480 per book right now, with the fifth one going even higher… A. Go nuts. More Autumn Snow for us. B. No, they really should be limited to 350§. How are things going? I'm still very excited about this and am hopeful to one day purchase all 5 books from Holmgard Press. Regardless, I hope you are well and at the very least have enjoyed the creative process so far.
I'm looking forward to it as well! I tried to get the first two books through Megara right around the time they went bankrupt, so got nothing. My personal preference would be "A - more Autumn Snow for us" because I enjoy being submersed in another world of someone's imagination. But you're the one doing the heavy lifting of actually writing it. If limiting helps make it more manageable for you, I'd rather see an abbreviated, completed series than an epic saga that never makes it to production.
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Post by Oiseau on May 7, 2019 15:32:39 GMT
It's the other way around — limiting section count is causing the problems. Because they're all hovering in the 500§ range and I can't figure out how to pare them down to 350§ without turning them into hyper-linear one-path every-paper-cut-is-scripted books like the recent Storms of Chai. I want gamebooks to be gamebooks, full of exploration, true choices, and side paths — as the tagline went, "books in which YOU are the hero", as opposed to "novels in which YOU are the punching bag". Somehow I managed Book 1 pretty well, but I started having trouble with limiting paths as early as Book 2.
As for "How are things going?"… not well, I'm afraid. I must have written 20 sections in the whole month of April. Too many years of disillusionment have taken a heavy toll on what used to be my motivation and inspiration. I'm still trying to plod through, but I can never seem to write more than a few sections at a time before giving up, and nostalgia only goes so far. I don't know what's wrong — I once wrote a 42-chapter gamebook series in less than 2 years and now I've been at Autumn Snow for nearly a decade and I've got what, two books out? One and a half, given that the second one seems to have turned into vaporware with Megara's shenanigans? It's depressing.
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Post by timbit on May 7, 2019 17:04:45 GMT
You're not the first gamebook author to say that Mikael/Megara has knocked the wind out of their sales. That man's behavior is disgusting, and it's sad to think of how much damage he has done the gamebook community. Look for comments from Michael Ward (Destiny Quest) and Paul Gresty (Fabled Lands 7) in this Facebook post to see what I mean: www.facebook.com/groups/fabledlands/permalink/2404724629578660/?sfnsn=moI know you're going for an all or nothing approach with books 3-5, but maybe it's worth it reaching out to Ben Dever and see about getting 1-2 republished by Holmgard Press. I've heard great things about AS1/AS2 and would love to own copies (without sending Megara any more of my money). Seeing some royalties come in from their sales may be a great motivator to finish. Regardless of where this ends up, again, I'd like to thank you for your efforts so far!
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Post by timbit on May 7, 2019 17:07:13 GMT
Just noticed I said "sales" instead of "sails". With everything Megara has done, pun intended I guess...
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Post by Oiseau on May 7, 2019 17:56:21 GMT
Holy… I wasn't aware the Megara situation had gone that bad. I'm guessing there's no hope the company will still be around if I finish the new books. Out of curiosity, is he also spreading the Autumn Snow PDFs around? (Not that I really mind.)
EDIT : Oh my God, fooking lol. I just went to Megara's page to see the PDFs he's giving out (turns out you have to buy them, he's not actually giving them out). I can't believe this, I'm dying here. The last three down the page, when did that happen? He actually went and made books (or at the very least PDFs) out of the fan-translations I made yeeaars ago of various Magnamund-themed fan-gamebooks, such as Sean R Shaw's The Dark One and Bryan Olson's Saga of Alasi Relivaur. I never even knew! And he did use my translations, he even says so in the descriptive blurb! Almost tempted to buy these, although clearly I won't. Still can't believe this, I keep telling myself it has to be a joke. I mean, I'm flattered, but how do you figure it's okay to pull something like this without even telling the guy who translated them? Now, I don't know if he somehow managed to contact the authors, but I somehow doubt it… Is this for real? ^_^
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Post by timbit on May 8, 2019 0:12:52 GMT
EDIT : Oh my God, fooking lol. I just went to Megara's page to see the PDFs he's giving out (turns out you have to buy them, he's not actually giving them out). I can't believe this, I'm dying here. The last three down the page, when did that happen? He actually went and made books (or at the very least PDFs) out of the fan-translations I made yeeaars ago of various Magnamund-themed fan-gamebooks, such as Sean R Shaw's The Dark One and Bryan Olson's Saga of Alasi Relivaur. I never even knew! And he did use my translations, he even says so in the descriptive blurb! Almost tempted to buy these, although clearly I won't. Still can't believe this, I keep telling myself it has to be a joke. I mean, I'm flattered, but how do you figure it's okay to pull something like this without even telling the guy who translated them? Now, I don't know if he somehow managed to contact the authors, but I somehow doubt it… Is this for real? ^_^ Yup, unbelievable isn't he?... but I'm not surprised. He has also engaged in copyright infringements, and was selling Fabled Lands fan created content or giving it away on his Patreon (but don't quote me on that). He's just a desperate man with no moral compass. He squandered and wasted a lot of money on a terrible video game no one wanted, and then was in denial while he partied it up at karaoke bars in Cannes. Hard to believe he's starting another company after bankrupting Megara...
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Post by Ofecks on May 8, 2019 1:27:31 GMT
He squandered and wasted a lot of money on a terrible video game no one wanted Which game was this?
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Post by timbit on May 8, 2019 1:44:39 GMT
He squandered and wasted a lot of money on a terrible video game no one wanted Which game was this? Champions of Megara facebook.com/championsofmegaraHe claims that the game was only funded by shareholders. I disagree. When you consider all the time lost working on that project, along with the high monthly expenses associated with renting an office in Cannes, it's no wonder all the backer money from his 4 outstanding Kickstarter projects disappeared (Grey Star 2, Destiny Quest 4, Autumn Snow 2 and Fabled Lands 7). In fact, Grey Star 2 (which I backed) feels like little more than a cash grab (hindsight is 20/20). Large portions of the campaign description were plagiarized directly from Wikipedia.
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Post by Jägren Ulf on May 8, 2019 14:30:44 GMT
It's the other way around — limiting section count is causing the problems. Because they're all hovering in the 500§ range and I can't figure out how to pare them down to 350§ without turning them into hyper-linear one-path every-paper-cut-is-scripted books like the recent Storms of Chai. I want gamebooks to be gamebooks, full of exploration, true choices, and side paths — as the tagline went, "books in which YOU are the hero", as opposed to "novels in which YOU are the punching bag". Somehow I managed Book 1 pretty well, but I started having trouble with limiting paths as early as Book 2. As for "How are things going?"… not well, I'm afraid. I must have written 20 sections in the whole month of April. Too many years of disillusionment have taken a heavy toll on what used to be my motivation and inspiration. I'm still trying to plod through, but I can never seem to write more than a few sections at a time before giving up, and nostalgia only goes so far. I don't know what's wrong — I once wrote a 42-chapter gamebook series in less than 2 years and now I've been at Autumn Snow for nearly a decade and I've got what, two books out? One and a half, given that the second one seems to have turned into vaporware with Megara's shenanigans? It's depressing.
Sooo... getting more Autumn Snow is easier...?
As far as inspiration, the advice I've seen from other authors is to just keep writing *every day*, even if it's just a couple lines about nothing in particular. Don't know if that helps any, I just hate to see a talented writer lose motivation. Best of luck, and know that there are a number of us pulling for you!
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Post by Jägren Ulf on May 8, 2019 14:49:58 GMT
Another idea for inspiration: create a scheister character modeled after Mikael. It might give you a place to vent your frustrations, and those of us that know will get a little bit of satisfaction in offing him in many creative ways!
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