Sorry for the delay in getting back to this thread, but it took time to write up everything after our meet up. Here are the answers to the questions we had time to discuss:
Author Royalty Bumps
This is a tough one. While Malin and I are primarily Hosted Games writers, MK, Harris, and Zach mostly wrote for Choice of Games. Zach also has numerous noninteractive titles. We would all love increased royalties (who wouldn’t), but we don’t know how far it can go.
For traditionally published books, the eBook royalty rate is also 25%. Print books are even lower to account for printing costs. All those rates are industry standard and pretty much never negotiable.
For traditional novels, advances are where the money is made, not royalties unless you have a pure hit.
CoG/HG writers should negotiate their royalty rates now, especially if they have published a successful title.
Writing for a licensed property like Marvel, DC Comics, Star Wars, etc,
Many of us agreed that licensed properties are not ideal for us. While you can gain new readers for other books we’ve written, the pay for games based on licensed properties is generally much lower.
There is also increased scrutiny in the writing and more editing, which makes development time-consuming. There’s a lot to consider around IP consistency so there’s not as much freedom as when working on something that’s purely your own.
Some of our group have been offered to write for licensed properties, but they have declined. M.K. has written for Marvel and Star Wars, and they concurred that the payouts were minimal. However, writing IP can be very fun, especially when you write in a universe you love.
Writing advice for creating a work of interactive fiction
- Write games that you feel excited about. Even if you think the genre is highly competitive, write the type of game you enjoy the most.
- Put things in for yourself. In other words, if you want to see a specific scene between certain characters, do it, even if you don’t think it will resonate with readers. You will probably be pleasantly surprised.
- Listen to feedback from your followers.
- Play interactive fiction and read books
- Think about how different people will play your games. Don’t have one path that is the right path.
Switching between traditional books and interactive fiction
Writing traditional books typically takes far less time, but you find yourself grinding out titles to make money. However, if your interactive game gets traction, the number of readers can far exceed those of your traditional books.
When switching between the two styles of books, you have to change your mindset. For traditional books, you are trying to tell the best story for the characters, while in interactive fiction, you need multiple paths for a wide variety of main characters. It’s not easy and it’s almost two different professions, although it’s all storytelling.
Other questions:
To Zach: your one series where you created a world as part of a simulation as a side activity really resonated with me, will you or any of your fellow writers ever work on a God sim CYOA game?
This was one of those things I wrote thinking no one would like it and was very pleasantly surprised. That said, it took A LOT OF TIME–probably more than ever made financial sense. I’d definitely be open to writing a deity sim, but I don’t think I’m at a place of pitching it myself.
To Harris: What was it like working on Elite Status and is there a sequel in the works?
As a long-term fan of Emily Short and her work, I was really excited to have the opportunity to help complete the story! There isn’t a sequel planned - the endings are so varied that it wouldn’t be possible to pull them together - but it was a very special project to work on. The writing is so witty, and the plot of the game changes a huge amount on different playthroughs - it was great to lend a hand to such a big, ambitious game.
To M. K.: Which type of dragon do you like more, Tolkien or Martin? Do you prefer your characters to be more animal or human like, and why?
It’s been like 15 years since I read the first four Song of Ice and Fire books and I never watched the show, so I’m afraid I can’t provide a great answer! The dragons in Dragon Rider Academy are probably closer to what I remember from Dragonriders of Pern, which I also haven’t read since high school, ha. Definitely more animal than human-like, but smart and discerning.
If the dragons have human-level intelligence in a dragonrider story, that really changes the power dynamic in ways that don’t work for this particular story and world. Stories that have intelligent dragons capable of full communication still often seem to feature dragons in more subservient positions, which I find ethically troubling (and usually goes unacknowledged). With dragons as animals, I have more leeway to define the symbiotic relationship between humans and dragons. These kinds of issues are part of a significant subplot in DRA. Hopefully all that made sense!
To the group: What is your favorite book on writing?
M.K.: For anyone writing middle grade or YA novels, I highly recommend The Magic Words by Cheryl B. Klein. Story Genius by Lisa Cron is a fantastic book about tightly tying character and story. I have a whole list of resources on my website here.
Harris: The Game Narrative Toolbox (ed. Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, Ann Lemay, Jennifer Hepler) and The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox (ed. Tobias Heussner) are excellent primers in interactive writing. Self-Editing For Fiction Writers (Renni Browne, Dave King) is fantastic for developing editing skills for all kinds of fiction writing. And the most specific one is Passion and Play: A Guide To Designing Sexual Content in Games (Michelle Clough) - if you’re writing interactive spicy scenes, whether it’s discreet fade-to-black or something higher-heat, this is a must-read.
Zach: Lily King, Writers & Lovers–this one is fiction, but it captures the emotional reality of writing in a way I’ve never seen anywhere else.
i dont even have a question i just wanted to gush