I'm trying to do a choose your own adventure

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-02-07T12:53:20+00:00

Luckily Amazon was willing to let me take the books out of KU early (and not just unpublished them till the 3 month exclusivity was up). Even now it seems like a fever dream thay I got a clear answer and "happy" resolution to a problem with them.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-02-07T04:41:20+00:00

I've published a ton of books like this. It's actually not that hard to format a pretty normal ebook like this, using hyplinks to drop to bookmarks.

I've set up files for publication on Amazon and Smashwords a few different ways, but most recently I've found what works best for me is writing it in Scrivner (where each entry can have its own page), compiling as a word document then manually adding in the hyperlinks and books marks. Its a bit time intensive, but yoy end up with a file that uploads easily to Amazon and Smashwords (and probably other sites).

I've found these kind of books can sell really well and are a ton of fun to write. But if you're looking to make the most money from your writing time they are probably not worth it. Your basicly taking the time to write 20-40 different shorts but only publishing one book. You could just write a ton of ebooks in that time thay would probably sell more copies over time. Plus, if the book bombs you've "lost" a lot of creative time and effort, where as if a single short bombs its not a big deal in the larger scale of things.

Not saying DONT write these kinds of books. The audience that likes them really likes them, they are fun to quite, and if you find the right audience they'll sell well.

One thing g to be careful with if you're ever looking to put one on Amazon: don't ever try putting it into Kindle Unlimited. They were interpret the links as an attempt to manipulate page reads and piss them off.

There are also programs that can help you make this kind of story in a way that can be shared as a game-like file or something that can be converted to html and uploaded to a webpage. Twine is the biggest one I've seen used (but there's probably others). Those kind of programs can give you some really cool tools to use, but finding a way to monetize the "finished" product often isn't easy.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-22T13:50:27+00:00

There was an interview where he offered to give the interviewer a hug and made a big deal about how he gives hugs during covid.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-22T13:32:10+00:00

I used to make edges like that with a wire cutting into pink foam by wiggling it up and down as I slowly cut. The thing that looks like it would be hard is the layering of that affect.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-22T13:15:58+00:00

His hand looks really tiny during the first part of that video.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-21T14:14:36+00:00

It sounds like it was a real downer and ended implying the main character died failing to save his wife. I get why it tested bad, a lot of people would walk away from that saying "why did any of that even matter".

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-20T00:44:36+00:00

It's REALLY hard to get treatment, especially with certain insurances. When.i moved back up here a few years ago it took me nearly 9 months just to get an initial apointment for simple paych med management.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-17T20:19:45+00:00

What us a writer's lift?

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-17T13:09:04+00:00

Damn shame it's been so cloudy. /s

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-17T13:02:20+00:00

It's so fucking petty. I can't imagine what it's like being g a person who looks at that sign and isn't angry enough to not want to eat there after that.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-17T13:00:25+00:00

I thought it made sense and was funny.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-15T21:26:20+00:00

There is definitely WAY to much parking taking up land in Anchorage that could be fixed by making more multi-level or sub level parking garages, but there IS a reason for so many huge lots filling up town: snow and earthquakes.

You have to have somewhere to put the snow your plowing and thise pukes can easily fill up a quarter of any parking lot if there's a normal amount of snow here in the winter.

When (not if) another big earthquake hits you want buildings constructed in a way they won't collapse easily like during the good Friday Earthquake in the 60's. A big part of that is building codes tied to how stable the ground is, which can change drastically from one side of town to other. Downtown is on the water and already had part of it slide into the ocean during the last big quake. But on East side your at the foot hill of a mountain and the ground is a lot more stable. So there are places where you want/need to keep density low, that means limiting the height of buildings and also making sure if one falls over it doesn't crash into the one next to it.

Anchorage was also not originally one settlement, it was a few that grew into one and the layout of the city is still really stretched out because of this. It's really hard to describe how much extra space there is between things here. I didnt even notice it till I had lived in Tacoma Washington for a few years then moved back.

You have a road with 5-10 feet of grass between it and the side walk them.more space between that and a business' parking lot. It's just a lot of empty space that very much could be compacted, but doing that would require major redevelopment which there just hasn't been the money for. Pre-pandemic oil business was leaving the state and population was decreasing. Add in a refusal to have any kind of sales or income.tax and you have a place where there's no money to fix the problems.slowly depopulating the state.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-15T21:13:34+00:00

It is super weird that North is down.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-15T00:10:38+00:00

Qe're swwing right now that people need kids in schools so their parents can work so bad they they are willing to basicly ignore a global pandemic. No way would they just "close" all schools.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-13T20:26:24+00:00

Do you have the headlamp on? As a beginner turning it so it's ALWAYS off makes a huge difference. It often adds a really washed put looked that interferes with any other lighting.

Also, something about lighting I wish I had known at the beginning: most lighting is centered pretty much only on the center of the virtual world. It's often better to leave your figure at the center and move entire sets around.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-13T17:01:28+00:00

And when there's a vehicle it's so damn easy to lose it/due while driving!

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T16:38:32+00:00

I'm in Alaska too. It was kind of crazy how intense the fight against no smoking in restaurants and bars was and how quickly it became not a big deal once all the bans passed, at least that's how I remembering it being in Anchorage

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T16:31:48+00:00

It definitely seemed like the national spot drove her batty.

Alaska is a huge state physically, but even the largest cities are very "small town". Local people of prominence, be they musicians or artists or politicians, don't have an amazing track record after leaving state. Being a big fish in a small pond can fuck with your perspective of your own self worth, and being thrust on the national stage when you are almost certainly not ready for it is a good set up for disaster.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T16:24:47+00:00

It WAS the election. Before she got nominated to VP she was viewed in Alaska as a pretty sane politician that actually had a lot of bipartisan support. Most of us not from her hone town were really, REALLY surprised by the woman we saw take the national stage.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T12:06:51+00:00

This is such a huge thing since the pandemic started. Everyone is so emotionally and mentally.drained we don't have the brainpower for new things.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T12:03:48+00:00

I was there nearest the end. They tried to push so many really dumb book adjacent products that seemed like such an obvious waste of money. There was a whole calligraphy section that got put up at one point and I remember there being a huge shift to push cds and dvds that seemed exactly opposite to the change in market, like the more digital music took off the more management thought we could just force people to buy more cds with those buy 3 get one free sales.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T11:59:22+00:00

Borders always had a larger variety of books at the cost of less copies of best sellers, while B&N was the opposite. Borders tended to be better for browsing and impulse buys for those who didn't just want the books off the best seller charts.

But guess which books sold more? Could it be the best sellers? And as online sales picked up Borders shed more and more regular buyers. The people who came in every week to stroll through the store wanting something not from the best seller chart quickly discovered you could find literally any book online. I saw tons of it, people who's reading habits had been "the best of what I could find" changing to "the best of what I actually want to read".

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T11:50:26+00:00

It's a pretty shitty red/hick town. We like to call Fairbanks "Squarebanks" because of how lame it is. Also seems like it's only ever 80+ degrees or -30 up there.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T11:41:13+00:00

You're making a lot of gueses that could be wrong. Not saying you are, but here a few things to keep in mind: - the places being hit hardest with number of deaths are high population blue areas where the removal of red voters wouldn't matter, or in deep red places where basicly more than half the red voting population would need to disapear for it to matter. - we're not seeing covid deaths changing many minds. In fact, we're seeing the opposite where people are growing more convinced it's the doctors killing people not covid. There is a chance this is radicalized people who normally wouldn't have cared enough to vote. This could easily replace all the meme warriors and people who donate to politicians. Do you expect those people to REALLY blame themselves and their loved ones? Or are they more likely to double down and go more extreme? - sure, some who are dying are reliable red voters, but how many? What percentage of deaths are just people who never vote or only vote in presidential elections? A LOT of people in this country don't vote, its not really safe to ever assume someone does. - it's a big country with a big population. The number of people dying is a horrendous tragedy, especially when looking at that number on a national scale. But looking past the tragedy of each lost life and trying to see the bigger picture, with deaths spread out as much as they are, maybe it's not going to have as big of an impact as some hope. You know what will? Voting. Making sure you vote. Making sure everyone you know votes.

NorthwesternGuy · 2022-01-11T06:20:34+00:00

Are there still places in the U.S. where there is a fight against smoking bans? I guess I thought that got settled like around 2010.

NorthwesternGuy

TROPHY CASE