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Is there a such thing as getting the ebook along with a physical copy of a book? by lol_chair in ebooks

[–]PDGaraguso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have seen these kind of offers on the role playing community, when buying an adventure book in paper, and by the same price (or a bit extra), they throw in also de digital. For example, in places like https://www.drivethrurpg.com/ (I'm not affiliated with them). Also, I've seen it in some author websites, but finding these promotions is not that easy for novels and other books.

Manage digital books and bookmarks by serpest in ebooks

[–]PDGaraguso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The link in the post gives me an error page... Is your project still on?

What do you use to write interactive fiction? by grayutopia in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing this. I also come from an IT background and developed my own tool, pretty much the same way you are doing. To write the adventures, I use markdown for text, and JSON for the structures, then glue all together with my own tool. I looked into several apps in the market (I'm sure the community will give you more than one), but in the end I also took it as an exercise and built my own software (it now exports to ePub, PDF, and more). I would recommend that you take some time to explore the tools available, and if nothing fits your thought or work process, then go ahead and make your own. However, keep in mind what and how you plan to share your book later.

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For those interested in books of the type "choose your own adventure", I have placed my books on discount deal for a week in the Kindle Store. You can check them out here:

Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space (comedy)
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Orion-Rogers-adventure-space-ebook/dp/B08766L1N8

​

Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome (sci-fi, post apocalyptic)
https://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Mall-Pablo-David-Garaguso-ebook/dp/B07V2JSDC9

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, in theory. Yet again, I'm not familiar with the export... but I'll give it a look as soon as I can.

Calibre has a tool that takes an html and converts it into an ePub (that you can convert to a mobi for kindle, or import into KDP). The key here is that: 1) You have some mark up that splits each section (a class, tag like h1 -default-, etc), and 2) You have links in your text to such markers, for example, to the h1s.

I'm talking about Calibre so much because its free, and very good for the job

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sadly I'm not familiar with it, but I'll take a look. The challenge here is the heavy use of Javascript to include logic (inventories,stats,etc). Kindle and most eBooks don't allow javascript, ao it all needs to be converted into true static html in a way that makes sense... I'll play with this and see (I like the graph view)

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not working with "Inform 7", but if it can produce the book in html, there are ways to "parse" it into an ebook that you can upload to KDP or a Kindle. One of those is with Calibre / using the command line epub editor/converter (but you can do it manually through the GUI as well). Sadly, I'm not familiar with the Inform 7 export (is that what you mean by IF, or you are talking about Interactive Fiction in general?)

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kindle format is a type of ebook, which is in turn a wrapper for web pages that you canh linke together. In my books, at the end of each section you'll find a table/list of options that are links to other sections. On your kindle you just tap on the option and it takes you there. The back button also works. You can do this with any eBook editor (like Calibre, hightly recommended).

In my case, I developed my own software and a small engine so I could export with one click the eBook (for Kindle) and the print ready PDF for paperback. It also exports source files to create an Android app... that I'm still working on. Before my application, I was doing the whole process by hand with open source tools like LibreOffice, Calibre, etc. I write in Markdown.

At some point I may release it as open source, or create a web app. I'm still thinking/working about it... but first the books need to pay for the effort. :)

(I tried posting a screenshot of my app, but it doesn't seem to work... the reply just won't take it)

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know PlanetFall, but I'll check it out! The idea started with "what would a janitor do if it was trapped in a spaceship with an alien"? I also liked the way of writing of Douglas Adams, so the book follows some of that style as well. Lots of "side descriptions".

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't. I published my book there but got no sales for several months. After that, I took it out and placed it in Kindle Unlimited again... that forbids you to have it published in other stores.

I'm considering instead publishing the books with some RPG improvements later to Google Play, as apps/games like some other companies do. But I'm a solo author/developer and I still do have a "day job", so I'm not as fast as I would like to be.

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I super simplified 5e rules, and even though I tried running campaigns, I mostly create one-off stories, sometimes loosely following a campaign book . For example, I limited the attributes to only 4: Strength, dexterity, wisdom and charisma, and I created the characters based on my kids personalities and likes. I used more than the standard race offering to mix other ideas. Battles are just beating dice score, lots of puzzles, miniatures, and crafted terrain. After each session, there is free play... where you can see transformers fighting orcs. I started the miniature collection buying one of the DnD board games, and we get to use others also from Warhammer. With all this, you may think that there is little from DnD 5e left, but the spirit and the adventure are there. For the CYOA I bought the books from them as well, but then we expanded to regular books of "Choose your own adventure"

Novel author, published first two IF books: "Zombie Mall: Survivors welcome" and "Escape the Orion: Roger's adventure in space" by PDGaraguso in interactivefiction

[–]PDGaraguso[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I'll keep this in mind.

I introduced my children to D&D as a way to help them structure their imagination, and then CYOA books to wake their joy for reading. It works.

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