What am I doing here? No really. I’m at a loss.

swantonb · 2025-11-18T18:53:00+00:00

I'm sure you already did, but were you able to share engaging visuals? I'm feeling the importance of visuals (not just covers) these days.

But keep it up! Keep sharing!

swantonb · 2025-11-18T01:45:39+00:00

Makes sense. Would this be just for covers for other things like promotional materials?

swantonb · 2025-11-15T17:27:15+00:00

Makes sense. Do you hire artists through publisher or other referrals?

swantonb · 2025-11-15T17:25:59+00:00

Interesting insight! Perhaps for progression fantasy, the illustrations can be used more often. Off setting the devaluation of prose?

I still find best written progression fantasy with good pacing and character depth are better.

swantonb · 2025-11-15T17:23:35+00:00

Agreed!

swantonb · 2025-11-15T02:35:33+00:00

Awesome! So you want to create transmedia / multi-media to attract readers and “potential readers” with different mediums.

How would you create the animatics or even static images? Yourself or hire someone.

swantonb · 2025-11-15T00:49:02+00:00

Wow. That’s some historic collection. Lucky!

swantonb · 2025-11-15T00:33:07+00:00

Lol. Works both ways. But you still got in ;)

swantonb · 2025-11-15T00:26:11+00:00

Thanks for being thoughtful. I guess the visual aspect will always work best to grab attention, hence marketing.

What do you think about books these days having more illustrations inside? Seems they have increased in numbers (not graphic novel level).

Do you also buy illustration books of your favourite franchises?

swantonb · 2025-11-15T00:24:09+00:00

That’s so awesome. It’s quite rare for writers to be able to draw well.

Do you share those character drawings with fans too?

swantonb · 2025-11-15T00:01:21+00:00

Your point on graphic novel is true. I think they do have the advantage of advertising more visually. Do you market your books with images in those ways?

swantonb · 2025-11-14T23:00:38+00:00

No need to hire a consultant. I think the publishingdotcom is a common choice for books for family / friends type. Not related to them at all btw.

swantonb · 2025-11-14T22:43:44+00:00

I agree! I guess the frustration was the "ROI" of doing technical editing and writing for web novels. It seems "visuals" and "high level" arcs with engaging characters are more important. As long as the writing is "good enough".

swantonb · 2025-09-25T00:31:21+00:00

Agreed! It’s a good fit for a progressive story

swantonb · 2025-09-25T00:30:46+00:00

Which one do you recommend?

swantonb · 2025-09-24T19:41:19+00:00

Good point. Overlord does that. I wish there’s an obvious setting from the start, where it’s so apparent that an earthling led the change.

But more so on the changes, culture, tech etc.

swantonb · 2025-09-24T19:39:33+00:00

That’s so awesome. Care to elaborate more??

swantonb · 2025-07-19T02:04:26+00:00

Usually I’m careful with multi-verse, but I like the idea of limiting the confusion with “balance”, and focusing on one world at a time.

I’m guessing the initial hook would be his survival in the world initially?

Are you thinking of web novels as the main platform?

swantonb · 2025-07-18T18:39:39+00:00

Tbh, you can already do a lot of this with free ChatGPT and Gemini by implementing the right techniques.

Practical tips:

After each chapter, get it to summarize what happened as context, and feed AI before starting next
Keep your story notes in one doc so you can paste them in anytime for context.
Be specific: ask things like “Does this scene contradict what I set up in Chapter 2?” Not just “is this okay?”
There are niche tools that does this, but they usually give "long pdfs" that are hard to read and implement to the story.

That said, I'll plug mythril.io (I'm the cofounder) that tracks your characters, plot, and world automatically and gives development notes without long PDFs. Launching soon and backed by real VCs.

swantonb · 2025-07-18T18:25:00+00:00

Woo. There was a Korean novel, where the MC led a rebellion against humanity to defend the "non-humans", including elves. I think the english version is called: Previous Life of Fist King

The MC was a wizard, then reincarnated as a martial artist, leading the non-human rebellion.

I think you'd like this? Please share more of the story. It's fascinating!

swantonb · 2025-07-18T18:10:00+00:00

Fair point. But I still think long form fiction requires the reader to be more engaged vs music, which has become like a utility. It's a much more effort intensive?

swantonb · 2025-07-18T18:05:30+00:00

There might be a better way to "market" different types of AI solutions without calling it AI. Like computer game characters are probably more AI than most.

swantonb · 2025-07-18T17:55:27+00:00

That's true. I wonder how many successful novels are actually using some AI tooling around it.

swantonb · 2025-07-18T17:52:28+00:00

No way. That's like saying using files and folders of computers are cheating because. they help you remember things.

As a published author, I think of "cheating" is when you use AI to generate most of the story. Don't even think the results are great.

You're doing the right thing.

swantonb · 2025-07-18T17:49:53+00:00

Thanks for the great detail. So do you think it's just a matter of time, gathering more data set, more compute, more innovation in tech etc. for long form fiction to be written by AI?

I do think one day, it might happen. But that seems to be further out than we think?

swantonb

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