MCM's Blog, page 57

Writing Adaptive Fiction

Writing adaptive fiction like Fission Chips isn’t just about the basic mechanics of users voting on plot developments.  There’s an interesting philosophy to writing adaptive fiction, which is a lot different than what you might expect.  So for any of you that might be thinking of starting your own, here’s a handy guide:

Concurrent Realities

Do you ever have the feeling that the world is kinda going on without you?  That you’re not making much of an impact?  That you’re not, in fact, the centre of

6 Reasons Twitter Won’t Sell Your Widget

If you listen to some marketing experts, you’d get the impression Twitter will cure cancer (in 140 characters).  Have a problem?  Twitter can solve it.  Want to stem bad PR?  Twitter can help.  Want more people buying your stuff?  Twitter does that too!

But hold on.  That’s just a load of crap.  Twitter may make it easier for you to interact with your customers, and it may make it easier for you to connect with prospective ones, but it’s not going to directly sell any widgets for you.  Here’s why

Disassembling the World (2)

At the end of July, 1889 Books will be releasing The Vector, a science fiction novel about people trying to survive a slow apocalypse.   When we start the book, things have already been deteriorating for some time, and no time is wasted explaining why.  Over the next few weeks, I’m going to writing a series of background articles here that fill in the back story.  You don’t need to read these to understand the book, but if you’re like me, you’ll probably want to know.

Part II: Nodes on a Grid

The

Patronage 3.0 Follow-Up

My weekend of thinking about the future of patronage on the internet was full of code, it turns out. I built a demo of the system with a fake PayPal system and everything, which you can see here. But the process of doing so helped me realize a few key issues:

The tyranny of choice could sink it. Right now I have six choices on the site, each with its own unique audience, but with a lot of overlap.  The average person, visiting that page, will probably be overwhelmed by the options, and give up

Patronage 3.0: Create-on-Demand

I am a few days away from fully re-launching 1889 Books in its 3.0 form, a large part of which is ditching downloadable PDFs in favour of something a little bit cooler. Doing that isn’t a business decision, but it got me thinking about my business. Or lack thereof.  And a big part of where my mind is going is the issue of patronage, and perhaps switching my model on its head.

Here’s the theory: on the 1889 Books site, there’d be a list of “potential titles”.  These are books that I’d LIKE to pro

Status Update

I realize I do a thousand things these days, but I don’t post about them on the site here because I am myopically obsessed with Twitter. That, and I’m lazy. But anyway… here’s a list of fun things going on these days:

RollBots: You may have noticed RollBots is in re-runs these days.  Apparently, it will continue to be that way until September, when episodes 14-26 will air.  I assume this is because 14-26 are much more interconnected and series arc-heavy, so they want to make sure nobody goes on

Disassembling the World (1)

At the end of July, 1889 Books will be releasing The Vector, a science fiction novel about people trying to survive a slow apocalypse.   When we start the book, things have already been deteriorating for some time, and no time is wasted explaining why.  Over the next few weeks, I’m going to writing a series of background articles here that fill in the back story.  You don’t need to read these to understand the book, but if you’re like me, you’ll probably want to know.

Part I: Curing the Common Co

Blook 0.1

A bunch of people have asked me what software I used to release Fission Chips, hoping for an easy answer, but unfortunately it was a “roll your own” solution that wasn’t easy to distribute.  So last night I packaged up the code, called it “Blook”, and I’m releasing it today!

WTF is Blook?

Blook is free software to help you put your book online with minimal fuss.  It doesn’t do blogging, it doesn’t do fancy-schmancy other things… it just releases your chapters on a schedule.  Pretty damn easy.  You

My Book Industry Blueprint (v0.2a1)

The publishing industry is broken, and not just in a “that glass is chipped but if you drink out of the other side you’re fine” sorta way.  It’s beyond repair, on its last legs, drawing its final breath.  The fate of civilization rests in your hands, and you only have about ten minutes to figure out how to fix things, before literature becomes a footnote in the history boo— oh wait.

Well anyway, since this isn’t an interactive post, I’ll forgo pretending to ask you what you think and just tell yo

Fission Chips (8 to go!)

[image error]Today is the launch of Fission Chips, my fourth book in the “12 books in 12 months” experiment. This time around, I’m stretching the definition a bit: Fission Chips is going to be eBook-only, and it’s not finished yet. On purpose.

I should explain.

It’s all because of the excellent MeiLin Miranda and her series “An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom”.  She’s writing as she goes, and involves her community in the process in ways that make me giddy.  She releases a new chapter every Tuesday (