15 replies to this topic

[nevernown]

UPDATES :

 

There is now an optional Theme if you want to write themed.

"The beginning and the end"

 

A title for the complete project, with this theme should be nice. Suggestions are welcome.

 

Page limit set for writers: 24 pages.

 

 

THE ... PROJECT :

 

Hello my fellow batotians and especially writers,
 
before you read this post, make sure you sit tight, and have your wits about you. It might take a while to process everything I am going to say.
 
We have a lot of writers on batoto, right? Ranging all the way from people who just like to write down whatever, all the way up to professional freelancers. Now, Someone might have had this idea before, but I've honestly never seen it.
An idea had like this has been on my mind for a while, but it took more solid form when talking with some people in one of my statusses.
 
Now then, here's the big idea:
 
Let us, as writers together, take the works we have, or write new ones, or both. Choose some of the best, and put them together in a real collection.
 
This collection:
- Will contain stories in the form of Prose and possibly LN-style (resp. Full text and Text + occasianal image)
- Will be initially written in "reasonably proper" English (Which is at least European B2 level, the exact assesment is up to any proofer checking your story)
- Will accept any story fulfilling above conditions.
 
- Will be properly typesetted, QC'ed and Proofread.
- Will be one PDF, as is the regular filetype for this kind of thing.
 
Now then there is a PDF, with a lot of different proper stories, what are we gonna do with that?
I am still looking for specific solutions, but most likely we will set up a kickstarter campaign, and monetize getting this PDF into sales of some kind.
 
This is also the part where the "Someone with actual experience in publishing" (mentioned later on in this post) comes into play. Having kickstarter money is a good start indeed, but after that someone should contact a webshop or official publisher of sorts, and fight for a deal. In the worst case that no-one takes this job, I will do it myself, and contact people I know from the business.
I am more busy than I like to admit though, and mainly know the business from the perspective of a freelancer. Not that of a proper publishing writer. That is why I am reluctant to do it myself.
 
If all goes well, we will be able to make a profit...
 
"Did he just say 'profit'?"
"Yeah, I'd swear I heard this guy say 'profit'."
 
Sounds good. right?
Well, here's the thing.
 
All of this CAN NOT happen without your help.
 
We need:
- Writers to offer their stories
- Good proofreaders to check (and correct) the stories
- A typesetter or two, to unify and beautify the PDF
- A QC'er to check on the complete product.
- Someone with actual experience in publishing
 
We might also want:
- Some artists to provide images for the stories
- Any suggestions
 
This is not quite a finished project, but with this as a base, I believe we can get all the way.
 
Now, about the profit, this is a difficult something.
How to be fair about that? does everyone get a split-even share?
Well, that is the idea, IF there is profit, it will be split equally over all the parttakers. No-one excluded.
 
lastly, I want to strongly state that
This project is NOT part of Batoto in any official way. It is UNOFFICIAL.
And therefor, it needs a cool name without "Batoto" in it.
It also means Batoto and it's admins are not responsible for us. If anyone is responsible, it is me.
 
Now that I have written this wall of text, I realize it might sound weird, or to good to be true... I mean, can you even trust me?
I guess that is up to you, no-one will force you to parttake~
And if you're hestitating, just ask around, people that know me well can probably vouch for me~
 
Give it some thought guys, admit it, it sounds friggen cool to have a collection of stories out there, with YOUR hard work in it too
If you are interested in any of the positions, PM me.
 
greetings,
Nevy
 
P.S.
Any product that you put into this, be it story or image, will remain yours and yours alone. You keep any and all copyright to it. This project is simply meant to bring your product out there, and possibly generate some income for you.
In exchange, every artist and writer, is responsible for their own work, any critics or difficulties involving your specific product (such as, for example, copyright issues) are your own to deal with.
 
 
 
Writers:

Spoiler

Submits have the following requirements:
- File format is plaintext, word document, open document, or PDF (*.TXT, *.DOC, *.DOCX, *.ODT, *.PDF)
- Written language is English with at least European B2 level.
- Is your own work, without copyright infringement.
- Is not licensed anywhere else.
- Has proper age-warnings (For uniformity, use THIS)

- Has no more than 24 pages in document-format with letter-size of 11Pt.
 
Also:
We will NEVER ask you to post your story in this thread. Please PM me or a proofreader a SAMPLE (about the size of a medium praragraph). This way you can trust that we will not just run off with your story, while telling you it's bad. After the check, you will be contacted for the full story, if it is accepted.

Artists:

Spoiler

Submits have the following requirements:

- File Format is a conventional lossless bitmap format, or original vector format. (*.BMP, *.PNG, *.SVG)
- Has atleast FULL HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels) or vertical equivalent (1080x1920 pixels)
- Is your own work, without copyright infringement.
- Is not licensed anywhere else.
- Has proper age-warnings (For uniformity, use THIS)

Also, same as with the writers:
We will NEVER ask you to post your work in this thread. Please PM a QC'er a SAMPLE (a cropped image of about 500x500 pixels). This way you can trust that we will not just run off with your work, while telling you it's bad. After the check, you will be contacted for the full image, if it is accepted.

Proofreaders:

Spoiler

- You have free time and don't mind reading a lot.
- Your written English is atleast European C1 level.

Typesetters:

Spoiler

- You have prior experience typesetting.
- You have free time to help out.
- Your written English is atleast European C1 level.

QC'ers

Spoiler

- You have prior experience QC'ing
- For convenience's sake, you also have at least European B2 level written English.

Person that might help with the publishing:

Spoiler

- Simply contact me with a proper explanation why you think you can help.

 
If I forgot to adress anything, feel free to ask me via PM, or in the thread.
 
As a last thing, people you can contact (please use PM with a DESCRIPTIVE topic) are:
Nevy (Technical and General questions)
Horn (QC'ing and proofreading questions)
Pervy (QC'ing and Proofreading questions)

Theroadstopshere (General and Writing questions)
If you're unsure who to contact, just PM me. (Nevy)

Edited by nevernown, 19 May 2014 - 07:15 AM.

[QueenOfRandomness]

Would there be a specific theme for these stories? 

[nevernown]

Nope, topics may be as diverse as you want, and anything goes as long as you don't forget to include an age-rating~

[nevernown]

First post updated.

 

@Queen (and lurkers)

 

After taking some ideas, an optional theme is "the beginning and the end".

Edited by nevernown, 07 May 2014 - 02:57 PM.

[watsu]

Interesting effort for showcasing Batoto writers. I think at the very least, there should be at least a soft word/page count limit. Even if it's digital-based, there's always the possibility of someone submitting thick, thick novels and getting them approved. An example case would be ten short stories ranging from 10-30 pages and then two novels each around 800 pages. The majority of this "anthology" is taken up by the two novels and is also not very representative of "Batoto writers" in that case (might as well also just release the novels as separate works to better streamline profit).

 

Another suggestion would be perhaps having a collection of serials, rather than just a collection of stories (or both). More difficult to pull off on the conception, editing, and management side, but the popularity of series across mediums has shown to be greater than anthologies/collections in general. If you do manage to get together a good batch of serials, there's more potential for lasting exposure (rather than very brief one-shot wonders) and support for the collection overall.

Edited by watsu, 15 May 2014 - 12:11 PM.

[nevernown]

Thanks~

I agree on the page limit, in my ignorance, I just assumed that writers would limit themselves. I will add a clause to the first post once I gave the exact limitations some thought~!

 

Uhm, about the serials, could you elaborate more?

I think you're onto something, but I'm not sure if I understood the specifics~

[watsu]

Thanks~

I agree on the page limit, in my ignorance, I just assumed that writers would limit themselves. I will add a clause to the first post once I gave the exact limitations some thought~!

 

Uhm, about the serials, could you elaborate more?

I think you're onto something, but I'm not sure if I understood the specifics~

 

Like Weekly Shonen Jump, as an example. Unrelated stories in a serial format. Can vary in quality, can also make one collection quite large without being unbalanced and provide incentive for readers to support the collection. The issue here that a collection of one-shots doesn't have is that new readers will likely be less interested in collections where you're just dropped into the middle of a story.

Edited by watsu, 19 May 2014 - 06:36 AM.

[Ravenous Raven]

This quite an interesting idea, but the part that I find completely unfeasible is being able to split the profit (if the project even gets that far) in a fair or logical manner.

 

Consider that one person might write a short story with 300 worlds, and get the same amount of money as someone who submitted a seventeen word haiku, or other such examples.

[nevernown]

Like Weekly Shonen Jump, as an example. Unrelated stories in a serial format. Can vary in quality, can also make one collection quite large without being unbalanced and provide incentive for readers to support the collection. The issue here that a collection of one-shots doesn't have is that new readers will likely be less interested in collections where you're just dropped into the middle of a story.

I see.

it's indeed worth considering, But it's not like we're limitted to the one, or the other. A hybrid form is surely possible (like, half oneshots, half serials || or any mix really). The reason that I cannot really say anything about it yet is because, on one hand, no-one submitted really long (or serializeable) stories yet. On the other hand, series requires the project  to have multiple editions. I'm not quite sure if that is wise to already consider.~

Either way, I'll think this through. Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming ^.^

 

 

This quite an interesting idea, but the part that I find completely unfeasible is being able to split the profit (if the project even gets that far) in a fair or logical manner.

 

Consider that one person might write a short story with 300 worlds, and get the same amount of money as someone who submitted a seventeen word haiku, or other such examples.

Indeed, Alcruid also brought this up, and it has passed my mind as well.

It will take some good ol' contemplating to come up with a completely satisfactory answer, but the thought goes like this:

"some people can't really write that much, but write brilliant shorts. Some people write 50 pages on a whim. How do we measure the effort?"

Since I will be updating the post later, with Watsu's suggested page-limit (I'll be going for 24 pages as a limit), the 300-page story won't get through in one piece anymore, so there's that. Just now, also another idea popped up, but I'll not name that until it's thought through~

 

But why is the "split-even" even used (if you were wondering)? Well, the other way to do it, is the Pay-by-page that I get as a freelancer. But for that, you need starting capital (a.k.a. a pile of money). But that pile only gets there over time, IF this project works out.

The only thing we didn't figure out yet (yeah, I got some people that I discuss this with in PM, I don't want to come up with dumb ideas, not for this part ) is the exact split by parts. (as in: how do we decide how many "parts" or how much "effort" someone put in?)

[watsu]

I see.

it's indeed worth considering, But it's not like we're limitted to the one, or the other. A hybrid form is surely possible (like, half oneshots, half serials || or any mix really). The reason that I cannot really say anything about it yet is because, on one hand, no-one submitted really long (or serializeable) stories yet. On the other hand, series requires the project  to have multiple editions. I'm not quite sure if that is wise to already consider.~

Either way, I'll think this through. Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming ^.^

 

 

Indeed, Alcruid also brought this up, and it has passed my mind as well.

It will take some good ol' contemplating to come up with a completely satisfactory answer, but the thought goes like this:

"some people can't really write that much, but write brilliant shorts. Some people write 50 pages on a whim. How do we measure the effort?"

Since I will be updating the post later, with Watsu's suggested page-limit (I'll be going for 24 pages as a limit), the 300-page story won't get through in one piece anymore, so there's that. Just now, also another idea popped up, but I'll not name that until it's thought through~

 

But why is the "split-even" even used (if you were wondering)? Well, the other way to do it, is the Pay-by-page that I get as a freelancer. But for that, you need starting capital (a.k.a. a pile of money). But that pile only gets there over time, IF this project works out.

The only thing we didn't figure out yet (yeah, I got some people that I discuss this with in PM, I don't want to come up with dumb ideas, not for this part ) is the exact split by parts. (as in: how do we decide how many "parts" or how much "effort" someone put in?)

 

Having pay-by-page is fair-sounding and can be utilized if you just determine costs after you start getting a return on the collection (such as with percentages instead of fixed amounts). The issue there is page bloat for the sake of higher return. If the collection's intention is pure profit and exhibition of skill, then a vote from readers could be used to help determine splits (of course, it being factored into the splits would be kept quiet). If the collection intends on giving authors more freedom and a chance to express their creativity and writing independence, then I'd say split it evenly with perhaps some deductions to balance extremes out (for example, as good as a 3-word poem might be, unless you've proven yourself incredibly consistent in quality, it's ridiculous to ask for an equal cut in this case, no matter the effort).

[nevernown]

Yeah, I agree with you on all points.

I am not clear on the details, but there will be some balancing. But seeing how I also asked epople to help me out with proofing, QC'ing and typesetting, there'll be some part for them too...

What it all boils down to is a measure of "effort" which is, as I learned in class, one of the vaguest terms ever when setting up a project.

 

But once I disclose the measurements we are going to use for "effort" there will be indeed bloating of sorts. I don't want that.

Rather, yeah, I want epople to xpress themselves, to show readers their worlds, a moral, a whatever they want to share with them. Above all, things have to be pleasant to read, engrossing is the word, I think?

 

The idea of votes isn't that bad either, but indeed... there's some trouble there.

Anyways, I'm stuck in my exams now, tehy will last a while (some exams take a week) So, after that, I'll put more polished thought into it~

 

Thanks!

[nevernown]

I'll give this topic a bump since I'm free now. Please, everyone, feel free to submit stories. They are welcome, they WILL be read!

[Orcraniil]

This is REALLY interesting, nevy.

 

I might think of submitting something eventually.

[nevernown]

Ohh, Orc

 

Please do ^.^

 

I'll be claiming one or two days in fall holidays to take care of things here, Uni has been... Friggen busy -.-'

[Zero King]

Sounds fun..is this still ongoing?

[nevernown]

Yes, well, I am still on standby, and I have some people to help out with proofing an' all...

Though, I have been a lil less on batoto, if it's for this, I'll keep an eye out!