I’ve been feeling quite productive this summer and have been looking at my numbers a bit more closely than usual. Having published my first gamebook a bit over three years ago there’s enough data now for it to be somewhat meaningful, and given plenty of price changes and other factors there’s plenty to speculate over – I thought I’d share my thoughts. Firstly, I’ll give the approximate timeline since 2019: The Altimer – first in my sci-fi trilogy New Gaia – second in the trilogy Escape From Portsrood Forest – my original approach to gamebooks and an introduction to the Portsrood Protectors Solar War – the finale of the trilogy Problematic Protective Poisonous Purple Paint – a silly…
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Is it me, or does the world seem to be collapsing around us? Things are going wrong, the world’s shrinking, and the response of most of us seems to be to get a bit angry about it. The acronym VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) has been used for several years now to describe the modern world. And the other day, someone said that’s now been replaced by BANI: Brittle Anxious Non-linear Incomprehensible That feels about right. And it all feels quite personal, doesn’t it? Even if I agree with something in principle, I’d rather it didn’t apply to me. I don’t think I need to go into microscopic detail on this, but this has been evidenced in my…
The title of this is “Illustrators: here’s why gamebook authors don’t want to work with you”. That’s not really fair. I’m not talking to all illustrators, and I’m not talking about all gamebook authors. I’m talking about one gamebook author: me. And it isn’t really about not wanting to work with you either, but I’ll get to that. A more accurate title would be: “Illustrators: here’s how I’d like to work with you”. In fact, that feels a lot more positive. Too late now, I’ve pressed publish already. Illustrations in a gamebook are really nice, and for some people are an absolute Must Have. To date I’ve done all my own illustrations, but I’d really like a good…
Money has a strange capacity to make the most rational person make silly decisions. I empathise a lot with the comedian Jon Richardson, who said he’s naturally stingy and that he’d rather save a pound than earn a tenner. So choosing what price I should assign to my books is a tricky question – too low and people think it’s low quality and I receive less reward for my hard work and creativity, and too high and I put off new readers and won’t actually earn as much. And then there’s the fact that in one sense it’s just an arbitrary number. Hold that thought. Why this is important I did a sort of self discovery exercise a…
I’m not sure if this has anything to do with gamebooks. That doesn’t feel like a very strong opening sentence. Let’s start again. The modern world feels like a tricky place to thrive in, despite many publications claiming that they will help you do just that. I’ve been thinking about it, and I wonder if the problem isn’t down to two factors that combine dangerously: Easy access to marginal opinions and echo chambers amplified by social media have made experts’ voices quieter. That leads to increased confusion, greater feelings of stress and anxiety, and bad decision-making at every level. Increased talk about personal responsibility over systemic problems add guilt onto areas that are truly concerning and yet we…
Gamebooks face risks that other sorts of books don’t. When you’re reading a gamebook, have discovered the route to victory, and the text tells you to turn to section 123, it’s jarring and deflating to discover that section 123 is clearly not the section the author intended to send you to. There are many reasons this can happen (typos are the tip of the iceberg), and thankfully there’s a solution: a great playtester. I thought I’d compile a list of what I find most helpful in a playtester – if you’re playtesting a gamebook at some point, maybe these will come in handy! Complete it fairly. This is far and away the most important output I’m looking for!…