So what does make a bestseller? Check out the wordle (and analysis) that Anne-Marie Scully put together based on reviews of Fault in our Stars:
Amazing Story, Life Like Characters. Easier said than done, but when it’s done right…
Despite Maurice Sendak vowing never to write a sequel to Where the Wild Things Are, author and illustrator Geoffrey O. Todd and Rich Berner have a Kickstarter to fund their own.
Looking to raise a whopping £25,000 - Back to the Wild have released the full text as well as character designs in a bid to win over potential funders.
UPDATE: The project has been killed off by the original publisher.
Just in case there was ever any doubt. Maurice Sendak was against a sequel. I mean, AGAINST a sequel:
People said, ‘why didn’t you do Wild Things 2? Wild Things 1 was such a success’. Go to hell. Go to hell. I’m not a whore. I don’t do those things.
From the desk of the Bookseller: Younger readers in the US are more likely to have read a printed book in the last year than older ones, a new survey by the Pew Research Centre has found.
Younger Americans’ reading habits and library use are still anchored by the printed page. Some of this stems from the demands of school or work, yet some likely lies in their current personal preferences. And this group’s priorities and expectations for libraries likewise reflect a mix of traditional and technological services.
The Ouya player is live. It’s on sale and in people’s hands (mine is ordered and on its way)
But is the indie console delivering the best platform for indie develepors? It’s still very early but there’s some great sales analysis and projections over at indiestalk.
The post includes Jesse Schell’s keynote at this year’s D.I.C.E. Summit - DEFINITELY worth a watch - the shift to iOS, hype and what comes next for game devs:
From indiestalk - complete with note from the Orange Pixel team (one of the first successes on Ouya)
Since March 28th up until now, which is the Ouya’s retail launch day, Gunslugs has been downloaded 6,125 times. In that same period, the full version has been purchased 140 times. That’s just over a 2% conversion rate from playing the demo to purchasing the full game. Money-wise, that transfers to about $277. Not brilliant, perhaps, but when you consider the game is available across three other platforms as well, the grand total may not be too horrendous. That’s not to say it couldn’t be better, though. What does Pascal Bestebroer of Orange Pixel, who gave me these stats, think of the Ouya so far?
“My interpretation of these stats is the thing I was fearing: everything is free, so getting downloads isn’t hard. Getting people to pay for the full content when there is another demo and quick fix just one minute away from downloading might be the big problem Ouya has to face.”
Want to work in children’s publishing? The Nosy Crow team have you covered - check out their upcoming conference.
Inviting anyone/everyone who has ever wanted to write/work/illustrate/create books and apps for kids to ask any question - it’s a one-day conference with Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing (But Were Afraid to Ask).
Early Bird tickets are priced at £99, and let’s be honest, that’s a GREAT price.
Check out what one veteran has to say on Reddit.
As far as career goes, videogames aren’t great. On one project, I wrote about ten thousand lines of game chatter - as much dialogue as you’d find in maybe ten full-length screenplays. It’s a great exercise to learn to do this well, but I’d never want to do it again. Big budget projects are much fewer and far-between these days, while smaller projects have all the headaches plus some, and are far less rewarding to work on.
It’s honest, open and something well worth reading for anyone who thinks they’re geek enough to tackle it!
I’ve always used spreadsheets, and I can’t imagine doing it any other way. The spreadsheets will have things like “100 lines of generic attack” dialogue, or “fifty lines of ‘I’m hit” dialogue. All of these lines will be called by the game engine, based on triggered events that happen within the game. And these triggers are the key to making some cool and fun in-game dialogue. If the triggers are generic and don’t convey much context, your writing is guaranteed to suck. I would highly, highly suggest that, as early as you can, you delve into these triggers, and figure out if there’s any way to load more context into them. (is the character outclassed? is he the last one alive? is he surrounded? is he out of ammo?) More context is always better.
Happy reading.