At the risk of disembowelment, defenestration, quartering, incineration, salting and irradiation for even bringing this up, my suggestion is this:
You can do it all, by yourself, with a level of expediency that will in no way sap the quality. Remember all those hilarious and oddly productive (and necessary) interactions with The Computer in Paranoia?
Well, brush of those clever, patient communication skills and start to explain one of your products to Friend Computer. Feed it all of your already finished text. Explain what you need in order to have the publication ready to go.
Ask it for a strategic checklist for next steps and a process for completion. Ask it for suggestions, for artwork. Ask it to take your text descriptions of maps for ideas of useable maps.
React to Computer with challenging questions. Point out how badly it has gotten things, how artificial, how false. Be explicit. Then review its response. Refine the next strategy, checklist and content until it is closer to what you need.
It may not cross the goal line, but it will break the log jam, it will regain your momentum. It is how I code now, and it hasn't made me dumber. Game Design is specialized form of coding.
AI assistance is a terrible weapon when used incorrectly, but when implemented with some modicum of wisdom, restraint and utilitarian ruthlessness, it is the sword that cut the Gordian Knot.
A Thousand Suns is not using your considerable strength as a writer, but your less-beloved skill as an editor. 90% of that work is changing your natural voice in those areas where your natural voice is not useful to your consumer. That's not fun game design. It is the ideal work for editorial assistance from AI. You can show the AI an example of the previous edition and then your revised edited version, then give it the rest of the unedited portion and ask AI to clean it up in much the same way, and give you back a redline version.
Then you shift from editor to reader - trading a lesser, boring strength for one of your greater, exciting strengths! (or more technically, from copyeditor to line-editor) You don't have to accept any of the suggested changes, but if you accept even half of them, you could potentially have the text revisions of A Thousands Suns done by the end of the month.
Based on a similar situation I had last year, I'd guess that it would reduce your personal time to finish the project from 50 hours to maybe 8, with about an hour of direct interaction with the AI agent. It is closer to using a spellchecker than asking HAL for help.
The style / voice that large language models are trained to produce doesn't remotely match the style that our host should be using; they mostly aren't technical writers. Or very competent writers. Getting acceptable quality out of them is a difficult task in itself.
Find a publisher who will give you a good deal on royalties and a lot of creative control. I'd guess there are plenty of guys who would love to publish your stuff, bz you have tons of name recognition. They could make a lot of the decisions that are freezing you and just keep you in the loop.
That's a good idea, but here's what I personally would worry about (with experience) if it were me:
1) Every respectable and decent publisher, will, as a matter of business, want anywhere from small-to-large creative control or at least input.
2) Any royalty-paying publisher is going to make a disproportionate amount of the income, limiting my ability to fund the next project. Even if the rare one does not, earning royalties over time creates a serious cashflow problem, and a diminishing one at that. I'd be in better financial shape if I just limited the scope of a project, self-published that, and cleared 50%-90% of the profits directly from my readers, regardless of the platform.
3) The decisions that freeze me up are typically decisions I do not want others making for me.
4) Structured deadlines for personal projects don't end well for me. I'm fine with normal "work" deadlines, but when I'm working on a passion project, I will make my business partner miserable with walls of text content, walls of text excuses for why the deadline needs pushed, walls of text apologies for the financial risk and harm the partner is suffering. In short, on a creative, passionate thing (again, I work in data, so this doesn't even creep in a little at my real job), even if it is one I'm relying on financially, this factor adds complexity and delay, it doesn't help it.
5) Finally, out of pure selfish arrogance, I admit, I do not ever want to get a deal - good or bad - from a third party on the publication of my own work.
Again, these are my personal issues illustrating my ability to follow your advice, not arguments against it. Far more successful people than me would happily follow that advice.
Don't use AI, because you then have to identify it as AI-assisted, which then cuts your potential income stream by half, because most people want nothing to do with gratuitous AI slop. Be a punk. Do it yourself. I have published 8 books and countless magazine articles now for both Advanced Fighting Fantasy and Dragon Warriors, and for most of them I have done all the writing, several edits, layouts, design (easy, because its 80s-90s retro-kitsch), maps, diagrams, some art (when not working with a cool cadre of talented artists I've discovered on social media), art direction, and so on, before the final product then gets proofread and published). No one will do it for you, unless you pay them, so otherwise just do it yourself; you'll learn new skills and become a better content creator, all without AI slop slowly corrupting and degrading your cognitive processes not to mention destroying the environment at the same time. Be a punk: DIY. :-)
That is preposterously untrue. 1st, consumers do not care if quality products have used AI assistance. 2nd, there is no more general requirement to "source" AI, anymore than there would be to "source" Microsoft Word (although, funny enough, at the dawn of Word Processing, there were people who would note the software used io record their essay or whatever. That ended quickly). To be clear, work that is collaborated for content generation should be sourced, but that stuff sells like hotcakes, and literally no one cares (not even you, if you already like what you are reading) if co-pilot gets credit (anymore than anyone but mom reads the "acknowledgements" section of a book).
Third, it isn't slop. I guarantee you that 70% of the quality materials and products you have purchased this year, that you enjoy and are entertained by, has been AI-assisted. AI does not suppress sales - well applied, it improves productivity.
Look, I get it. The excesses, robotic viagra commercials, bogus photo essays, searches that end in incoherent click-bait blogs, the proliferation of desiccated, hallucinogenic counterfeit knowledge is a pox.
But that has nothing to do with a creator increasing his personal productivity and efficiency in order to hone his activities as much as possible to his core strength.
The ironic thing is that AI Dread is not much different than the Satanic Panic: all fear, no facts. Don't get me wrong, it is very smart to approach AI with WIS, INT, and DEX, because after all Dallas Egbert did play D&D, and he did disappear, so the Panic did have reason to associate its fears with the game initially.
But they just weren't good reasons once more facts came to light.
THOMAS is right. James, you're a writer, not a publisher. Writing is what brings you joy, and how you want to earn a living.
Just look at the things you list that drain your will to live, and have caused this logjam: "Throw in thoughts about artwork, layout, etc. and I find myself overwhelmed." "This is purely a matter of figuring out how to present the material for publication. It’s mostly a technical problem, but, since I lack the skills or the vision to handle it, the whole thing is stalled." "I am fretting about its art, layout, cartography, etc."
These are all problems for a publisher to solve, not a writer!
Not everyone *enjoys* self publishing. Stephen King doesn't self publish and he is creatively happy.
As THOMAS said, your name recognition and followers should make it easier to find publishers (and keep your own IP).
You'll split the proceeds, but your output will soar. Right now, you're self-publishing nothing because of the logjam. Sure, you've got 100% of those proceeds, but that's zero.
Get yourself out of the publishing business and back in the writing business! Follow your muse!
You all also clearly missed "Doing things on my own is the best way I can ensure I don’t let anyone down by failing to meet a deadline or following through on a promise, so that’s what I do — even though it also contributes further to my frustration."
So, whether you like or not, James is saying he recognizes that finding a publisher is going to be the obvious advice everyone from the outside sees...but he doesn't want to work with a publisher.
The good news is there are many creatives who are now in a technological environment where they don't have to schmooze publishers to work with. There's a learning curve, sure, and all of us are saying the same thing: use your writing strengths to get your projects across the finish line.
But the advice to James to do the thing he concludes at the end of "Logjam" that he really doesn't want to do seems like an elaborate way to disagree with his approach and say, "You are doing it wrong."
I don't think he is doing it wrong. I just think he needs to maximize his strengths through other means, and use the available tools to do it.
I'll be really interested to see how you resolve this one, James, whichever ones (or nones) of us are "right!" One thing I know for sure is that you can resolve it, and that you will.
[One last thing, regardless of how you attack it: recall all those abandoned campaigns that every player ever has in their XP. Don't focus on the fizzling end. Focus on the fun memories before it died and a new one was born....]
"... seems like an elaborate way to disagree with his approach and say, "You are doing it wrong."
Well, anything is "wrong" if it leaves us frustrated and in a logjam.
If James wants a different outcome, he needs a different approach. That different approach imho is to stop being a publisher to do what he loves, writing.
The idea that tech can solve this ignores the fact that James is a self-admitted Luddite. :)
1) Do not use AI. 2) focus on your competitive advantages and spend the bulk of your time on those things. 3) outsource tasks you don’t enjoy and are not skilled at to third parties. Pay them for their contributions.
"2) focus on your competitive advantages and spend the bulk of your time on those things."
Yes! Please forgive my forwardness, but just to explore this concept with one hypothetical example: James, your competitive advantage in the market, that would be appealing to publishers, includes your deep subject matter expertise, and your following: gamers from the golden age of D&D.
Spending the bulk of your time on *that* market advantage could possibly result in a book that covers that period's *product.* Playing at the World, Of Dice and Men, Game Wizards, etc. focus on behind-the-scenes TSR personalities, and RPGs and its players from the overall perspective.
But you are uniquely suited to write a book on early D&D product that would be to TSR what something like "The Marvel Age of Comics" by Taschen is to Marvel. It focuses on what was *published* and what it meant.
In fact, you've already done the first draft of this hypothetical book: Retrospectives of TSR rules, modules and magazines. The different Ages of D&D (which you've defined by the *product* of those periods). Locale vs Plot. Funhouse vs Naturalism. The Influence of Appendix N on TSR publications. Classic D&D Modules (and why they were important). How Dragonlance Ruined Everything, et al. All the concepts you invented and developed in this blog, brought together.
Not a "best of Grognardia" but a holistic history of TSR's (and Judges Guild's) early output, that would also be appealing to people who don't know your blog.
This wouldn't be Kickstarter. A publisher could secure the rights to the art you'd need, like publishers have already done in "Art of" D&D books. Your first step is a pretty low lift: a proposal submission to editors with your qualifications and a synopsis of the book. If they accept your proposal, you'll get an advance, and years to write it.
I'd know I'd buy a book from you called The Golden Age of D&D. Who else but you could write that?
"If James wants a different outcome, he needs a different approach. That different approach imho is to stop being a publisher to do what he loves, writing."
I 100% agree, but "outsourcing" and "working with a third party for royalties" are two things he said he didn't want to do.
All I'm saying is that the best way for a creative to do this (because, as easy as all of you make it sound to work with others and cede at least some control to them, the fact that no one has identified the massive drawbacks to this, tells me that no one is thinking this all the way through) is to use technology to routinize the non-creative aspects, thus freeing you up to exercise your strengths.
Quick poll: how many of you who have advised to seek publishers, partners or freelancers to solve the logjam have actually worked with publishers, partners or freelancers to solve them?
I have more than twenty published works that generated more than $1000 in revenue apiece. Of those, something like 12 were self-published entirely. 8 were done with publishers, partners, and freelancers.
I have many, many more projects that didn't make it to market, or failed to generate sales. Obviously, I'm just a dabbler in this, but I do have actual paid experience in this. But my most costly (by far failures) happened to be the ones in which I had a contract with a major professional publisher. Contracting carries risks that are sometimes worth it and sometimes not, and when not, several of the latest commercial AI systems (or if you want to be an extreme control freak about it, you can construct your own, training it on your own documents only).
I mean, the truth of it is, unless you are not using spell checker, typesetting fonts, redline edits and comments, formatting assistance, anchors, tables and columnar settings, we've been using SLM artificial intelligence for decades already. Bad AI results are not he fault of hallucinating AI - it is the fault of unskilled users. The fact that a lot of unskilled users are abusing the technology toward the production of slop does not mean that a conscientious thoughtful and skilled user will do the same. I wouldn't reject it without trying it.
The worst thing that could happen during AI development is for the people smart enough to manage it to fear it so much they leave it only in the hands of the suicidal idiots who think it is a magical and infallible brain-replacer.
Re: poll: I've been published and let me say it's wonderful having someone else handle all the stuff I don't enjoy doing. And I've found deadlines in book publishing to be downright luxurious compared to, say, advertising.
Regarding AI, you continue to ignore that James is a self-admitted Luddite.
I'm only responding to his direct statements in "logjam" about how publishing with another person is not a welcome solution at this time.
More important, Luddites used looms for their livelihoods. They only destroyed frames - equipment that prevented them from producing their handiwork.
In the hands of a luddite, AI is a loom, not a frame. What a real luddite (i.e. skilled writer looking to lubricate his projects) would do is smash the automated publication systems you are advocating (work with a publisher, outsource production) for which will, by design, reduce his potential income (or worse, reduce him to an employee without benefits! I know he loves early TSR, but I doubt it is that much!.
A log-jam of this size demands creative but effective and cost-senstive approaches. But it is completely obvious that James, who has more experience working for and with publishers, self-publishing, and contracting than all of us combined clearly is aware of the outsourcing/third party option and even includes arguments against that solution in the very post.
We aren't reading him! I'm even ignoring the fact that he didn't even solicit our advice! But if we are going to belly up to the bar, let's not shoot the breeze, especially if we don't have the currency to pay off the tab. That's all I'm saying. I've made business and production arguments for AI, full knowing that my fellow grognards would reject it.
But if you are going to reject it, reject it with some business, efficiency or creative reasons. It isn't helpful to shoot down every viable idea in the name of...what? Tradition? Fear? Emotion?
I think I can make better arguments against AI than anyone here, and I'm advocating for it:
AI support is a risk: if you aren't patient in learning how to use it, your work can suffer and your logjams increase.
AI support, even when well-tended, can occasionally result in useless dead-ends, "wasting", hours of work.
AI support for original creative work can still hallucinate unexpectedly on rare occasions, although this generally crops up as very obvious, easily remedied mistake by experienced creatives.
AI dice randomization is nonetheless pinned with the normal original "random number generator" paradox (in short, it, at the atomic level, isn't "truly" random). However, there are no true dice (maybe in Vegas for d6s, I would guess) in real life either.
Table and matrix (and NPC and pre-gen) generation, while feeling effortless at the end, does require a level of parameterization that takes time and troubleshooting to get the probabilities and results you want for fun and appropriate gameplay.
But all of these things can be managed by someone with no more technological experience than Microsoft Word. If you can navigate them, you can benefit from AI , whether or not you change your mind and get help from partners.
As usual, I tried to post this at the sequel on substack (Logjam II) but, again, as usual, I fumbled the roll*:
"Something modest" could simply be picking whichever project of yours has the least amount of art and formatting necessary to finish it. My suggestion? Start with a small (100-page?) digital edition of Grognardia Basic, or whatever Volume 1 is called. It doesn't even need to be the full volume: you can expand it later or change the format later.
Then, publish it through Draft2Digital - they will walk you through how to format your document in word so that it can then be transformed into many digital formats of ebook and .pdf, etc. They will also distribute it for free. They simply take a 10% royalty off of your sales (and distribute it through Smashwords) - they send you tax forms, provide an online account, and have an interest in "pushing" your content for sale, because they only make money when you make more money.
I believe I first self-published with them in 2008, and though I have not updated my catalog in years, never converted anything to the modern format, never converted anything to audio or any of the other services they provide. A decade ago, they (well, then Smashwords and Draft2Digital were one and the same) walked you carefully through the Word-based "hamburger" method of formatting it, then put it through a grinder to produce and distribute books. I'm certain it is much, much easier now. My point is that I was a non-techie back then, when you needed to be a little technical to get it done. I have little doubt that it is even more user friendly now.
I recommend you give it a try, I think you could have a promising little trickle of income start on just this "test" project by St. Patrick's Day, if not sooner. From there you can strategize about whether this is viable or not. Even if you decide it isn't the way to go, you will have tangible signs of progress, and a legitimate (if tiny) actual direct revenue stream. The other nice thing about the Smashwords/Direct2Digital system is it gives you simple but very easy to monitor sales metrics and tables, so once you have a few different publications up (back in the day, it was extremely fun to compare the sales of my individual novellas or stories my the various anthologies in which they appeared.) Even if monthly revenue is only $5 or $10 net in your pocket (on say, a $4.99 cover price?) may sound too small to be worth it, but what I figured out very quickly at Smashwords was that the first dollar is more difficult to earn than expanding your collection and making the next $1000.
It is slow, but right now, any movement may unlock the jam.
*The fact that I'm too technically illiterate to post regularly to substack, but perfectly capable of self-publishing well-formatted, nice cover stuff at Smashwords/Direct2Digital should give you an idea of how much they support writers.
One last, but major thing, if Draft2Digital works for you for this new original publication, you will be able to quickly distribute any existing publications you haven't given exclusive distro to. For example, The Excellent Travelling Volume, Issues 1-3 is really only readily available on one niche channel (DriveThruRPG), but the vast majority of your potential readers for that are far more likely to hang out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and (internationally) all the European and Asian markets. Loading a copy of that to your D2D account, once you figure out how it all works, will give an instant boost to latent content you already have for sale but in limited distro streams.
In Draft2Digital you can unironically be "big in Japan" (one of my books inexplicably went on a three month bender in Japan years ago. It was nice!) and just maximize the income from what you already have.
Oh and an aside - I know a different writer who published basically a digital digest of a book years ago, with like a $2.99 cover price. Years later, the full book has been published in a $500 goatskin leatherbound edition in Switzerland. My point is get some modest revenue generating content out now: it is an investment in what that content can morph into once it "lives" in a market.
This article may help:
ReplyDeletehttps://theproductiveengineer.net/hardest-or-easiest-work-first-what-the-research-shows/
At the risk of disembowelment, defenestration, quartering, incineration, salting and irradiation for even bringing this up, my suggestion is this:
ReplyDeleteYou can do it all, by yourself, with a level of expediency that will in no way sap the quality. Remember all those hilarious and oddly productive (and necessary) interactions with The Computer in Paranoia?
Well, brush of those clever, patient communication skills and start to explain one of your products to Friend Computer. Feed it all of your already finished text. Explain what you need in order to have the publication ready to go.
Ask it for a strategic checklist for next steps and a process for completion. Ask it for suggestions, for artwork. Ask it to take your text descriptions of maps for ideas of useable maps.
React to Computer with challenging questions. Point out how badly it has gotten things, how artificial, how false. Be explicit. Then review its response. Refine the next strategy, checklist and content until it is closer to what you need.
It may not cross the goal line, but it will break the log jam, it will regain your momentum. It is how I code now, and it hasn't made me dumber. Game Design is specialized form of coding.
AI assistance is a terrible weapon when used incorrectly, but when implemented with some modicum of wisdom, restraint and utilitarian ruthlessness, it is the sword that cut the Gordian Knot.
A Thousand Suns is not using your considerable strength as a writer, but your less-beloved skill as an editor. 90% of that work is changing your natural voice in those areas where your natural voice is not useful to your consumer. That's not fun game design. It is the ideal work for editorial assistance from AI. You can show the AI an example of the previous edition and then your revised edited version, then give it the rest of the unedited portion and ask AI to clean it up in much the same way, and give you back a redline version.
ReplyDeleteThen you shift from editor to reader - trading a lesser, boring strength for one of your greater, exciting strengths! (or more technically, from copyeditor to line-editor) You don't have to accept any of the suggested changes, but if you accept even half of them, you could potentially have the text revisions of A Thousands Suns done by the end of the month.
Based on a similar situation I had last year, I'd guess that it would reduce your personal time to finish the project from 50 hours to maybe 8, with about an hour of direct interaction with the AI agent. It is closer to using a spellchecker than asking HAL for help.
The style / voice that large language models are trained to produce doesn't remotely match the style that our host should be using; they mostly aren't technical writers. Or very competent writers. Getting acceptable quality out of them is a difficult task in itself.
DeleteFind a publisher who will give you a good deal on royalties and a lot of creative control. I'd guess there are plenty of guys who would love to publish your stuff, bz you have tons of name recognition. They could make a lot of the decisions that are freezing you and just keep you in the loop.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea, but here's what I personally would worry about (with experience) if it were me:
Delete1) Every respectable and decent publisher, will, as a matter of business, want anywhere from small-to-large creative control or at least input.
2) Any royalty-paying publisher is going to make a disproportionate amount of the income, limiting my ability to fund the next project. Even if the rare one does not, earning royalties over time creates a serious cashflow problem, and a diminishing one at that. I'd be in better financial shape if I just limited the scope of a project, self-published that, and cleared 50%-90% of the profits directly from my readers, regardless of the platform.
3) The decisions that freeze me up are typically decisions I do not want others making for me.
4) Structured deadlines for personal projects don't end well for me. I'm fine with normal "work" deadlines, but when I'm working on a passion project, I will make my business partner miserable with walls of text content, walls of text excuses for why the deadline needs pushed, walls of text apologies for the financial risk and harm the partner is suffering. In short, on a creative, passionate thing (again, I work in data, so this doesn't even creep in a little at my real job), even if it is one I'm relying on financially, this factor adds complexity and delay, it doesn't help it.
5) Finally, out of pure selfish arrogance, I admit, I do not ever want to get a deal - good or bad - from a third party on the publication of my own work.
Again, these are my personal issues illustrating my ability to follow your advice, not arguments against it. Far more successful people than me would happily follow that advice.
"3) The decisions that freeze me up are typically decisions I do not want others making for me."
DeleteThis is the game-killer for me. That could be all the more reason to relinquish control, but I know I couldn't do it.
Don't use AI, because you then have to identify it as AI-assisted, which then cuts your potential income stream by half, because most people want nothing to do with gratuitous AI slop. Be a punk. Do it yourself. I have published 8 books and countless magazine articles now for both Advanced Fighting Fantasy and Dragon Warriors, and for most of them I have done all the writing, several edits, layouts, design (easy, because its 80s-90s retro-kitsch), maps, diagrams, some art (when not working with a cool cadre of talented artists I've discovered on social media), art direction, and so on, before the final product then gets proofread and published). No one will do it for you, unless you pay them, so otherwise just do it yourself; you'll learn new skills and become a better content creator, all without AI slop slowly corrupting and degrading your cognitive processes not to mention destroying the environment at the same time. Be a punk: DIY. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat is preposterously untrue. 1st, consumers do not care if quality products have used AI assistance. 2nd, there is no more general requirement to "source" AI, anymore than there would be to "source" Microsoft Word (although, funny enough, at the dawn of Word Processing, there were people who would note the software used io record their essay or whatever. That ended quickly). To be clear, work that is collaborated for content generation should be sourced, but that stuff sells like hotcakes, and literally no one cares (not even you, if you already like what you are reading) if co-pilot gets credit (anymore than anyone but mom reads the "acknowledgements" section of a book).
DeleteThird, it isn't slop. I guarantee you that 70% of the quality materials and products you have purchased this year, that you enjoy and are entertained by, has been AI-assisted. AI does not suppress sales - well applied, it improves productivity.
Look, I get it. The excesses, robotic viagra commercials, bogus photo essays, searches that end in incoherent click-bait blogs, the proliferation of desiccated, hallucinogenic counterfeit knowledge is a pox.
But that has nothing to do with a creator increasing his personal productivity and efficiency in order to hone his activities as much as possible to his core strength.
The ironic thing is that AI Dread is not much different than the Satanic Panic: all fear, no facts. Don't get me wrong, it is very smart to approach AI with WIS, INT, and DEX, because after all Dallas Egbert did play D&D, and he did disappear, so the Panic did have reason to associate its fears with the game initially.
But they just weren't good reasons once more facts came to light.
What fantasygamebook said.
ReplyDeleteThanks! :-)
DeleteTHOMAS is right. James, you're a writer, not a publisher. Writing is what brings you joy, and how you want to earn a living.
ReplyDeleteJust look at the things you list that drain your will to live, and have caused this logjam:
"Throw in thoughts about artwork, layout, etc. and I find myself overwhelmed."
"This is purely a matter of figuring out how to present the material for publication. It’s mostly a technical problem, but, since I lack the skills or the vision to handle it, the whole thing is stalled."
"I am fretting about its art, layout, cartography, etc."
These are all problems for a publisher to solve, not a writer!
Not everyone *enjoys* self publishing. Stephen King doesn't self publish and he is creatively happy.
As THOMAS said, your name recognition and followers should make it easier to find publishers (and keep your own IP).
You'll split the proceeds, but your output will soar. Right now, you're self-publishing nothing because of the logjam. Sure, you've got 100% of those proceeds, but that's zero.
Get yourself out of the publishing business and back in the writing business! Follow your muse!
You all also clearly missed "Doing things on my own is the best way I can ensure I don’t let anyone down by failing to meet a deadline or following through on a promise, so that’s what I do — even though it also contributes further to my frustration."
ReplyDeleteSo, whether you like or not, James is saying he recognizes that finding a publisher is going to be the obvious advice everyone from the outside sees...but he doesn't want to work with a publisher.
The good news is there are many creatives who are now in a technological environment where they don't have to schmooze publishers to work with. There's a learning curve, sure, and all of us are saying the same thing: use your writing strengths to get your projects across the finish line.
But the advice to James to do the thing he concludes at the end of "Logjam" that he really doesn't want to do seems like an elaborate way to disagree with his approach and say, "You are doing it wrong."
I don't think he is doing it wrong. I just think he needs to maximize his strengths through other means, and use the available tools to do it.
I'll be really interested to see how you resolve this one, James, whichever ones (or nones) of us are "right!" One thing I know for sure is that you can resolve it, and that you will.
[One last thing, regardless of how you attack it: recall all those abandoned campaigns that every player ever has in their XP. Don't focus on the fizzling end. Focus on the fun memories before it died and a new one was born....]
"... seems like an elaborate way to disagree with his approach and say, "You are doing it wrong."
ReplyDeleteWell, anything is "wrong" if it leaves us frustrated and in a logjam.
If James wants a different outcome, he needs a different approach. That different approach imho is to stop being a publisher to do what he loves, writing.
The idea that tech can solve this ignores the fact that James is a self-admitted Luddite. :)
1) Do not use AI.
ReplyDelete2) focus on your competitive advantages and spend the bulk of your time on those things.
3) outsource tasks you don’t enjoy and are not skilled at to third parties. Pay them for their contributions.
This. 100% (also don't forget to thank and acknowledge your [human] co-contributors). The sense of true accomplishment is real. :-)
Delete"2) focus on your competitive advantages and spend the bulk of your time on those things."
DeleteYes! Please forgive my forwardness, but just to explore this concept with one hypothetical example:
James, your competitive advantage in the market, that would be appealing to publishers, includes your deep subject matter expertise, and your following: gamers from the golden age of D&D.
Spending the bulk of your time on *that* market advantage could possibly result in a book that covers that period's *product.* Playing at the World, Of Dice and Men, Game Wizards, etc. focus on behind-the-scenes TSR personalities, and RPGs and its players from the overall perspective.
But you are uniquely suited to write a book on early D&D product that would be to TSR what something like "The Marvel Age of Comics" by Taschen is to Marvel. It focuses on what was *published* and what it meant.
https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Age-Comics-1961-1978/dp/3836567768
In fact, you've already done the first draft of this hypothetical book: Retrospectives of TSR rules, modules and magazines. The different Ages of D&D (which you've defined by the *product* of those periods). Locale vs Plot. Funhouse vs Naturalism. The Influence of Appendix N on TSR publications. Classic D&D Modules (and why they were important). How Dragonlance Ruined Everything, et al. All the concepts you invented and developed in this blog, brought together.
Not a "best of Grognardia" but a holistic history of TSR's (and Judges Guild's) early output, that would also be appealing to people who don't know your blog.
This wouldn't be Kickstarter. A publisher could secure the rights to the art you'd need, like publishers have already done in "Art of" D&D books. Your first step is a pretty low lift: a proposal submission to editors with your qualifications and a synopsis of the book. If they accept your proposal, you'll get an advance, and years to write it.
I'd know I'd buy a book from you called The Golden Age of D&D. Who else but you could write that?
Hypothetically speaking of course.
I would buy this.
DeleteRight?
Delete"If James wants a different outcome, he needs a different approach. That different approach imho is to stop being a publisher to do what he loves, writing."
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree, but "outsourcing" and "working with a third party for royalties" are two things he said he didn't want to do.
All I'm saying is that the best way for a creative to do this (because, as easy as all of you make it sound to work with others and cede at least some control to them, the fact that no one has identified the massive drawbacks to this, tells me that no one is thinking this all the way through) is to use technology to routinize the non-creative aspects, thus freeing you up to exercise your strengths.
Quick poll: how many of you who have advised to seek publishers, partners or freelancers to solve the logjam have actually worked with publishers, partners or freelancers to solve them?
I have more than twenty published works that generated more than $1000 in revenue apiece. Of those, something like 12 were self-published entirely. 8 were done with publishers, partners, and freelancers.
I have many, many more projects that didn't make it to market, or failed to generate sales. Obviously, I'm just a dabbler in this, but I do have actual paid experience in this. But my most costly (by far failures) happened to be the ones in which I had a contract with a major professional publisher. Contracting carries risks that are sometimes worth it and sometimes not, and when not, several of the latest commercial AI systems (or if you want to be an extreme control freak about it, you can construct your own, training it on your own documents only).
I mean, the truth of it is, unless you are not using spell checker, typesetting fonts, redline edits and comments, formatting assistance, anchors, tables and columnar settings, we've been using SLM artificial intelligence for decades already. Bad AI results are not he fault of hallucinating AI - it is the fault of unskilled users. The fact that a lot of unskilled users are abusing the technology toward the production of slop does not mean that a conscientious thoughtful and skilled user will do the same. I wouldn't reject it without trying it.
The worst thing that could happen during AI development is for the people smart enough to manage it to fear it so much they leave it only in the hands of the suicidal idiots who think it is a magical and infallible brain-replacer.
Re: poll: I've been published and let me say it's wonderful having someone else handle all the stuff I don't enjoy doing. And I've found deadlines in book publishing to be downright luxurious compared to, say, advertising.
DeleteRegarding AI, you continue to ignore that James is a self-admitted Luddite.
I'm only responding to his direct statements in "logjam" about how publishing with another person is not a welcome solution at this time.
DeleteMore important, Luddites used looms for their livelihoods. They only destroyed frames - equipment that prevented them from producing their handiwork.
In the hands of a luddite, AI is a loom, not a frame. What a real luddite (i.e. skilled writer looking to lubricate his projects) would do is smash the automated publication systems you are advocating (work with a publisher, outsource production) for which will, by design, reduce his potential income (or worse, reduce him to an employee without benefits! I know he loves early TSR, but I doubt it is that much!.
A log-jam of this size demands creative but effective and cost-senstive approaches. But it is completely obvious that James, who has more experience working for and with publishers, self-publishing, and contracting than all of us combined clearly is aware of the outsourcing/third party option and even includes arguments against that solution in the very post.
We aren't reading him! I'm even ignoring the fact that he didn't even solicit our advice! But if we are going to belly up to the bar, let's not shoot the breeze, especially if we don't have the currency to pay off the tab. That's all I'm saying. I've made business and production arguments for AI, full knowing that my fellow grognards would reject it.
But if you are going to reject it, reject it with some business, efficiency or creative reasons. It isn't helpful to shoot down every viable idea in the name of...what? Tradition? Fear? Emotion?
I think I can make better arguments against AI than anyone here, and I'm advocating for it:
AI support is a risk: if you aren't patient in learning how to use it, your work can suffer and your logjams increase.
AI support, even when well-tended, can occasionally result in useless dead-ends, "wasting", hours of work.
AI support for original creative work can still hallucinate unexpectedly on rare occasions, although this generally crops up as very obvious, easily remedied mistake by experienced creatives.
AI dice randomization is nonetheless pinned with the normal original "random number generator" paradox (in short, it, at the atomic level, isn't "truly" random). However, there are no true dice (maybe in Vegas for d6s, I would guess) in real life either.
Table and matrix (and NPC and pre-gen) generation, while feeling effortless at the end, does require a level of parameterization that takes time and troubleshooting to get the probabilities and results you want for fun and appropriate gameplay.
But all of these things can be managed by someone with no more technological experience than Microsoft Word. If you can navigate them, you can benefit from AI , whether or not you change your mind and get help from partners.
As usual, I tried to post this at the sequel on substack (Logjam II) but, again, as usual, I fumbled the roll*:
ReplyDelete"Something modest" could simply be picking whichever project of yours has the least amount of art and formatting necessary to finish it. My suggestion? Start with a small (100-page?) digital edition of Grognardia Basic, or whatever Volume 1 is called. It doesn't even need to be the full volume: you can expand it later or change the format later.
Then, publish it through Draft2Digital - they will walk you through how to format your document in word so that it can then be transformed into many digital formats of ebook and .pdf, etc. They will also distribute it for free. They simply take a 10% royalty off of your sales (and distribute it through Smashwords) - they send you tax forms, provide an online account, and have an interest in "pushing" your content for sale, because they only make money when you make more money.
I believe I first self-published with them in 2008, and though I have not updated my catalog in years, never converted anything to the modern format, never converted anything to audio or any of the other services they provide. A decade ago, they (well, then Smashwords and Draft2Digital were one and the same) walked you carefully through the Word-based "hamburger" method of formatting it, then put it through a grinder to produce and distribute books. I'm certain it is much, much easier now. My point is that I was a non-techie back then, when you needed to be a little technical to get it done. I have little doubt that it is even more user friendly now.
I recommend you give it a try, I think you could have a promising little trickle of income start on just this "test" project by St. Patrick's Day, if not sooner. From there you can strategize about whether this is viable or not. Even if you decide it isn't the way to go, you will have tangible signs of progress, and a legitimate (if tiny) actual direct revenue stream. The other nice thing about the Smashwords/Direct2Digital system is it gives you simple but very easy to monitor sales metrics and tables, so once you have a few different publications up (back in the day, it was extremely fun to compare the sales of my individual novellas or stories my the various anthologies in which they appeared.) Even if monthly revenue is only $5 or $10 net in your pocket (on say, a $4.99 cover price?) may sound too small to be worth it, but what I figured out very quickly at Smashwords was that the first dollar is more difficult to earn than expanding your collection and making the next $1000.
It is slow, but right now, any movement may unlock the jam.
*The fact that I'm too technically illiterate to post regularly to substack, but perfectly capable of self-publishing well-formatted, nice cover stuff at Smashwords/Direct2Digital should give you an idea of how much they support writers.
One last, but major thing, if Draft2Digital works for you for this new original publication, you will be able to quickly distribute any existing publications you haven't given exclusive distro to. For example, The Excellent Travelling Volume, Issues 1-3 is really only readily available on one niche channel (DriveThruRPG), but the vast majority of your potential readers for that are far more likely to hang out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and (internationally) all the European and Asian markets. Loading a copy of that to your D2D account, once you figure out how it all works, will give an instant boost to latent content you already have for sale but in limited distro streams.
DeleteIn Draft2Digital you can unironically be "big in Japan" (one of my books inexplicably went on a three month bender in Japan years ago. It was nice!) and just maximize the income from what you already have.
Oh and an aside - I know a different writer who published basically a digital digest of a book years ago, with like a $2.99 cover price. Years later, the full book has been published in a $500 goatskin leatherbound edition in Switzerland. My point is get some modest revenue generating content out now: it is an investment in what that content can morph into once it "lives" in a market.
ReplyDelete