After Sundown

The homebrew forum

Moderator: Moderators

Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

So it turns out that getting an ISBN costs $125. That's bad. On the other hand, I can apparently put it on Amazon for sale without one. That's good. But Amazon has price minimums based on how large the file is, so the price for the pdf may be $1.99 or even $2.99. That's bad.

-Username17
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13871
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

I can see that being annoying, but it's still only three quid - anyone who was already saying "I totally intend on buying it" (like... everyone here?) is still like to. And it would still, presumably, be cheap enough that enough people would go "Sure, I'll spend some change on checking it out."

I mean, sure, they might decide to download it for free, first, to make sure that's $2-3 well spent, but seeing as you're okay with that too... *shrug*

Unless there's something I'm missing?
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
User avatar
CatharzGodfoot
King
Posts: 5668
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: North Carolina

Post by CatharzGodfoot »

And, hey, if you make a couple hundred then you can buy an ISBN.


Also, Dream Vision should be usable while dead.
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France

Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.

-Josh Kablack

User avatar
Lokathor
Duke
Posts: 2185
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:10 am
Location: ID
Contact:

Post by Lokathor »

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/sword ... f/center/5

Lulu.com lets you put up a PDF for free. There may be a limitation on that, but its something I'd look into once the PDF is done.
[*]The Ends Of The Matrix: Github and Rendered
[*]After Sundown: Github and Rendered
User avatar
Ganbare Gincun
Duke
Posts: 1022
Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:42 am

Post by Ganbare Gincun »

FrankTrollman wrote:So it turns out that getting an ISBN costs $125. That's bad. On the other hand, I can apparently put it on Amazon for sale without one. That's good. But Amazon has price minimums based on how large the file is, so the price for the pdf may be $1.99 or even $2.99. That's bad.

-Username17
Do an online fundraiser to buy an ISBN number and add the names of the people that donated to the credits for the book?
Starmaker
Duke
Posts: 2402
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Redmonton
Contact:

Post by Starmaker »

FrankTrollman wrote:So it turns out that getting an ISBN costs $125. That's bad.
Dammit Frank, I can paypal you $125 like right now for the honor of having paypal'd you $125. Srsly.
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

OK, so I got some ISBNs. It turns out that they sell them for $125 each or $250 for ten. So I have ten ISBNs. If other people want some for something, I can give them out. In order to get them, I had to register as a publishing imprint. So now I am Blackguard Press.

I have mostly got InDesign figured out. Except that it's making me do all my tables separately because I can't get the styles to apply properly. I don't know what that's about. But in any case, the book is going to have functioning book marks as well as illustrations. Clocks in at a bit over two hundred pages. Probably be about 215 once I get the index in (and the index will be in).

If there is enough demand, I have sketchy outlines for nine other books. Yes, I went ahead and drew up a dream list of filing out my entire quota of ISBNs if it comes to that. The current outline is for three books in the Power Sources Series, which has a Dark Reflection book, a Dreamlands book, and a Mictlan book. Then there's a Historicals books. This includes "Into the Sundown: After Sundown from Waterloo to Bleeding Kansas", "Nowhere to Hide: After Sundown in the Age of Exploration", and "Long After Sundown: Raygun Gothic Roleplaying". And finally, concept books about types of campaigns: one on Crime, one on War, and one on Monster Hunters.

-Username17
User avatar
Lokathor
Duke
Posts: 2185
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:10 am
Location: ID
Contact:

Post by Lokathor »

consider Power Sources and "raygun-gothic" to be in the highest of demand.
[*]The Ends Of The Matrix: Github and Rendered
[*]After Sundown: Github and Rendered
echoVanguard
Knight-Baron
Posts: 738
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 6:35 pm

Post by echoVanguard »

I would suggest you use all 10 of the ISBN's yourself - it sounds like you have enough material.

Would you mind giving a brief description of the steps you had to go through to register your publishing imprint?

echo
User avatar
Gnosticism Is A Hoot
Knight
Posts: 322
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:09 pm
Location: Supramundia

Post by Gnosticism Is A Hoot »

Raygun-gothic?

Fuck yes.
The soul is the prison of the body.

- Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish
...You Lost Me
Duke
Posts: 1854
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 5:21 am

Post by ...You Lost Me »

Questions of ignorance:

Can someone define Raygun-gothic, ISBN (and why it's important), and the Age of Exploration for me?
DSMatticus wrote:Again, look at this fucking map you moron. Take your finger and trace each country's coast, then trace its claim line. Even you - and I say that as someone who could not think less of your intelligence - should be able to tell that one of these things is not like the other.
Kaelik wrote:I invented saying mean things about Tussock.
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

...You Lost Me wrote:Questions of ignorance:

Can someone define Raygun-gothic, ISBN (and why it's important), and the Age of Exploration for me?
An ISBN is a really long, unique number for each published book.

It all goes into a FUCKING HUGE catalogue where you can look up the title, and from there the ISBN.

I know. I've used it.

Age of Exploration, for my money, would be Renaissance onwards. When mortals actually started going long distances. Voyages, actually finding out what the fuck the bottom of Africa looked like, Christopher Columbus, and so on.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

ISBN: These are the serial numbers that published books have. If you don't have one, you aren't in the giant database, you're not in the giant database. It's a 10 digit number and it is international. Your ISBN in Florida is the same as your ISBN in Hamburg. The ISBN uniquely identifies your publication. And by uniquely, I mean uniquely - there is a different ISBN for a hardcover publication than there is for a softcover or e-book publication of the same manuscript. When you order by ISBN, you get exactly what you're looking for, and nothing else.

Anyway, the ISBNs are maintained by Bowker, which is a private (I think for-profit) agency. And to get an ISBN you have to register with them. It's a fairly simple process, where you go over to www.myidentifiers.com and register an account. For that, you'll need to give them a publishing imprint, which is just a name you make up and put it into a blank space. But part of the registration process is that it goes and checks against all the other people who have publishing imprints, so you have to pick a name no one else has. Also: you're kind of stuck with it, since as far as I can tell the publishing imprint you bought the ISBNs under appears attached to whatever books you publish with those ISBNs (there may be a way to change that information, I haven't looked into it).

The Age of Exploration covers a period between the 15th and 17th centuries where people started making long ocean voyages combined with systematic mapping efforts that brought pretty much everyone in the world in contact with each other. This is when the Portuguese map the Hon of Africa and bring Europe in contact with India, the Spanish sail to the New World, and the Russians reach the ends of Siberia. The period involves literal lost cities as well as a lot of adventurers killing brown people.

Raygun Gothic is a form of "retro futurism". It's a modern take on the future as imagined by people in the 20th century. Laser pistols, rockets with fins, invading aliens, space suits with shoulder pads. The whole bit. The year 2160 as imagined by people living in 1960, as told by people in 2011. That sort of thing. For an After Sundown period piece, it would draw on source material like Jason X, Leprechaun 4, Event Horizon, Hellraiser: Bloodline, and Predator. So there would be spaceships. And rayguns. And demons.

-Username17
fectin
Prince
Posts: 3760
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:54 am

Post by fectin »

Is that different from "retro-futuristic"?
User avatar
CatharzGodfoot
King
Posts: 5668
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: North Carolina

Post by CatharzGodfoot »

The Bagheera's basic Clout should probably be Clinging. They're already fucking strong in War Form, and cats are well known for acrobatics (more than raw strength, anyway).

Based on Kaelic's questions, is there going to be more explanation of how power dice pools are calculated? I'd like to know if a luthier can use her Artisan specialization when playing the song of Missing Voice on a violin. Or if Magnetism's bonus can apply to a Willpower-based Command. If you give me the basic shape of your intent, I'd be happy to write a first draft.


Oh, and Dream Vision should be usable while dead. I'm not going to shut up about this until you tell me to. :)
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France

Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.

-Josh Kablack

User avatar
Guyr Adamantine
Master
Posts: 273
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:05 pm
Location: Montreal

Post by Guyr Adamantine »

FrankTrollman wrote:So there would be spaceships. And rayguns. And demons.

-Username17
So... Doom?
IGTN
Knight-Baron
Posts: 729
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:13 am

Post by IGTN »

Guyr Adamantine wrote:
FrankTrollman wrote:So there would be spaceships. And rayguns. And demons.

-Username17
So... Doom?
Doom or something like it should be canon in the futuristic setting.

Also, Plants vs Zombies needs to be canon (well, the plants need to be made scarier). All that needs are evil plants with built-in ranged weapons, though.
"No, you can't burn the inn down. It's made of solid fire."
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

So I'm currently walling on trying to get the epub version up on iBooks. Steve Jobs is a raging asshole who insists on me having a new Mac before I can upload a book to his store. I think my sister has one. Maybe she can get it up. It's supposed to be purchasable from Amazon in a day or two. The Kindle format makes it really small and maybe not as pretty - but I can get it out for 99 cents, which is a plus.

The torrent of course goes up immediately. It is Here.

I'm going to sleep now, but I'm seeding. And I'll try to figure out how to put it up on other ebook sellers when I wake up.

-Username17
User avatar
Maxus
Overlord
Posts: 7645
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Maxus »

FrankTrollman wrote:So I'm currently walling on trying to get the epub version up on iBooks. Steve Jobs is a raging asshole who insists on me having a new Mac before I can upload a book to his store. I think my sister has one. Maybe she can get it up. It's supposed to be purchasable from Amazon in a day or two. The Kindle format makes it really small and maybe not as pretty - but I can get it out for 99 cents, which is a plus.

The torrent of course goes up immediately. It is Here.

I'm going to sleep now, but I'm seeding. And I'll try to figure out how to put it up on other ebook sellers when I wake up.

-Username17
Right below the credits:

All photographs remain the property of their respective creators and may be reproduced or modified only with attribution. Text may be reproducd in whole or in part with or without attribution for any purpose.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
User avatar
Archmage
Knight-Baron
Posts: 757
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:05 pm

Post by Archmage »

No specific comments on the content at this time, but I'll happily seed the torrent for an indefinitely long period of time. I like the idea and I'm completely on board with the information communism approach.
P.C. Hodgell wrote:That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
shadzar wrote:i think the apostrophe is an outdated idea such as is hyphenation.
User avatar
Orion
Prince
Posts: 3756
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Orion »

You really shouldn't have "Empty Ones" and "Hollow Ones" be different organizations. That is straight fucked.

What color is Gloom? Maya is blue and green, Limbo is Grey, Gloom is currently sounding like probably also grey. You should make it white or red or something.
Grek
Prince
Posts: 3114
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:37 pm

Post by Grek »

Limbo is red.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
User avatar
Orion
Prince
Posts: 3756
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Orion »

How do you figure? As far as I can tell, Limbo is made of ashes, concrete, and broken glass-- all of which are white, black, or grey.
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

Orion wrote:How do you figure? As far as I can tell, Limbo is made of ashes, concrete, and broken glass-- all of which are white, black, or grey.
Limbo is "on fire". So a lot of it looks like this:

Image

But a lot of it looks like this:

Image

If you're in an area where it is too misty to see far, and everything is gray, you could plausibly be anywhere. Things in Limbo mostly glow orange and red, things in Maya mostly glow blue and green, and things in the Gloom mostly glow silvery pale blue like moonlight or TV ghosts.

-Username17
User avatar
CatharzGodfoot
King
Posts: 5668
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: North Carolina

Post by CatharzGodfoot »

FrankTrollman wrote:So I'm currently walling on trying to get the epub version up on iBooks. Steve Jobs is a raging asshole who insists on me having a new Mac before I can upload a book to his store. I think my sister has one. Maybe she can get it up. It's supposed to be purchasable from Amazon in a day or two. The Kindle format makes it really small and maybe not as pretty - but I can get it out for 99 cents, which is a plus.

The torrent of course goes up immediately. It is Here.

I'm going to sleep now, but I'm seeding. And I'll try to figure out how to put it up on other ebook sellers when I wake up.

-Username17
Looks good. The Troglodyte illustration is especially evocative. Seeding as we speak.

My only complaint is with typesetting: the 'sidebars' can be confusing when they exceed the width of the column and edge into unrelated text. Pages 100 & 101 are examples. Oh, and I just noticed that Bagheera get clinging and Dream Vision can be used while dead. :)
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France

Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.

-Josh Kablack

Post Reply