[WillemThomas]

Has anyone here made a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style book? What sort of interest did it get?

I think Konrath has one (Banana Hammock) and stated that it was his lowest selling title (that was a while ago, though).

Loved reading them as a kid and thought of having a go at creating one.


Willem Thomas

 

[Amanda Brice]

First of all, you can't use the term CYOA or Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. It's trademarked. Use the term "interactive fiction."

I have a friend who has a series of erotic romances (she calls the series Take Control) that would fall into this category. She invested a great deal into producing them and I believe she said they're her lowest selling books.

 

[WillemThomas]

First of all, you can't use the term CYOA or Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. It's trademarked. Use the term "interactive fiction."

I have a friend who has a series of erotic romances (she calls the series Take Control) that would fall into this category. She invested a great deal into producing them and I believe she said they're her lowest selling books.

I've seen 'Interactive Novel' as well, which seems to be a non-trademarked catch-all. Too bad there is so little interest. It seems like they would be fun to write, overall.

Willem Thomas

 

[Mathew Reuther]

There is an entire realm of interactive fiction, and if you are serious about it I strongly suggest getting involved with the existing communities. There's even authoring software for it.

But in any case, my experience (I used to write something for an MMORPG company I worked for) is that they are extremely time consuming and require a great attention to detail. The ones that are too simple bore people deeply, and if you're too complex you run into problems with print size.

 

[WillemThomas]

There's this bit of on-line software that looks to make the whole hyperlink thing a bit painless:

http://www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter

May try it just for fun.

Willem Thomas

 

[Hildred]

Thanks everyone for the links and advice in it. I've come up with a CYOA special for my erotic romance series (a polyamorous couple with over six friends? Endless possibilities!) I pitched the idea to my core fanbase and they're all falling over in excitement, so it would be worth doing it on the side just for them. I was mostly worried about the formatting torture it would be, so I'm going to check those links out!