Web Book???

alpha7 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 07:30 AM

Has anyone ever used a website to write a book? I have a novel that I wanted to submit to Star Trek producers, but after I put together my wonderful idea, I found out that the guidelines were tight. They would not publish it because I was too far out of the guidelines. Well, I want to write it anyway (not for sell of course). I was thinking of making a website for it and add chapters as I finish them. Would it be better to do it in blog format or regular web page format, with each chapter as it's own page? All I have done is the synopsis and the first chapter.

James · #2 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 11:02 AM

Alpha7

The type of site might not be critical although I would think a blog or some set up that encouraged feeds might have an advantage.

If I were doing it based on what I know (which might not be as much as some others), I would write each chapter as a pdf file and offer it as a download. Then I would use a blog to serve partly as a teaser for each chapter and organize it around interesting tidbits that relate to the general theme. Each post would briefly point to the coming chapter.

But why do you say,"...not for sell of course?" Hey, if you asked only a very small amount, say a dollar a chapter, you might just bring in a goodly sum. How much does apple get from itune downloads by the way? Ok, so what if you got only a few thousand going sometime. You never know.

alpha7 · #3 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 02:40 PM

I can't sell it because it has current characters from Star Trek in it. Copy Rights, my friend. It would not be a problem to have AdSense though. Lots of Star Trek fan sites have "fan fiction" and that's all this would be.

nixwebo · #4 (**permalink**) 03-21-2008, 07:41 AM

I use joomla for some of my sites and it has options when creating content for : article, glossary, book, and appendix. I will do a little reading and see if this will help, sounds like it may put together something like you are talking about automatically.

Rob · #5 (**permalink**) 04-04-2008, 04:20 PM

As James said do it as an E-book in PDF format you might have to purchase acrobat or an alternative to acrobat.

Sounds like a great plan man, I hope everything goes well and make sure to give us all a link to the book so I can have a good read

alpha7 · #6 (**permalink**) 04-04-2008, 08:16 PM

Will do! But, I don't want to use PDF format. I want the readers to return to the site. If they download the PDF, they won't have a reason to come back. But this is down the road. I'm still trying to learn how combine XML and action script.

DotComBot · #7 (**permalink**) 04-04-2008, 08:29 PM

Hey Alpha,

Just out of curiosity, why are you trying to do it with xml? It would be much easier to do it with a simple .txt file and a dynamic text box.
Let me know if you want to do it that way and I'll write up some quick AS for you to add your text to the box in the movie.
If your adamant about the xml I can show you that too.

alpha7 · #8 (**permalink**) 04-04-2008, 09:09 PM

Oh..no. I am studying XML so I can create rss feed readers and my own video player. I was just saying that I don't have time for my book right now.

DotComBot · #9 (**permalink**) 04-04-2008, 09:40 PM

Oh, I gotcha.

Well, here is a parser package for you (currently for rss 2.0 only). I don't know if it will help or not but all your AS is there. It may just confuse the issue but since you've been doing your homework you'll probably understand it all. If not, please let me know and I'll explain any aspect for you. If it looks like it will just make matters worse, don't feel bad about just deleting it and not giving it another thought.

Hope that helps.

On the original subject, I would love to put together a .swf for your book! If you would give me the honor I would like to put together something for you. I have always wanted to do a Star Trek themed flash application but have never really had the opportunity presented. The closest I've ever gotten is probably my DotComBot website. I'll do it at no charge for ya if I can use it in my portfolio. Let me know.

DotComBot · #10 (**permalink**) 04-04-2008, 09:43 PM

Sorry, Here's the link, I'm half asleep.

http://dotcombot.com/rss_parser.zip

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