Genuine question. You have a document with 250,000 words of #retrogaming interview transcripts, with eg the makers of Defender, Pac-Man, Battlezone and so forth. What do you do next?
Asking because I have that. But I never figured out the best next step. I thought a book at one point but feared there was a glut of that stuff and got cold feet. I did think of a website but, in all honesty, might like to make a few bucks out of all the effort if I turned it into something.
@craiggrannell If you don’t want the hassle of marketing it yourself, David Craddock is always on the lookout for things like this to add to his gaming Storybundles twice a year. They often contain collections like these.
@craiggrannell I would buy that as a book/eBook! I recently bought Britsoft from Read Only Memory - and your book sounds like it would fit that format. https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/britsoft-an-oral-history/
@craiggrannell You should reach out to some of game book specialty places to gauge the market. PixelCrib are based in Melbourne and stock most game dev books. I’m sure they’d be happy to speak to an author about what sells. https://www.pixelcrib.com.au
@craiggrannell And @MossRC may be able to offer some advice. His books are awesome!!
But for low effort you could package them all into an ebook and get it included in a StoryBundle; that'll likely net you several hundred dollars or more, which isn't much but depending on the state of your transcripts may be worthwhile. (I'm sitting on many hundreds of thousands of mostly-unpublished words in interview transcripts with notable people, too, so I know the feeling well of wondering how to publish it in a format that earns money.)
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@MossRC @johnpassfield Thanks for the thoughts. Breaking through the noise is always what’s put me off. It’s also figuring out how to package what I have into something coherent rather than a semi-random list of games. (The split is roughly 50:50 between classic arcade and 8/16-bit systems.)
I know there’s good stuff in there. I know there’s some interest. It would be sad if they never got into the world. But I want to do this right, if I do it.