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Craig Grannell craiggrannell@mastodon.social

Genuine question. You have a document with 250,000 words of 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.

Chris Chapman retrohistories@digipres.club

@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.

John Passfield johnpassfield@mastodon.gamedev.place

@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/

John Passfield johnpassfield@mastodon.gamedev.place

@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

John Passfield johnpassfield@mastodon.gamedev.place

@craiggrannell And @MossRC may be able to offer some advice. His books are awesome!!

Richard Moss MossRC
@johnpassfield @craiggrannell Interview transcripts packaged in a book format can work commercially with a strong angle (eg Gamers at Work was a great set of interviews about building a successful and innovative games company) or if edited into an oral history format — in both cases requiring good marketing or an established specialist publisher to break through the noise. Otherwise you'll struggle to sell much.

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 (I'm sitting on many hundreds of thousands of mostly-unpublished words in interview transcripts with notable people, too, so I know the feeling well of wondering how to publish it in a format that earns money.)

Craig Grannell craiggrannell@mastodon.social

@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.

Richard Moss MossRC
@craiggrannell @johnpassfield You could try splitting the material into multiple projects, like say one that's arcade-themed and another for the 8-bit/16-bit stuff, but there'll still need to be an angle/hook to tie each one coherently together and draw people in. Good luck, whatever you choose to do with the material; I hope the transcripts make it out into the world someday — in one form or another.
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