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Old 06-18-2013, 09:30 PM   #1
Sombalance
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 49
Sombalance is on a distinguished road
Is there a novel inside you waiting to get out?

Earlier this year I published my first novel on Amazon. I know. I know. You are already asking yourself what this has to do with MUDs.

Well, way back in the days of old, shortly after I played on my first MUD, I became a builder. For many years I’ve moved from MUD to MUD creating fun areas, memorable npcs and even a few quests that were a little more than just decent. Unfortunately, many of these MUDs never opened, or had a small player base which eventually led to the game being shut down or abandoned.

But, I liked to write, so I would do it again. And again.

There are probably a few builders out there who are nodding to themselves. Been there, done that. Right?

Here is my call to those of you who are builders, have been builders, or might be in the future, why not set aside some of that time to write a novel. Once it might have been too much of a hassle, or too difficult to get started, but that is no longer true.

You don’t need special tools to publish a novel. You can use OpenOffice for writing, GIMP to create a book cover and a GINGER for grammar checking. All free and easily available. There are lots of ways to distribute your book. Kobo, Smashwords or Amazon will serve for an ebook. CreateSpace or Lulu if you want a print copy. Even if you never sell one, you should have at least a print copy for yourself.

I’m pretty sure more people have read my book than have played in any single area that I’ve created on a MUD.

If you are running a MUD now, create the book tie in.

It isn’t easy, but hell, if you are a builder on a MUD you already know that writing is work.

Here’s my sales pitch. Not that it is really a sales pitch, since I’m not selling anything. When I started working on my novel I had to hunt and peck through a lot of resources to find what I needed. It was all out there, but it wasn’t always as easy to find as I hoped. I recently started trying to organize my notes on the steps I had to go through to publish my book. I’m posting them at

So far it covers the basic rules I followed when I use OpenOffice and provides a basic overview of how to make an ebook cover with GIMP. In the near future, I’ll be adding a section on on how to convert the OpenOffice document to html for Amazon and to a PDF for CreateSpace, and how to take the cover you made for your ebook and use it in a print copy.

If you have already published or are thinking about it, let me know. I’d love to see what the folks in the Mudding community can create. I’d be happy to post a link to your book (or your author web site) on my site.

And finally, if you have any questions feel free to hit me up. At the very least I can suggest a few communities on Google+ which do a fantastic job of helping independent writers.

Take care.
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