[GoodNovel Team] Looking for Interactive Fiction Writers

Authoring Looking for Collaborators
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Hello guys!

I’m an editor from GoodNovel Team, which is a global online novel platform devoted to supporting writers with their stories to tell. I’m writing to seek cooperation with talented interactive fiction creators.

Our team is developing a brand new interactive fiction/game application that is dedicated to bringing more quality stories to readers. Thus, as long as you are capable of creating quality interactive fiction and would like to work with us, we can offer you very competitive compensation.

Please check our website goodnovel.com or download GoodNovel app to experience. We have worldwide readers (and potential users of our new app) with multiple backgrounds who can be enlightened by your stories.

For more info, do not hesitate to email me: notscarlettjo@tapfic.com

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:revolving_hearts: :revolving_hearts: :revolving_hearts: :revolving_hearts: :revolving_hearts: :revolving_hearts:

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Is there a particular engine requirement? How do you intend to host these games? Are you paying people for these? Are there genre requirements? Are you looking for something more like a multiple-choice adventure story, a text adventure, or something more “game like”? Most of your books appear to be erotica, is NSFW content preferred/mandatory? Feels like there could be a lot more information in this ad.

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Good luck getting a response! GN is fairly notorious for being opaque about just about everything. As far as I can tell, they’re a Radish wannabe but without the team to pull it off.

That being said, I’m always up for a new IF engine/platform, especially one where authors might make a buck or two! :moneybag:

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Hi! Thanks for your comment!

We can offer different modes of cooperation: 1) Novel Adaptation, 2) Original Story Creating.

2 is more of to write a textual (‘regular’) story. u dont even have to write in an intfic format, but ur story has to show us the potential for intfic adaptation (the narrative/characterization etc.).

1 means you need to rewrite the original text that we provide you into an intfic, including revising the story and the format. If you’d like to know more about the format thing, you could email me and I’ll send you some files.

Hope these could help clear things up.

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lollll hail to the brutal honesty!

We are actually a new department and also have been struggling to find our way to achieve something. If you’d like to know more and help us make things better, maybe we can talk about it through email.

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:face_with_peeking_eye: :face_with_peeking_eye: :face_with_peeking_eye: :face_with_peeking_eye: :face_with_peeking_eye: :face_with_peeking_eye:

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Sure. Feel free to send me an email.

In the meantime, you could try posting some real information on your website’s “about” page, link to the CEO’s profile on LinkedIn, and otherwise act transparently instead of putting super suspicious disclaimers on your site such as “Yes, we’re legit” :grin:

To be completely clear, I’m 100% in support of new writing fora and platforms, especially those where the authors might earn a dollar or two, so I wish you all the best, sincerely.

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Thanks a lot! I think we have people working on that!

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You know, I’m gonna hijack this little ongoing convo to tell you a little story which just so happens to be true.

A few years ago, I decided to take a break from working remotely, something I’ve been doing near on 20 years now (woah), and I got hired in an official capacity by an “SaaS” company, went into work at an office building at 9am, had to wear a shirt with buttons, the whole bit. The company was quite profitable and had just upgraded from about 40 employees to almost 100, so a lot of things were changing.

I lived in a rather remote corner of the world in those days, and all the work we were doing was delivered online, so I was rather surprised to see that the company’s website, which was 100% of what our customers saw when dealing with us, looked like two kids in their mother’s basement had put it together.

Again, this was a legit business, but there wasn’t a single photo (even stock photos) of anyone on the website, and there was no information about the CEO or the team or the backstory of the company or anything. There wasn’t even a phone number listed. Frankly, the whole thing looked shady and weird and yet I was working every day in a building surrounded by 100 employees all paid on time who were dedicated to their actually quite honorable work (no telemarketing, pressure selling, etc).

Long story short, the company finally took my advice after a lot of lobbying because nobody in the company had ever bothered to ask someone outside the company how they were being perceived. And since the money was coming in, the whole perception thing was an afterthought.

Anyway, to wrap this up, a couple of months ago, I was walking down the street in the even more out of the way and difficult to visit city where I now live, and the CEO saw me whilst driving by, and we had a chat, and now I’m working for them again, although this time, completely remotely (:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:).

And I’m pleased to say that their website now has names and faces (and bylines) and a much more customer-friendly design. I should also add that it’s far more profitable than ever with about 750 employees.

Basically, my message is quit assuming people can remotely see you all in your offices, wherever they are, and know who you are. Introduce yourself, damnit, and remember that you’re a stranger before you’re a friend, eh?

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Is this an accurate representation of the terms of Goodnovel’s standard contracts?

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That’s a bit of an eye-opener.

I can’t believe that word count is used as a measure of output, even among reputable publishers.
It’s a sure sign that no one cares about style or quality.

My current little writing project was at 6,800 words last week. It’s now 4,600 today. That’s after I spent time on it to make it better. Why would I ever want to be paid by the word?

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You should get paid for each word you add, and paid double for each word you remove. :smiley:

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That’s possibly the worst contract I’ve seen.

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If this is actually true the parent post should be removed before it does any harm.

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Woah! Thanks so much for posting this link. I was only marginally aware of GN before this and thankfully have not signed any contracts with them.

What I can say, however, is that there is currently some kind of “fad” or “craze” in English-speaking Asia (mostly Chinese or Indian-run businesses) that setting up an Episode (visual elements with text dialog between characters) and/or Radish (serialized fiction) clone is an easy way to make money.

I probably get 1-2 offers or links per week from someone trying to recruit writers for these, and they’re all the same: use the world’s shittiest Excel templates for creating outlines, promise dubious “riches” in “exclusive contracts”, and ZERO f—ing respect for writers. Zero.

I don’t know where this idea that cloning Episode and/or Radish is such an easy moneymaker came from, but it’s out there, and Singapore :singapore: seems to be the capital of it. Doesn’t surprise me in the least to learn that GN is based there.

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It is, however, and has been since forever. While that writeup lists a great number of faults with the contract, “paying per word” is not among them.

(Note that the Writer Beware blog is run by SFWA, which I’ve been a member of for a few years now. SFWA exists largely to give authors leverage to resist this sort of predatory corporate behavior.)

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Yup, both Dickens and Dumas were paid by the word. Does IF break that model though?
The paragraph is replaced by the turn. And the turn can be generated programmatically.

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In my experience, those concerned with word count in IF calculate based on the source code, not any resulting generated text.

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Videogame writing has not, as I understand it, broken that model.

Videogame writing contracts vary. I suspect it’s most common to work on a whole-project basis. But the payment estimate for the project is pretty much defined by word count.

(However, I am not an expert. All my game-related contract work has been software development, not writing.)

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