Could selling a book in Second Life work?

I'm thinking of selling my 22 Chapter, roughly 50-page book "Robert DiMorro: A Week Of Hell". You can find the first couple chapters here:
http://www.fictionpress.com/s/1329042/1/

Keep in mind, the SL edition is the first look anyone outside my immediate circle of family and friends had, but the version I'll send to publishers wil be about a chapter longer (It's just an epilogue), and edited a bit.

I was thinking of selling it at a price between 2000-3000 L (2500?)

Also, what is the script that would not allow any copying of the work?

It's not ready yet, but I just want to gauge reactions. Is it easier though a notecard or some other way that would allow me to put some bells and whistles on it and prevent blantant copying/theft?

Unfortunately, nothing is going to stop someone copying it I'm afraid. There are ways to make it harder and more time consuming to copy, but a determined thief will be able to do it.

Personally, I'd be inclined to serialise it in SL and then to use SL to market the RL book. For example, a friend of mine is a painter in RL. She has an SL art gallery where people can buy SL copies of her work to hang up in their SL houses. However, they can also order RL prints through SL too. Some sort of system like this might work for you.

SL is also a good environment to adapt the book into film. IF you are looking for an attractive leading man, you can do worse than my good friend (okay, my alt) Osric Forager (check his profile for a pic)!

Okay, just kidding. But seriously, SL is a perfect environment to trial your book, but don't rely solely on SL but rather use it to augment other, more traditional, distribution methods.

Perhaps you may look into the ThinC book system. It is an actual book with pages that turn etc. You can get the printing press, make as many copies as you like and set permissions to be no copy. Just an idea

RE CONAN GODWIN (Damn, posts and ALREADY Godwin hath been envoked?):
Well, like I said, there will be two (theoretical) versions:

SL Version:
-Costs 2000-3000 L (Most likely 2500)
-22 Chapters, which tell the complete story
-Slightly less than 50 pages
-Releasd whenever I straighten things out with copying and stuff

RL Version, actually published with a real cover and pages:
-Costs ??? (MSRP)
-23 Chapter, the enitre store + 1 chapter epilouge
-Should be 50 pages
-Released ???

Also, I know places where you can download entire books online, but once again, it probably took a while to copy. The most time consuming to copy and difficult method would be of interest to me.

RE FELOWEN DODGE:
Ahaha, clever. However I don't think Printing Presses R' Us accepts L.
Edit- Sorry. I guess I fired that reply off too soon. Google then post, GOOGLE THEN POST!!

lol, no need to google. just visit the ThinC store in SL. there is tons o info there for ya. The printing press is required in order to make copies of your original book. that copy then can be set with perms, so you yourself can make copies of that one over and over to sell, give, whatever. the perms on the book however can be no mod no copy etc.

And how would I add perms?

Also, (this goes out to everyone) is 2500 $L a good price for a 50 page, 22 chapter legit book, not an instruction manual?

Unfortunately, the way SL is set up, plain text is ludicrously easy to copy, to the extent that publishing a book as a series of text files would be an exercise in stupidity. Publishing it as a prim object with the text in a series of graphics files (and yes, I've seen some nicely scripted "books" could work, but the download/bandwidth overhead may be more than most readers would likely put up with, not to mention that text on a prim isn't a nice thing to read for any length of time.

Interesting point. I guess I'll have to see for myself what the prim style books look like before I consider doing anything. If I can handle it on my crappy computer, then there is a chance I might go through with it.

Book is finished. Felowen Dodge, what did you try to send me earlier? My SL PC is in another room and I have to hook it up as all the keyboard and monitor and stuff is hooked up to my dad's PC

Also, you would want to make the book availiable as a pdf to people who purchase it.

Also, 2000-2500 may be a little much for a book. Especially since you're just starting out, and who knows who you are, how your write, or what your books are like?

You gotta remember 2000-2500L = about $8 - $10 US.

And this is for a virtual product. It's not something someone can hold in their hands, and take with them. Also, your production costs for this are little if anything.

So, you may want to rethink your price.

Also, even real physical books that are being published cannot protect themselves from being made available electronically and for free. For instance, you can download the entire Harry Potter series, without paying a single cent. (I'm not endorsing that, nor am I necessarily a Harry Potter fan)

Think less about protection, and more about making a good product.

I was sending you a landmark to the ThinC store so you could see what they offer. as far as overhead of the graphics on other users this is not so much abandwith issue as with ThinC books, if you right click it and attach to hud, it is fully readable as a HUD attachment. Very nice setup. I used these for the art gallery i used to own and the bandwith usage was minimal with multiple opening them at the same time.

1. Well, what WOULD be a fair price? 1500? 1000?

2. Closer to 10-15 as of late, so changing it up to something in the mid 1000s is just as good, probably I'll settle around 1200, maybe 1000 even.

3. Well, I've been writing this book for the past five years. (from when I was 14 1/2 to almost 19, b'day's in a week) The fact that it has been hovering over my head for that time ups the ante a bit

4. I gave two sample chapters out in the link above. So should I use the ThinC or the .pdf super secret link system?

Keep in mind, I currently have a whopping balance of $0 (Damn you messed up Blackjack!!!), so any startup costs would need to be minimal. Of course, if you want to donate, I could give you 1/2 off on the final product or something.

My comments were just suggestions. Most of it depends on what you do. You have to market your product in the right places and to the right people.

There is a niche for book lovers in SL so, don't think you're left out.

I would highly suggest posting all your items for sale, on SLExchange and SLBoutique since they are major online SL shops.

Also, if you need quick cash you can always edit-search-surveys, and fill out those lame surveys with little if any personally identifiable information, and definitely not your actual email address. HippiePay is one for example. <<I am in no way an affiliate just mentioning it. I took 5 minutes to fill out a survey and got 175L. Can't beat that.

I Have purchased Books that have been set so one Cannot Cut, and paste text from it, So, Yes, it IS possible to Publish, and sell a Book while protecting it's Contents.

Angel.

Do you know how it was done?

BTW< HippiePay does not work anymore for me.

OK, I'm now selling the book.

Pre-orders prices are 1250L a pop. When I officially sell it, It'll go up to 2000. To order it, just IM me in-world.

So far I got the ThinC Book and Printing Press, and have started to sell pre-orders. I still need a place to setup, advertising, and all the money to upload the pages

Instead of putting it on a prim that you read in the world, you could put it into a hud that you read and change pages with. Then you can't copy the text, but it's still easy to read. You could also put a neat paper texture behind the text to make it nicer looking.

Unfortunately, No, But i HAVE seen it done the Only thing i can tell you is the field the text is presented on is slate Grey, Not white, and it simply Ignores any attempt to Capture or Copy the text in the field. I want to Know how it's Done Myself. I've done some writing, and wouldn't mind actually starting a Second Life Publishing Company.

I've seen Lots of Open source (Copyright has expired Long ago, and the Content is Now in Public Domain) Books for sale in SL and despite the fact one Can Copy the text, the creators still make Money. One of the best i saw, when you wear the Book, it pops up as an Open Book in your Hand, you go into a Reading animation, and the Chapters Pop up in a Notecard screen. It's a Good over all package that offers a Little more than Just the words. I've Often used the reading Pose in Common areas without reading the Book simply because i Like the relaxed Pose.

Good Luck Chere.

Angel.

Davgor, have you ever had your novella edited by anyone?

Just a thought

Would setting up a simple prim with a texture changing script, with your pages copied onto textures work, if used with a 'click next page' control? Sounds too simple maybe?
No doubt some scriptor has a 4,000 line script that could do it sweeter.

speaking personally, I CANNOT do any extensive reading on a computer screen. I just can't retain most of the information that I can when reading a real world book I can hold in my hands. I don't know if it's the screen flicker, the rendering, or what...but it is just very difficult to read. As such, I have avoided ebooks like the plague. I've tried reading the Snowcrash novel in SL, and I am utterly unable to do it.

I don't know if I'm in the minority with this or not...but it's something to consider when you're trying to guage the demand for a book in a virtual world.

I did purchase a 'Scroll' that 'read' into chat the text notecard held within, it was great for my poerty, but I think create a lot of (away) suffixes ingame.
You may want to use such a thing to read out a preface of the novel you are selling?

That sounds REALLY useful for poetry readings - do you remember where you found it?

Wow! This thread really filled up! The thinC system has its own HUD, so you "wear" the book and can read it.

As far as if I edited it, I have done some re-writing, but not since I finished the entire book. I'm having people got through it, and I still need to make the pages into textures, so there's still a bit of time for things to be re-done.

I lowered the pre-order price to 1100L, 150L less than before. As for why this is so expensive, keep two things in mind:
1. I have been working on this book for the PAST 5 YEARS. Wven when I wasn't working on it, the fact that the book was not finished still hung over my head.

2. This is less than 4 bucks in real world money. I was at the gym earlier today and got a protein shake for that much, and it took me 3 minutes to drink. This book takes a few hours to read and can be re-read.

3. I plan on bumping up the price to 2000L when it is published and physical copies have been made, once again, see 1 and 2.

4. When you pre-order, you get the ticket, which can be redeemed for my book when I have copies at no extra charge.

5. I plan on getting this book published in RL, but that will take months. I'm giving SLers a chance to read it in advance.

6. I need L to import the textures and buy land for which to create and sell the book.

I will be online at around 8 PM EST, 5 PM SLT to answer questions and sell pre-orders. For those who come, you can get it for 1000L.
http://secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=413892&date=1168588800