A Kerbal Book Series-You Interested?

[Disparia Books]

Hey all,

I have been working behind the scenes a little bit with the help of @UomoCapra and a few others to create a Kerbal book series. Before officially announcing it and launching the series I wanted to put my little Kerbal feelers out to gauge interest and get any suggestions or ideas from forum users, specifically those of you who have discussed Kerbal stories or enjoyed the missions before (here's looking at you @STORMPILOTkerbalkind @million_lights @Just Jim @Rover 6428 )

The book series will be loosely based off of my (steam featured) Jeb's Life: A Kerbal Novel missions from Making History (you can find them here). The idea is that I will release a 20-40k word novella every 3-4 months complete with illustrations (think Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but with a few illustrations per chapter, not every page).

Here's the catch-T2 is not looking to formally licence the IP to sell books, which means this is going to be a free fan-fiction project. I am a professional writer and have a publisher for my actual books who will help me with the editing and formatting. I plan on distributing the books here, on my website, and on social media as they are finished, hopefully in Epub format (which if any of you know is a universal digital format for easy reading). But they will need to be free and available to anyone and everyone. So unless there is quite a bit of interest, I can't justify starting the project.

This will be a labor of love for KSP, and as such require my own time and money. I'm considering starting a Patreon page to help support the effort and allow me to have some breathing room when it comes to writing my actual Disparia novels. I'm also looking into producing actual printed copies of the book (again, for free) for those interested (though I'm still looking into whether or not I can do so).

So before I jump in head first, I thought I would figuratively "Check my staging" for interest and suggestions. If anyone is interested in seeing this project proceed, please let me know (and for more info on my missions check those out, or see any of my past live streams or my actual, you know, books). I'm not posting links to that stuff here (because I don't know if I can). Safe to say you can find it if interested (or PM me).

Cheers!

----------------------------------Here is an unedited glimpse at the first chapter if you're curious----------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

              The sky was most certainly blue—that overt fact had not escaped Jebbediah Kerman’s grasp. It was blue every day, unless it was raining or snowing. That it was blue was interesting. Why it was blue was more interesting. Try as he might, however, the eight-year-old Jeb could not find the answer. Every raised hand during his classroom studies was met with the same terse reply from Henrietta Able Kerman, Jeb’s second grade teacher:

              “Put your hand down and pay attention to the material!” Her voice grated and cracked on occasion, like a lifetime of hostility had broken her vocal chords but not her determination to see excitement in children doused and stomped into oblivion.

              So the answer to why it was blue would remain a mystery (at least for now). But that was fine. It wasn’t the blue sky that captivated young Jeb; it was the night sky. At night the blue vanished like a thin mist, like a curtain pulled away from the true sky. That sky was black. It was also shiny, colorful, active, and exciting.

              Every day during school Jeb would spend his time with his chin resting in his palms, his elbows on his desk, his eyes turned towards the window and up towards the sky. Sometimes it was sunny and the bright light of Kerbol would cause him to squint until his nose and brow were deeply furrowed. Sometimes it was cloudy and the abstract shapes would drift by, coalescing into imagined shapes, then pass quietly out of sight. Sometimes it would rain or snow and the deep layer of gray would block his view but not his imagination.

              There was much more to the world beyond the terrestrial one that he was familiar with. There had to be. Birds soared through the sky with ease, something no Kerbal had done before. Clouds drifted by seemingly weightless yet bound to a steady track through sky, guided along their invisible highway by an unseen hand. And what was beyond the mundane terrestrial world? Jeb didn’t know.

              Stars. Planets. Asteroids. Other floaty things. Astronomers and scientists had discovered, studied, catalogued, and reported on these objects for hundreds of years. Legends from dead civilizations mythologized the objects in the sky and incorporated them into their views and beliefs of the realms beyond daily reality. These objects were seen, studied, and incorporated into each culture. But they were not well understood. No Kerbal had left Kerbin’s surface for more than a few seconds, and when they had, it was usually because they fell off something and were quickly reminded that when you lose contact with the ground there is only one direction you can travel—down. But knowing that they were there and understanding what exactly they were besides transient lights and objects in an untouchable ether were two different things. And try as Jeb might, pushing his brain muscles with all his effort until sweat pooled in his green, furrowed brow, he could not learn more about them through sheer willpower. He could not…

              “Jebbediah Kaldrin Kerman!” Ms. Able shouted. “Get back in your seat this instant!” Jeb shook the cloud of imagined images from his eyes and focused on the reality around him. He was standing at the back window in his classroom looking out on the blue sky and the feet of the towering Origin Mountains. The window looked west towards the mountains where the late morning sun had fully bathed the green, gray, and white mountains in intense light.

              “Sorry Ms. Able,” Jeb replied. Though he said sorry, that his eyes remained focused outside suggested his words and feelings were in conflict.

              “What do you think you’re doing this time?” Ms. Able asked.

              A few birds, dark against the brightening sky, darted back and forth playing or chasing each other. Watching them, Jeb answered, “I’m watching the birds.” He said it matter-of-fact as though it was justification for not paying attention.

              “Jebbediah, come here.” Ms. Able, who had been standing by the chalkboard writing words that related somewhat to anatomy, slammed the chalk into the rail beneath the board, cracking it in three pieces. She puffed out her bulging and prodigious chest, adjusted her floral dress, and took two steps towards the front of the class. Jeb, lingering for just another moment, turned and walked down the center aisle between the separated rows of desks and stopped in front of his teacher. Jeb was only eight years old but already he (and most the other students) were eye level with their teacher. Ms. Able was, using only slightly exaggerated descriptions, as wide as she was tall. Her pale green complexion always glistened from a layer of sweat cause by the massive exertion everything seemed to be for her. She wore only dresses out of necessity. The dresses were so large and required so much fabric it was a wonder there were any sheets or pillow cases to be found inside the city of Granite Heights, the city of 5,000 people in which Jeb lived.

              As Jeb neared the hulking mass of Ms. Able the sour smell of old dairy, her distinct aroma, met Jeb’s sensitive nose. He scrunched his nose up reflexively to keep any air from passing through his nostrils. “Yef Miv Abuh?” Jeb said, the words coming out stifled due to lack of airflow.

              “Stand in front of the chalk board,” She ordered. Jeb walked around his teacher and stood where commanded. “Flap your arms like a bird.” Jeb raised his arms obediently and was about to flap, but hesitated.

              “Flap my arms?” He was far enough away from the diaboloical smell of his teacher that he could breathe (and speak) normally.

              “Flap them!” Her grating voice raised a few octaves and her green face turned a bit brown as she blushed from the effort. Jeb nodded, his eyes opening wide. He began flapping his arms quickly up and down. After a few moments his face began reddening and he panted from the effort. The harder he worked the more the kids in his class began to giggle. By the time a bit of sweat began forming under his brow the giggles had evolved into outright laughter. “Enough!” Ms. Able shouted and at once Jeb stopped flapping and the children went quiet. “Did your feet leave the ground?” Jeb looked down at his feet, lifting one off the ground and inspecting the sole of his brown school-issued boots. They revealed nothing.

              “No,” Jeb answered.

              “Did you hit the ceiling?” she asked.

              Jeb looked up at the spackled ceiling that was distinctly lacking a head-shaped hole. “No.”

              “Did you do anything that could in any way remotely be construed as flying?”

              “What does construed mean?”

              “Did you fly! Did you fly at all!” Ms. Able’s face had turned from green to brown to red now. Jeb tried to take an instinctive step back but slammed into the chalkboard.

              “No,” Jeb answered.

              “Are you at all like a bird?” Jeb shook his head no. “Kerbals will never fly. Now sit back down in your seat and pay attention!” Ms. Able pointed vigorously towards Jeb’s seat at the back left of the room. As her arm came to a sudden stop the gelatinous bulges that made up her meaty arms did not, jiggling slightly for a few moments afterwards.

Jeb trundled towards his desk, hanging his long green head low to avoid the stares of his classmates. The first few steps were met with complete silence. By the time he was halfway to his desk Ms. Able began moving about. Just as he sat down she pulled the projector screen from its tidy roll above the blackboard until it stretched towards the floor.

Keeping an eye on Jeb and the other on the rest of the class, Ms. Able said, “As you know, students, today we begin our health and anatomy module. We will be covering the Kerbal body for the next two weeks. We will discuss your module project after the slide show.” Ms. Able walked down the wide aisle between the classroom (set wider than most classrooms on account of her impressive girth) and stopped near Jeb where the permanent slide projector was stationed on an old wooden platform. “No talking during the slide show. If you have a questions raise your hand and I will answer after we reach a stopping point.” She scanned the room for a moment. “Robert McDonald Kerman, please turn off the lights.” Bob McDonald, a wispy Kerbal with dark, intense eyes stood from his seat at the top right corner of the classroom and switched off the lights. A moment later the projector roared to life and a bright square of light filled the white projection screen at the front of the room. A distinct metallic thunk slightly preceded the first image on the board. Ms. Able then pressed the start button on the tape player and a peppy male voice whirred to life.

“The Kerbal body,” The disembodied voice began. “A marvel and a wonder of natural engineering and home to all of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.” On screen was a fuzzy picture of a dozen different Kerbals of varying ages, all of them, smiling as they stood for an informal portrait in what looked like a park or field.

“Next Slide.” This voice was different than the narrator, deeper and with less emotion. Ms. Able clicked the projector and another image appeared. This one was a cartoonish rendering of the inside of a Kerbal’s head.

“Kerbals are unique in the animal kingdom,” The narrator continued. “They might not be the fastest, strongest, or largest creatures on Kerbin, but they do have something no other animal can claim—a giant brain capable of complex, rational thought housed in a nearly impenetrable fortress of a skull.” There was a pause in the narration as a flourish of dissonant instruments played a bit of fanfare. Coming out of the recorder it sounded like animals being tortured. “A Kerbal is made up of bones, muscles, ligaments, skin, and about 20% chocolate pudding. In today’s presentation we will begin with the head, perhaps the most amazing part of any Kerbal. A Kerbal’s skull is the thickest of any animal on Kerbin. Inside the thick skull is a secondary layer of a spongey material known as Squidgy Puddo-formus. This combination of rigidity and sponginess protects them from high velocity reading impacts and full contact knitting disasters, things most Kerbals are prone to experience.” Jeb, as the recording continued, slowly lost interest and found his eyes wandering back towards the window. The sky was blue and bright, beautiful. His head might have been in the clouds, but his feet and amazing Kerbal brain were planted firmly on the ground.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Disparia Books
Typos FTW!

[KSK]

About the only idea that springs to mind is that you could maybe add a post to the ‘writers talking about writing’ thread further down this page. Link for ease of finding and future reference. If nothing else, you could probably find a few more interested names there.

Other than that - colour me interested! Best of luck getting everything set up and I look forward to reading those novellas!

 

[Disparia Books]

6 hours ago, KSK said:

About the only idea that springs to mind is that you could maybe add a post to the ‘writers talking about writing’ thread further down this page. Link for ease of finding and future reference. If nothing else, you could probably find a few more interested names there.

Other than that - colour me interested! Best of luck getting everything set up and I look forward to reading those novellas!

 

Hey @KSK

Glad to hear you're interested  Thanks for the tip about the 'writer' section. Quick question about that though-do I duplicate this thread, make a quick one mentioning this thread with a link, or do the official announcement thread (when it's ready) down there (assuming it's down for some reason...that makes sense in my head). Thanks!

[steuben]

first: to the folks at Take Two, et al. three words "licensing revenue = money". Okay technically that's four but roll with me here. The money may not be great, but it has the potential to be nice long tail money, especially since publishing costs have dropped to almost incremental production costs, on the lower end. Yeah... I keep pounding that drum.

second: interested. But I'd need a scope statement, 'Verse Bible, and deadlines... even though they sound nice as they fly past.

third: a suggestion about scope. Perhaps, instead an anthology book series.  Similar to Tor's "There Will Be War" Series or Baen's Annual Collections.

 

My reflex would be to chuck a quick post in the thread with a link.

 

 

[Disparia Books]

10 minutes ago, steuben said:

first: to the folks at Take Two, et al. three words "licensing revenue = money". Okay technically that's four but roll with me here. The money may not be great, but it has the potential to be nice long tail money, especially since publishing costs have dropped to almost incremental production costs, on the lower end. Yeah... I keep pounding that drum.

second: interested. But I'd need a scope statement, 'Verse Bible, and deadlines... even though they sound nice as they fly past.

third: a suggestion about scope. Perhaps, instead an anthology book series.  Similar to Tor's "There Will Be War" Series or Baen's Annual Collections.

 

My reflex would be to chuck a quick post in the thread with a link.

 

 

In saying its 3 words

on that note, with T2, I couldn't agree more. Books on the shelves of Barnes and Noble for example would only help. Also, I cant list it on Amazon (even ebook) because Amazon no longer allows listings for free books. My publisher is ready to go, but we cant actually take advantage of Amazon etc. I suppose a fan movement to petition T2 to allow it could he of use....

onto your other points. I get the bible thing. But are you saying youd want to see one before backing it on Patreon, or it's something youd fancy in general. 

I could easily put a bit of a bible on my website and the "official" forum post (when I create it). Heck, my entire disparia website essentially functions as a bible/atlas for End of the Past. That being said, I would update it as I go, because spoilers;)

i will go ahead and make another post when I get home and off my phone. Cheers, appreciate your help. 

[KSK]

Quick post on the thread as a heads-up, with a link to your own thread was what I was thinking of. No sense duplicating effort but the more links to your stuff the better, in case one thread or another falls off the front page.

I'd certainly put my name to a fan petition but I'm not optimistic. If I recall correctly, one forum-goer was in discussions with Squad a number of years ago, regarding publishing a KSP guide. I don't think they ever got anywhere. Admittedly, things might have changed now that TT own the kerbal IP, although they don't seem to have been doing much with it, so I'm none too optimistic there either.

But if we don't ask, we sure as heck won't get.  

[Disparia Books]

2 hours ago, KSK said:

Quick post on the thread as a heads-up, with a link to your own thread was what I was thinking of. No sense duplicating effort but the more links to your stuff the better, in case one thread or another falls off the front page.

I'd certainly put my name to a fan petition but I'm not optimistic. If I recall correctly, one forum-goer was in discussions with Squad a number of years ago, regarding publishing a KSP guide. I don't think they ever got anywhere. Admittedly, things might have changed now that TT own the kerbal IP, although they don't seem to have been doing much with it, so I'm none too optimistic there either.

But if we don't ask, we sure as heck won't get.  

Posted on the writing page with a link here.

Also, I'm with you that it probably won't happen, but maybe it's worth considering how we'd go about asking/petitioning/etc? I've been working with @UomoCapra about legality and so on, so maybe they can help point us where to go if we want to pursue something like that 

[KSK]

Yeah - I’d think that Uomo would be the first person to speak with about all this.

Actually, thinking about it (and you’re probably way ahead of me) I’d take a look at the Take Two EULA as well. Don’t know how legally enforceable it is but it’ll likely be TT’s default position when it comes to third party works.

I remember being distinctly unimpressed with their EULA and associated terms and conditions, particularly when it came to attribution of third party works, but I haven’t checked it for a while, so it’s possible that it’s been updated since then.

Edited April 25, 2019 by KSK

[Rover 6428]

This is awesome!! I think you should reconsider not making this an official book as it is very good. By the way, thanks for mentioning me

21 hours ago, Disparia Books said:

Stars. Planets. Asteroids. Other floaty things. Astronomers and scientists had discovered, studied, catalogued, and reported on these objects for hundreds of years. Legends from dead civilizations mythologized the objects in the sky and incorporated them into their views and beliefs of the realms beyond daily reality. These objects were seen, studied, and incorporated into each culture. But they were not well understood. No Kerbal had left Kerbin’s surface for more than a few seconds, and when they it was usually because they fell off something and we

you made a typo here, I think.

[Disparia Books]

17 minutes ago, Rover 6428 said:

This is awesome!! I think you should reconsider not making this an official book as it is very good. By the way, thanks for mentioning me

you made a typo here, I think.

Yep, you nailed it. Typo city (that's why I mentioned unedited). I will go ahead and fix it really quick (expect the actual books to be...edited  )

Glad you (briefly) enjoyed it. There's already a lot more where that came from, but that will need to wait until the Kerbal cogs turn a bit more. Cheers Rover!

--------------------------------------------

Question for anyone that's read the intro so far. I'm to a point where I need to consider this...

Do (as in, should) other 'real' animals exist in the Kerbal world, or is it somehow a world of only green fauna? I mean, they technically subsist almost entirely on pudding, so they don't need meat, but should there be other animals or not?

Note: This is not a discussion of alien life, strictly Kerbin-based life.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Disparia Books

[Rover 6428]

I really like your style of writing. From those breef dialogues between Mrs Able and Jeb, I sense that Kerbals use a more traditional style of education (No individuality and stuff) Which would fit nicely as an analogue of early 20th century education. Did you do that intentionally to make the atmosphere fit the time scale? (with Jeb's career starting at the dawn of the space age.) Whatever the answer is, it would be quite cool if you carried on with this vibe to make it easier to orientate through the time scale based off the real world, without actually telling the year/era. Just an idea for the future.

[Disparia Books]

Just now, Rover 6428 said:

I really like your style of writing. From those breef dialogues between Mrs Able and Jeb, I sense that Kerbals use a more traditional style of education (No individuality and stuff) Which would fit nicely as an analogue of early 20th century education. Did you do that intentionally to make the atmosphere fit the time scale? (with Jeb's career starting at the dawn of the space age.) Whatever the answer is, it would be quite cool if you carried on with this vibe to make it easier to orientate through the time scale based off the real world, without actually telling the year/era. Just an idea for the future.

Wow, kudos to you, you nailed it. The first book will indeed be the genesis of the space age and begin in a time where machines exist, but nothing that can so much as fly. It is an analog to say, the early 1900s, but I like not dating it. It's funny that whenever you begin a new KSP save the date is basically "0". Time for Kerbals is not an absolute so much as a relative, so how long has their civilization been around? What year is it? Well, you'll have to see I suppose.

 

[Rover 6428]

15 minutes ago, Disparia Books said:

Do (as in, should) other 'real' animals exist in the Kerbal world, or is it somehow a world of only green fauna? I mean, they technically subsist almost entirely on pudding, so they don't need meat, but should there be other animals or not?

Note: This is not a discussion of alien life, strictly Kerbin-based life.

I think there should not be that much focus on any life forms except kerbals in the novel, but yes, I do think that there should be a variety of fauna species of Kerbin. Its just that they learned to stay away from any rockets or planes as a survival technique.

[Disparia Books]

I should mention that I am setting up a Discord server. Once it's live and not terrible I will put an invite link. If anyone has any questions or wants to talk about the story that will be a great place to do so. Cheers all!

[Disparia Books]

**QUICK UPDATE**

-Still no word on perfect conversions from my publisher. Without Amazon's formats it's more difficult to distribute traditional digital book formats. Ultimately there IS a way to distribute better than a word document, but my publisher is looking into the most efficient way.

-3 chapters are written and the general story is outlined for the first few books. I will hold off on writing more until I know if there is enough interest.

-My discord is setup, but I want to test it with a few close friends first because I'm a complete noob at using it.

-I'm still waiting on @UomoCapra for a couple of legal questions regarding how I can use Patreon without breaking T2's rules (basically I can't profit from the KSP fan fiction, it has to be set up for my Disparia Books in general, but I'm waiting on a couple of specific answers on how to appropriately do that).

-The last big question mark is interest. As mentioned before, this will be a fun out-of-pocket adventure. I also need to work on my DB books too, so unless a few of you are legitimately willing to support the process it won't work. So if you (or anyone you know) wants to see this go forward, please let me know (or let them know to come here and mention it). I promise to provide a high-quality, regular, and engaging work and to work with all of you KSP fans both through the forums and my various social outlets. I might not have the building and video editing skills of your Scott Manelys and Matt Lownes, but I can do every bit as good with the written word. I want to share something fun with friends and fans, so if you'd like to see it, now's the time to let me know

Cheers all, I appreciate the support from all of you already. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to spend the day cleaning our garage *sighs immensely*.

[KSK]

On 4/25/2019 at 8:28 PM, Rover 6428 said:

I think there should not be that much focus on any life forms except kerbals in the novel, but yes, I do think that there should be a variety of fauna species of Kerbin. Its just that they learned to stay away from any rockets or planes as a survival technique.

Agreed. Wildlife adds texture to a world, even if it doesn't feature particularly heavily in the story.

[Disparia Books]

2 hours ago, KSK said:

Agreed. Wildlife adds texture to a world, even if it doesn't feature particularly heavily in the story.

Noted an appreciated. When I am near my computer I might post a paragraph where I mention animals tobsee what you think. Thanks for the input!

[KSK]

4 hours ago, Disparia Books said:

Noted an appreciated. When I am near my computer I might post a paragraph where I mention animals tobsee what you think. Thanks for the input!

You're welcome - and the taster paragraph sounds good!

[Disparia Books]

Here is a paragraph taken from the section where animals are mentioned. This is more or less how I thought to add them to the world. I know it lacks a bit of context, but you should at least get the idea.

On another note, I've already got the Patreon page built, but I'd like to hear some ideas on what good $$$ tier levels would be and what you would like as benefits/rewards for this project and my writing in general (again, I have it all set and some good ideas I feel, but a bit of input might help me tailor it to your needs more accurately).

------------------------------------

Eddington was usually a quiet town where the locals lived off the land, worked as carpenters, electricians, or mechanics if they didn’t operate one of the few local businesses. Eddington itself was separated from the nearest major city, Rexburg, by 20 kilometers of rolling highlands and pastures. It was considered usually quiet because during the times other than “Usually” the air was rent with the sounds of Vlad and his various experiments. Hypergolic was another word for Tuesday in Vlad’s world, and orange mushroom clouds were almost as common a sight as non-toxic clouds. Normal cities saw children’s parents giving them barometers in order to help understand and predict the weather. Residents of Eddington gave their kids Vladometers. Vladometers were essentially clocks and Geiger counters packaged neatly in animal-shaped mounts where the clock face was on one side of a beast’s stomach and the eyes would glow according to radiation levels (pigs and cows were the most common, though some horses and sheep could be found too). The clocks were used to time the gaps between tests (and necessarily explosions). If you saw your Vladometer tick over a full rotation you could expect the ground to shake and the sky to light up at any time. The Geiger counters detected radiation, which was another way of saying they detected Vlad. Because if Vlad wasn’t already green thanks to being a Kerbal, he’d certainly be green from radiation. Some also said he glowed in the dark, so the Vladometer wasn’t as necessary at night. But that was mostly a rumor and not a fact. Regardless, when you saw a Vladometer’s eyes begin to glow you knew it was time to take a brief holiday out of town. The animals in the local fields and farms knew this, and at least once a day you could find a stampede of cows, horses, and even chickens sprinting across the countryside to avoid the inevitable charring, searing, or decapitation.

[SiriusRocketry]

I very much enjoyed this! A different take on the character and game we all know and love. Interested! Let me know if anything is needed, I'd be happy to donate money or anything like that.

[KSK]

Not going to quote the whole piece but that’s very much the kind of thing I had in mind when I mentioned texture.  

The animals aren’t mentioned in any detail but how they react is both familiar and easy to imagine, which helps flesh out the story world a little, whilst that last line gives you a very clear idea of how successful Vlad’s experiments are!

 

[Disparia Books]

Currently 6k words into the first book. Today I am working on the Scope and FAQs page which will cover everything from the world bible to FAQs and information for future Patreon supporters. I will post a link to it sometime later this week when I finish. This should cover just about any question you all might have. That being said, if there is something specific you want to know, please reply to this and I will be sure to include it in the FAQ etc. Cheers!

[Disparia Books]

Hey all,

I finally heard back from corporate about working with the IP and unfortunately it's incredibly restrictive. I understand why, but in keeping with the rules it would make writing the books incredibly difficult, as I could not even use a Patreon account with Kerbal-based rewards in any way. So in order to do this I would need to separate the KSP stories from my Disparia Books label completely, fund it out of pocket(and time), and only use Patreon for my primary novel series. That's fine, but it would make this much more time consuming and difficult. So I want to pose a few methods of achieving this goal to a few of you and see what you would like best. Any and all replies are welcome. Calling out @KSK, @SiriusRocketry, @million_lights, @Rover 6428, @steuben, @Alpha 360and others who have been supportive.

1. Cancel the project entirely

2. Write the KSP books but don't go through my publisher to Epub them, just PDF. This would take longer and I would have to put my day-job on hold, but it would get done without the bells and whistles.

3. Start an entirely new book series in the same tone/theme as the KSP project would go, but without using the KSP IP. Doing this would mean no attachment to Kerbal, so I would lose a huge audience, but it would give me more flexibility to do as I please AND I could publish them through my publisher in paperback and Kindle formats for legitimate sale. The style of writing you've seen so far would be the way the new books would be written, so rest assured they would be entertaining. This would require the MOST help from patrons/supporters however, as starting an entirely new book series isn't easy.

4. Continue with the KSP story, but make it isolated from my Disparia Projects entirely. Start a Disparia-only patreon page to help fund future "Day job" book projects (like the sequels to End of the Past and other new ideas) so I can have free time to write the stories you all enjoy and hope people support that and buy my real books.

Phew.

Anyway, I REALLY appreciate the advice, tips, support, and help from all of you, as well as the PD staff. Cheers to you all and I look forward to your feedback (and questions).

--Bonn 

 

[KSK]

Hmmm, none of those options look terribly appealing. 

Cancelling the project altogether would be disappointing. Starting a new series would give you the most creative freedom but, as you said, you would probably lose the audience from here. Continuing with the KSP story but relying on patreons to fund the day job looks like a pretty big gamble since you're relying on enough folks to read your kerbal stuff and like it enough to buy your non-kerbal books. Possible but (and I hate to be a downer here), not probable in my experience. KSP remains a fairly niche fandom, although I expect you have considerably more practice in reaching out to audiences than I do, so my experience may not count for much.

Which leaves us with item 2. The Take Two conditions of service aren't terribly kindly here either:

"The Company welcomes input from the gaming community. You hereby grant the Company an exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, fully transferable, and sub-licensable worldwide right and license to use any submissions you submit to the Company of any nature whatsoever, whether through a posting on a Company website, email to the Company, mail, or any other means and without any obligation to account, credit, or make any payment to you for any use thereof. No purported reservation of rights incorporated in or accompanying any submission shall have any force or effect."

So, regardless of the licensing terms / IP considerations, Squad / TT are not obliged to credit to you as an author, and are actively trying to get you to waive your moral rights in, anything you post on these forums. Personally, I think that's a disgrace but I appreciate that your mileage may vary.

My own solution has been to write my kerbal story in my spare time whilst not giving up the day job, and to post it here despite my misgivings, for the sake of the readers I'd accumulated before TT waded in with their +10 legal boots of crushing. However, my day job doesn't involve creative writing, which has made it easier to separate the two endeavours and it's also meant that progress on my kerbal story has been slow, tending to glacial in places.

With all that said, I think 2 is probably the best option, if you can do it without forsaking the day job altogether. That would be above and beyond, in my opinion.

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by KSK

[Alpha 360]

@Disparia Books,

I see the problem, and I really sympathize with your plight. But, I will mention I am not the most unbiased person here as well. Just putting out the legitimacy of my suggestions.

Okay, to the suggestion itself. I would do item 2 as well. If it takes time to PDF them, then maybe you can outsource the grunt work to volunteers and allow yourself to keep your day job (hopefully). In that way, we could leave the option of cooperation in the future open. 

Sincerely, 

Peter