Author Topic: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'  (Read 1312 times)

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Offline Iain Baker

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Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
Hi everyone! I come with news both good  :) and bad  :(

Some of you may know that for the last couple of years I have been writing a semi-fictional book set in the universe of the Eastern European PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

The bad news is that I have finally received a response from GSC Gameworld regarding obtaining permission to use the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. IP, and thus sell my now completed book, ‘The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide’ commercially. They said ‘No’, as it would clash with their future plans for the franchise. I was half-expecting this anyway TBH.

The good news is that you all get an early Christmas present from yours truly, since I am now releasing The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide for free as a PDF. To get your copy either:

Head on over to its webpage: https://www.nomadsreviews.co.uk/trlzsg

E-mail me at: [email protected]

PM me on the Nomad’s Reviews Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nomadsreviews/

I will happily share it via the forum, but when I try to attach it the forum glitches out. Perhaps at 114K words it is a little to large to fit. Something no woman has ever said about me  :lol:

Enjoy 😊
« Last Edit: December 14, 2018, 02:53:31 pm by Iain Baker »
Wanna check out my video games, technology and media website? If so, visit; https://www.nomadsreviews.co.uk/

Interested in hiring my freelance writing, proof-reading, editing, SEO, TTSO, Web Development or Social Media Management services? If so, please messege me at [email protected]

 

Offline Mito [PL]

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Re: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
Hmm, you might want to remove the period from your webpage link.

Also, while currently not interested in reading it, I can kind of comfort you with the fact that a Stalker-centric community functioning in my country, producing a respectable quantity of not-so-bad texts had a promise that their work will be released as a novel anthology... And that promise was never fulfilled. RIP.

Also, maybe you could offer them a bit of cooperation - if adapted to Stalker 2 lore and stuff, your text might make a nice teaser at some point.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2018, 02:53:55 pm by MitoPL »
How do you kill a hydra?

You starve it to death.

 

Offline Iain Baker

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Re: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
Thanks for the heads up. I removed it and it is working fine now :-)

Re cooperation with them - I offered that already. They basicly siad my work would clash with what they are planning to release in the future. I can only assume they feel they will get more money from the stuff they are already planning on releasing.

I had offered to split the profits 50/50 with them, which would be easy money for them since I had already done all the work and had publishers lined up waiting. I even had an old university friend who is a native Russian, who speaks fluent English and Russian, and thus could have easily translated it into Russian and localised it. It could then have been sold in the Russo-phone nations as well, making yet more money, since the profits from that would be split too, probably 50% for GSC, 25% for me and 25% for my friend who translated it.

I even offered to make extensive alterations to it in order to be granted the licence, and offered to sign an NDA to ensure confidentiality regarding any info they divulged about what those future plans were. But still they said no.

I have heard they have let people down in the past, which is one of the reasons I was not getting my hopes up. Even if they had given permission,they might then change their mind later as happened to an earlier author.
Wanna check out my video games, technology and media website? If so, visit; https://www.nomadsreviews.co.uk/

Interested in hiring my freelance writing, proof-reading, editing, SEO, TTSO, Web Development or Social Media Management services? If so, please messege me at [email protected]

 

Offline theperfectdrugsk

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Re: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
Sweet, thanks for sharing it!  Any chance of an e-book version?  I tried to use Calibre to convert it from pdf, but I've never had great results doing that (especially when pdfs have background imagery).

 

Offline Iain Baker

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Re: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
Sweet, thanks for sharing it!  Any chance of an e-book version?  I tried to use Calibre to convert it from pdf, but I've never had great results doing that (especially when pdfs have background imagery).
Your welcome, hope you enjoy it.
Re e-book version. I would very much like to create one, but I do not think it will be wise to do so at the moment. I have heard the last person who placed a free Stalker e-book up on-line, a book going by the name of Snorkbait, got threatened with legal action by GSC Gameworld. I'm not sure if this is true, but I'm not willing to take the risk.

I can send you the original word doc without background images and borders if that helps? I will need an e-mail address, or you can PM me on the Nomad’s Reviews Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nomadsreviews/ , since you can't upload word docs on here (I just tried - the computer says no ;-)

This of course is on the understanding that it will be for your own personal use only, and neither it or the resultant e-book is to be shared with any third parties.

Sorry for the 'leaglease' bit, but GSC Gameworld are as aggressive with the defending their IP as are the likes of Disney. Therefore, ahem...'One needs to ensure one's derrière possess sufficient coverage'.  :lol:
Wanna check out my video games, technology and media website? If so, visit; https://www.nomadsreviews.co.uk/

Interested in hiring my freelance writing, proof-reading, editing, SEO, TTSO, Web Development or Social Media Management services? If so, please messege me at [email protected]

 

Offline theperfectdrugsk

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Re: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
Hey, no worries I completely understand not wanting to run afoul of the IP monsters.  I actually just saved the pdf as a txt file, and then converted the text file in calibre.  It actually worked much better than I thought it would, and keeps all the paragraph and page breaks intact.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

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Re: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
I really have no interest in STALKER, but did want to stop in and say: Commiserations. That must be real rough, putting all that effort and love into a project and not being able to market it. Granted, you did plan for it, but still. Takes more strength to then offer it up for free. :nod:

  
Re: Get my book for free: 'The Chernobyl Zone Survival Guide'
How difficult do you think it would be to re-write it as an original IP, so that you wouldn't need to worry about copyright?

Just change the setting to the fictional... "Schmernobyl Zone", and the adventurer guys are called... "prowlers"... And etc.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading it  :nod: