A WIKI for your books?

[VydorScope]

So noticed that some people are ending up on my authors blog because they are searching for a wiki with regards to my series. So its got me wondering, should I build one? Do other indy's do that? What is the general thought on that?

[gmw]

I can understand a forum (along the same lines as this one), where readers can discuss their love of the books and maybe have the occasional post from the author. ... But I must say that I'm not sure just what the purpose of the Wiki would be. If your readers want more information about the books you have written then perhaps that would encourage you to provide a website that was a sort of virtual representation of that world ... but a Wiki (to me) suggests user participation in the construction of that world, and I can't quite see that as viable.

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by gmw

If your readers want more information about the books you have written then perhaps that would encourage you to provide a website that was a sort of virtual representation of that world ... but a Wiki (to me) suggests user participation in the construction of that world, and I can't quite see that as viable.

How do you get from a) a wiki to b) user participation in the construction of that world? In my experience, the vastly overwhelming number of fan-made wikis for fictional creations are detailed collections of what's in those works, with the occasional bit of fan-based speculation about certain aspects thrown in but generally clearly marked as such.

For a single book, a wiki is probably unnecessary. If you have a multi-volume series, though, or a number of stories with loads of different characters and detailed world-building all set in the same, shared universe, a wiki can be both a way for your readers to explore that fictional universe and for you to keep track of things.

So, should you build one? If there's demand from your readers and you don't mind the administrative overhead (SPAM is a constant problem, so you need to set it up to only allow registered users to edit stuff, and you'll still get SPAM even so), it might be worth a try, certainly. Especially if there's a chance that your readers will do the bulk of the work involved in filling the wiki with content.

Do other indy's do that? Some do, some don't. As a reader who loves detailed world building and often reads book series, I appreciate those who do. :-)

[Justin Nemo]

Originally Posted by gmw

If your readers want more information about the books you have written then perhaps that would encourage you to provide a website that was a sort of virtual representation of that world .

From what I've seen most Indie authors don't even bother to get themselves a decent website, but would rather go down the free Blogspot or Wordpress path.

[crich70]

You could create your own Wiki using Tiddlywiki and post it online. Of course in order for it to be of much use you would probably want it to be about a multi-book series like others have said so there is a good wealth of info to link up. For example a number of Stephen King's books have links either between characters or where the stories are set or both. It's almost like a mythology the way things tie together.

[VydorScope]

To be clear, the series i am working on now is just that, a big epic story arc inside a common universe with overlapping characters. I am currently writing book 4.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by crich70

You could create your own Wiki using Tiddlywiki and post it online.

From a tech stand point, building a wiki is not a problem. I host 1/2 dozen websites on my personal sever already and all that. I would probably use MediaWiki, which is what Wikipedia uses, only because it is so well known/respected. Not given a lot of thought to the platform yet.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Gudy

How do you get from a) a wiki to b) user participation in the construction of that world? In my experience, the vastly overwhelming number of fan-made wikis for fictional creations are detailed collections of what's in those works, with the occasional bit of fan-based speculation about certain aspects thrown in but generally clearly marked as such.[...]

Pretty much as you describe it, that sounds like user participation to me. Pretty much like a fan site of any nature, but with implicit author approval (since it's the author's site). If that's something you want, go for it.

[dadioflex]

Create the wiki with a bunch of broad stubs and leave it to the readers to create it themselves - which is pretty much the idea behind a wiki, right?

BUT a truly open wiki will be pulverized with spam and porn. A couple of RPG wikis I read suffered badly from it. The downside of tying it down too hard is that you'll get less interaction.

But you really don't want to waste your own time writing the entire thing yourself, do you? Unless you already have substantial notes you can already draw on, of course.

[anamardoll]

This seems really exciting, actually. A LOT of work, though -- websites in general are black holes from which many authors never reappear. That would be my biggest concern.

[VydorScope]

I have notes in Scrivener... prbly 100-150 cards in there.. but not sure I want to continue to use that as a tool anyways.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I have notes in Scrivener... prbly 100-150 cards in there.. but not sure I want to continue to use that as a tool anyways.

Because.....?



Don

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Because.....?

Don

Because its a great tool for a single book and short term tacking but I am building a multiverse that will span many many books. The concepts of a Wiki seem to fit better where cross referencing scenes, and objects is extremely simple. So for example I might have a note like

John met Sue at the Blue Bar on Tyson IV right after he killed Mike with the pipe in the pantry.

That's a detail I might need to track. In a Wiki I can do :


[[John]] met [[Sue]] at the [[Blue Bar]] on [[Ryson IV]] right after he killed [[Mike]] with the pipe in the [[pantry]].

Now everything with the [[]] automatically creates a empty page that the text links to. So I can look at that note, click John and fill in details about him. Any future notes that mention John I simply put [[John]] and it will be linked to his page allowing fast easy cross referencing. I can also generate a report that lists all the links link those that go to empty stub pages letting me know what I forgot to fill in.

Whether I make it good enough for public consumption is yet to be decided.. but I have started one yesterday to see how well it will work in practice.