To make understanding how to use this board easier, I've recorded a 16-minute video showing you all of its features and use cases. Click the YouTube play button to watch and learn.
Remember that readers and authors can both submit ideas. Readers tell authors what they want to read. Authors ask readers if they want to read books based on their ideas.
If you see an idea you like and want to read it someday, upvote it. The more an idea is liked, the more likely someone will develop it.
Authors need to tell me which ideas they're working on before I can move them into the "Chosen Topics" section (give me the specific title and vote count so I know which one you're choosing). Likewise, authors need to tell me which ones they've released as books before I can move them onto the "Resultant Books" card.
An idea that has an author isn't "closed." More than one author can choose a topic and start a publishing trend. If you're an author and see an idea you really like and want to take it on, tell me, even if twelve other authors have already started their versions of the story. Ian Fleming wasn't the only author who wrote about spies.
Ideas are subjective. Once an author chooses an idea, he can do with it what he wants. The end result may not be exactly the reader's vision, but that's okay. Hopefully, it'll be better.
Any user with an email address can submit an idea, but please be aware that not all ideas will be approved for voting. I won't censor ideas based on my own preferences or viewpoints, but I will delete any idea that violates Amazon's or any other major bookstore's rules or terms. So, stay away from taboo and intentionally hateful topics. If Amazon won't accept it, neither will I.
Finally, as a point of reference for the Book Ideas Generator's terms and conditions, remember:
- Every idea is the product of the person who submits it, and every book that's based on the idea is the product of the author who develops it.
- Readers cannot claim credit for the resultant books' content, and authors do not owe readers credit or acknowledgment for the ideas they use (though they can certainly acknowledge the reader if they wish). Because ideas are subject to interpretation, the end result of an author's take on the topic belongs to the author and to no one else.
- Likewise, the Book Ideas Generator and its operator (me, Jeremy Bursey) do not take credit or responsibility for any idea posted on this board that I did not post myself. Anyone who uses this board is responsible for the idea he or she submits, and any author who adopts an idea is responsible for the book he or she creates from the idea.
- The Book Ideas Generator and its operator (me, Jeremy Bursey) are absolved of any conflict that an idea may cause among readers and users (though I still have the right to remove an idea that's causing trouble).
- Likewise, the Book Ideas Generator and its operator (me, Jeremy Bursey) are divorced of any praise an idea may receive among readers and users. As much as I'd like to take credit for a great idea, unless I actually did come up with it, it's not my idea.
- Users must have a valid email address to submit an idea.
- Users should be at least 13 years of age to use the Book Ideas Generator.
- For an idea to be approved, it must not incite anger, sickness, or fail Amazon's standards of acceptance.
- Submitting an idea does not guarantee a satisfactory end result. The user submits his or her idea knowing that the author who accepts it and produces a book from it may not actually be any good.
- Users may leave comments about ideas if they wish (though it's really not necessary given the voting system), but the same rules about decency apply as they do the submission of ideas. The short response here is to be nice to everyone if you're going to say anything. Keep your comments clean and constructive. I'll delete anything that isn't either.
Understanding and adhering to these basic rules will hopefully make your experience with the Book Ideas Generator pleasant.
Thank you for abiding by the rules.
All right, get to it. Inspire us!
--Jeremy
