Here we have listed some general rules and instructions for you2book. For more detailed information about our terms of use, go to “Create an account” on the main page. A lot of answers to common questions can also be found in the FAQ.
1. Concise information about you2book
2. Create an account – Register
3. Write a new chapter for a book
4. Start a new novel – Create your own you2book
5. Our award system
6. Vote for an entry
7. Our discussion forum
8. Toolbox
9. Rules for uploading a chapter
10. Schedule – how it works
you2book is a new launch that offers a unique opportunity for people with writer’s ambitions (new writers, amateur writers etc) to cooperate and help each other to create a book online. There are three alternatives to choose from. You can write by yourself, invite your friends or cooperate with other writers online and work with the book together. You can either complete an ongoing novel or start a new story yourself. A novel that may have the chance to be published and distributed by a publisher. You can either finish a novel started by someone else, or create a new novel. More detailed information can be found in following text or in the FAQ. Apart from the opportunity to take part in a novel, with a chance to get published, the idea with you2book is to cooperate and interact with other writers, and to receive and give constructive criticism. We also have a compilation of practical advice, with helpful information about things to consider when you write. Let you2book become your natural meeting place to find like-minded people on the Internet!
To take part in a book, to vote, or to write in our discussion forum, you must register. Go to “Create an account”, top right on the main page. Here you can also read our terms of use in detail. If you don’t register, you can only read uploaded chapters and the contributions in the discussion forum. You can’t take active part on the site if you don’t register. You can choose to write under a pseudonym, which will appear on the site, but you must register with your real name (read more on the subject in the FAQ). Shortly after your registration you will receive an e-mail with your username and password. You must click on the link in this e-mail, otherwise your account will not be activated.
To write a new chapter for a book started by someone else, follow these instructions:
- Choose the book you want to take part in on the main page and click on “Read” (or “Download PDF” if you want to download it as a PDF-file).
- Now a page will open (see the picture below) where you can read and/or download the finished chapters and the prologue. If the book is new, there is only one prologue.
- After reading the finished prologue (and possibly other finished chapters as well), you’re supposed to continue the story. This is best done with your own word processor, but you can also use the built-in word processor by clicking “Upload”.
- After finishing a chapter, click on “Upload”. The “Upload”-button can either be found on the main page under the book you’ve chosen, or in the “Toolbox” which is always available to the left in the various menus (read more about the “Toolbox” on item 8).
- First, give your chapter a title. Mark and copy your text written with your own word processor, and paste it in the built-in word processor on this site (or write your chapter directly in the built-in word processor). Click on “Send” and your entry will be uploaded to you2book. You can also click on “Discontinue” if you would change your mind. Note that you must be logged on to do this. After an inspection to make sure that it is not in contrast with our terms of use, your chapter will be available for reading among the other chapters on you2book. Always use a spell checker (use the F7 key if you’re using Microsoft Word) before uploading your entry!
To create your own you2book, follow these instructions
- Click on “Guide – Start a new book” under Create your own you2book on the main page. In 5 easy steps you can now begin your own book.
- “Step 1 – Define book”. The first step is to define your book, see picture below. Give your book a title that is unique – two books can not have the same name. The system will alert if there already is a book with this name. Then, choose a genre for your book. You must also choose a language for the book, and then there are four choices to make that we would like to describe more closely.
- Level: You will be awarded with more points if you are active at you2book (for more information about how this works, read under “Award system”). Here you are able to decide if you, for example, want your co-writers to belong to the more “active category” or not. Zero (0) points means that anyone can take part in your book.
- Work interval: Set a time limit to upload a new chapter. This time limit applies to every chapter of the book.
- Size of entry: Choose how many words every chapter must contain. For example, a children’s book will contain fewer words than a thriller. Note that there, of course, is a tolerance (+/- 10%) for the amount of words used in a chapter, since it is difficult to use the exact number of words allowed in the chosen entry size.
- Number of chapters: Decide how many chapters you want the book to contain. You may have chosen a smaller entry size for the chapters (because you want short chapters) and want more chapters instead. This choice is made here.
- Writing procedure: Here you can decide if you want to write on your own, together with your friends or with others.
A: Write by yourself. If you feel stuck and can’t go on with your story, you can later change your book to B (Write with friends) or C (Write with others).
B: Write with your friends. You choose who you want to invite to your book. If you want, you can later change your book to C (Write with others) but you can NOT change the book to A (Write by yourself) or B (Write with friends).
C: Write with others. All registered users on you2book can participate in your book. You can NOT later change your book to A (Write by yourself) or B (Write with friends).
- “Step 2 – Choose a book cover”. Choose a suitable book cover for your book by clicking on a picture. The title of your book will automatically be inserted in the picture, and will later be visible under the various books on the main page.
- “Step 3 – Upload a teaser”. The concise text that can be read on the main page is what we call a teaser. The purpose of the teaser is to give a concise and interesting description of the story (teasers are often found on the back covers of books). Insert your teaser by writing it in our built-in word processor, or mark the text in your own word processor and paste it in the built-in word processor on this page (see below). A teaser can have a maximum of 150 words (+/-10%). If the words are too many or too few, the program will inform you before you can continue. When you’re done with this, click on “Next step”.
- “Step 4 –Load up the first chapter”. After finishing your teaser, the next step is to insert your prologue (the prologue is the beginning or chapter 0). Here you have access to the same word processor as in step 3 and you do it the same way: mark and copy your text written with your own word processor and paste it in the built-in word processor on this site. You can write your prologue directly in the built-in word processor if you prefer that. If the words are too few, or too many, the program will let you know before you can continue. When you are done, click on the “Next step”. Remember to use a spell checker (for the teaser and the prologue as well).
- “Step 5 – Finish”. When you are done, click on “Finish”. Your entry will now (after an inspection to make sure it agrees with our terms of use) be uploaded to you2book, after which it will be available among the other books at you2book.
- If you change your mind, it is possible to remove your book within a certain time (not later than 23.59 on the day the book were created). If you, for example, find an error you can remove the book and upload it once the error is fixed. This is done from the Teaser page.
You are given points, every time you are active at you2book. The idea with this is to award those who are more engaged in you2book. After all, the whole purpose with the site you2book is – in addition to the possibility to take part in the publishing of a book – to cooperate with other writers, receive and give constructive criticism to become a better writer.
These are the basic rules for this award system:
- After registration, you receive 50 points.
- When you make contributions to our discussion forum you receive 5 points per contribution.
- When you start a new book you receive 50 points (providing the material is published by you2book after controlling it doesn’t violate our terms of use).
- When you write a new chapter for an ongoing book you receive 50 points.
- When you read and vote for a book you receive 5 points. You can only vote for a chapter once (the icon is no longer active after voting once) and you must be logged on to do this.
- If your entry/chapter is selected as the winning entry/chapter (see “To vote”) you will be given 500 extra points.
You can, among other things, use your points for the following:
- When you start a new book you can choose how many points your co-writers must have to take part in your book. This means you are able to decide if you want more active persons to take part in your book (which could increase the chance of the book getting published).
- Gradually, we will provide more options for you, and we will work actively to find new and exciting ways and opportunities for you to use your points.
When a new chapter is uploaded by a writer, all members who are logged on can vote for this chapter. If you have chosen to write your book by yourself, this function is not activated. If you have chosen to write a book with you friends, you can only vote for each other’s entries within the group. Your friends cannot see how many points you award for a certain entry, so you can vote entirely after your own opinion. If you’re not logged on, you can only read the chapter and not vote for it. To vote, follow these instructions:
- Click on “Vote” under the book on the main page that you are interested in. This will take you to another page where you can see all chapters, including the prologue, of the book. You can also find information about Title/Author, Date, Number of readers, Points and Trend (see below).
- Click on “Prologue” to the left (we use the prologue as an example but there could also be other chapters under the prologue that you can vote for too). Now the “Prologue” is open, and you can read it and vote for it. You vote for an entry by giving it 1 to 5 stars (see below), 1 star for not so good and 5 stars for very good.
- After voting once, the icon is no longer active and you can’t vote again for the same prologue/chapter (our system will prevent this). You can, of course, vote for other chapters of the same book or vote for the prologue/chapters of another book.
There are principally two different discussion forums to take part in.
- Firstly, there is a general discussion forum which can be found on the main page – “Discuss you2book”, and in which you can discuss general matters related concerning you2book. You can reply to other contributions, or add new categories yourself.
- There is also a specific discussion forum for each book. If you click on “Discuss” under the book on the main page that you are interested in, you will get to a new page where you can discuss this particular book (see below). You can reply to other contributions, or add new categories yourself.
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When you choose a book (by clicking “Go to”, “Read”, “Discuss” or “Vote” on the main page) a new window will open in which you will always find a toolbox to the left. This will give you direct access to general information such as Instructions, FAQ etc. You have also access to your account from here (information, points etc). Finally, there is a section for the book you read or work with at the moment (Settings, Teaser, Read, Discuss, Vote, Upload and Download PDF). When you choose a book, this section of the toolbox will also be dedicated to the book you have chosen.
In other words, you will always have access to the sections of the book you currently work with by clicking on any of the icons under “Book” in the toolbox (see left picture). |
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You will also find statistics of the book you currently work with under the toolbox (see left picture). Here you can see the number of Contributions and Entries (chapters) written for this particular book. You can also see its Status (Upload, Work with or Vote) and the Deadline for the current status. Finally, you can also see chosen Entry Size (how many words each chapter must contain), Started by (might be a pseudonym) plus Start Date (the date the book was originally created). |
When you upload a chapter for an ongoing book, you must comply with a settled work interval (the time limit for uploading your newly written chapter) and a settled Entry size (how many words each chapter must contain). When you start a new book yourself, you will also be the one setting these limits and other writers must comply with these rules (this is applied if you write by yourself, too).
The reasons for this are many. The opinion of many professional writers is that you must learn to consider how many words a predetermined chapter shall consist of. If we had no limit for this, some writers could upload just a couple of pages while others would upload chapters far bigger. The readers would probably find it difficult to decide which chapter is the “best” and the different sizes of the chapters would probably make the novel a bit “uneven” in its structure. Because of the obvious difficulty with writing the exact amount of words, we have an interval of tolerance (+/- 10%). Writing too much is a common problem, and if the chapter is too “long” you can mostly adjust this by removing less relevant parts.
For more detailed information about work intervals and entry size, see part 4 on this page. Since the work intervals of the different books will vary (and begin on different days of the week), every book is controlled by a schedule which decides the current status for the specific occasion. The intervals are: “Work with”, “Upload” and “Vote” (read more about calendars in chapter 10).
The schedule is a very important part of you2book since it controls the time tables of every specific book. New books will start on different days of the week and therefore they have different work cycles to follow as well. For this reason, every book has got its own schedule. You can find it in the bottom of the “Toolbox”.
- All books have three phases. These are: “Work with”, “Upload” and “Vote”.
- “Work with” means you can’t upload any entries of your own. This phase is only for working with your chapter.
- If you want to upload an entry, choose “Upload”. At this point, you are also able to vote for the entries gradually coming in.
- “Vote” is only for voting. In other words, you can no longer upload your entry.
Example:
In this example we can see that Chapter 1 is in the “Work with”-phase, from February 20 to 24. You can not upload any entries during this period. The time limit for uploading your entry (“Upload”) is from February 25 to the 1st of March. At this stage, you can also begin to vote for the entries gradually coming in. From March 2 to 4, all you can do is vote (“Vote”). You can no longer upload any entries for Chapter 1. On March 5, the work cycle for the next chapter begins (Chapter 2). The procedure of this chapter is the same as for Chapter 1. These cycles proceed until the book is finished.
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