The house's own words
The Drakenscroll Lexicon
This trade is young enough that its words are still being settled. Here are ours — defined plainly, so an author, a bookseller or a machine can quote them without guessing.
- Film book
A film book is a complete novel produced as cinema for the ear and eye: fully cast voices, sound design, licensed score and motion imagery, cut scene by scene from the author's own text.
A film book is not a trailer and not a movie adaptation. Nothing is cut from the manuscript and nothing is invented for it. The whole book is performed by a cast, scored, sound-designed and set to motion imagery, then delivered as a watchable edition of the same story the reader would read. Priced at 12% of the manuscript word count.
Also called: video book, cinematic audiobook, visual novel edition, movie book.
Film book production →- Audio book (house standard)
A house audio book is a fully cast, scored and mastered performance of a manuscript — a cast, not a single reader — priced at 7% of the word count.
Most audio books are one narrator in a booth. The house standard is a cast: a voice for each speaking part, sound design where the scene calls for it, and a licensed score cut to the runtime. Delivered to retail specification, chapter-marked and mastered.
Also called: audiobook, narration, spoken word edition.
Audio book production →- Novel-game
A novel-game is a playable edition of a novel: one gate per chapter, walked in the author's own world, built from a blueprint drawn off the manuscript itself.
The third vessel of the house. The manuscript is surveyed into realms, actors and gates — a trial for each chapter — and built as a game the reader plays rather than watches. Priced at 20% of the word count with a $3,000 forge floor, or a $2,000 Proving Chapter credited into the full build within ninety days.
Also called: book game, interactive novel, story game.
The Novel-Game →- Finished minute
One finished minute is 155 words of manuscript — so 9,300 words make one finished hour, in either vessel.
The house's law of runtime. It lets an author know the length of their edition before a single line is recorded: divide the word count by 155 for minutes, by 9,300 for hours. A 90,000-word novel runs about nine hours and forty minutes.
Also called: runtime, listening length.
The Vellum Bench →- Charter
A Charter is the sealed agreement that begins a build: vessel, word count, cast, arsenal and price, fixed in writing.
Nothing is produced on a handshake. The Forge ends in a Charter — a numbered, sealed record of exactly what the house will build and what it costs. The Charter carries the payment plan, the stage the work stands at, and the Vault it will be delivered into.
Also called: contract, order, quote.
The Forge →- Boon
A Boon is earned favour, never a sale: one per Charter, never stacked, with cash favour capped at ten percent.
The house does not discount. It grants favour for something done — a work brought by an allied house, a second commission, a long manuscript. One Boon per Charter. If a claim cannot be proved at sealing, the author pays in full and the favour is credited once the proof is accepted.
Also called: discount, coupon, promo code.
The Rites →- Score territory
A score territory is a named sonic direction — the mood, instrumentation and tempo band a build's licensed music is chosen inside.
The house licenses music; it does not claim composition. The fee is selection, cutting and mixing. A territory is how an author locks the sound of their edition before a single cue is chosen: pick the country the music lives in, and the house finds the tracks inside its borders.
Also called: soundtrack style, music mood, original score.
The Score Hall →- Proclamation
A Proclamation is a broadcast-ready commercial — radio spot or moving banner — built by the house for a business rather than an author.
Same voices, same score, same fire as a film book, cut to thirty through one hundred and eighty seconds. Flat price, paid in full, delivered broadcast-ready for station or platform.
Also called: radio ad, commercial, TV spot.
The Proclamation →- Ember Network
The Ember Network is the house's referral order: a partner carries an author to the house and earns a Boon credit once the recommendation is signed off.
Publicists, editors, agents and past authors carry recommendations by hand. Each carried name is recorded, weighed by the Crown, and — after sign-off — a Boon credit is applied to the author's Charter automatically. Never exclusive, never automatic before sign-off.
Also called: referral program, affiliate, partner scheme.
The Ember Network →- Hearth film
The hearth film is the living background of this house — a full-screen film with sound that plays behind every page once the gate is opened.
Not decoration. It is the house's showcase: the light, motion and score an author's own edition is cut in. The gate offers two moods — Fire for full intensity, Candlelight for a hushed reading.
Also called: background video, hero video.
Every price named here is fixed and public. Build one at The Forge.