My student sim wants to sell a great novel, but that does not work in my game. I have had two adults complete their novels, and all that happens is that a copy of the novel is delivered by a van. There is no phone call; no money; and, if the maid grabs the copy and puts it in the bookshelf, it gets lost, so there is no copy. It is all just a great waste of sim effort.

I have spent much time searching the content lists, and found only a progress bar hack. How can I get my literary sims to sell a great novel? Has anyone fixed this fault?

How high is the creativity of your sims?

The two who completed novels were at 8 and 9 creativity points respectively. The student is only at six. Do you think it makes a difference?

They have to write several (usually with full creativity) to sell a great novel. I think it has to be sold for over a certain amount of money (I think it is somewhere between 500-1000$) to be considered "great". The novels usually sell for more money each time they write a new one, so just keep him writing, and fill up creativity, because that makes him sell more expensive books.

If the sim doesn't sell a great novel, they should still get paid for it.

Even if the novel is not great, there should still be a phone call to tell you it didnt work out [I have gotten that a couple of times, plus the great novel phone call], so the problem is probably with the phone call itself. Do you have hacks relating to phones?
I heard there was a hack that cancelled this phone call, so maybe you accidentally downloaded it?
By the way, in my game I thought that when the book was put into a bookcase, it was lost but I found out it's still there, inside of the "Novel" category [Only appears if there is a novel].

I believe the call can be cancelled if you use the screening options on the telephone (this option was introduced in an expansion) .
I think you do not get payed unless you get the call.
So check the telephone issue and try again.

It's getting worse. Six weeks ago my sim collected elements of plot and a cover picture before typing, and typed a long time to finish a novel. Then a complimentary copy arrived by van, but no money.

Now my legacy founder has Sell a Great Novel cluttering up his wants panel all the time. A couple of times he sat down to type; there was no collection of plot elements, and after only a couple of minutes a notice popped up saying 'Novel complete. Let's hope it sells well.' Nothing more happened, though he has maxed creativity. Today when he sat down to type, there was a jump bug, and he was suddenly standing beside the chair. I wish he would stop this craving to be a novelist!

I ran the Hack Conflict Detection Utility, but all it found was two possible culprits:
*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BHAV
Procedure Name: CT - No Supports?
Group ID: 0x7FF4606E
Instance ID: 0x00001000
Packages Containing This Procedure:
\downloads\Building\HL_ChicStairsMAIN.package
\downloads\Building\HL_EuroRecolorableModStairs.package
\downloads\Building\HL_IndestructableConcreteModularRECOLORABLE.package
\downloads\Building\HL_StorybookModStairsRECOLORABLE.package

*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BHAV
Procedure Name: Sub - Handle Fire
Group ID: 0x7F2AECEB
Instance ID: 0x00001019
Packages Containing This Procedure:
\downloads\Hacks\SW-Model-Trains-Dont-Burst-Into-Flames.package
\downloads\Hacks\SW-Model-Trains-Dont-Burst-Into-Flames\SW-Model-Trains-Dont-Burst-Into-Flames.package

End Of Report

I will of course attempt to get rid of those, and do without recoloured stairs and model train sets, but they seem unlikely to affect novel writing. Has anybody any idea that might help?

I agree that neither of those conflicts would appear to be related to writing novels. However, if you want to find out whether a problem is caused by CC, you should follow the Game_Help:Game_Problem^wiki FAQ. Specifically:

1) backup your save game
2) Remove all of your CC.
3) Delete all of your cache files.
4) Run the game and see whether the problem occurs.

If the problem still occurs, then you know that the problem is not related to your CC. If the problem stops, then you know that the problem is in your CC and you can do further investigation.

If the problem is not in your CC, then you might want to try moving your sim into another house. That will help you to isolate whether the problem is related to your sim or to the lot.

Basically, you just have to try your best to narrow down where the problem is occurring. No one else can do this for you, because you are the one who has the problem. What we can tell you is how the feature is supposed to work. Your job is to keep eliminating potential reasons for your problem until you find the actual reason for the problem.

Thanks, Mootilda. I'll backup now, and take out my custom content. I always delete cache files anyway, so that's not the problem. I am reluctant to move my sim, since this is a legacy, and he's supposed to stay put. I can, of course, go on ignoring his writing itch. I wonder whether it can be anything to do with the IKEA stuff pack that I installed a while back? I can uninstal that, since it was a total waste of money and I never use its stuff.

Two days later - progress report: I uninstalled IKEA, and dragged out of my Hacks folder the model-train-don't-burst-into-flames, the AL-phone-calls-fix, and the novelprogress.package. Then I set my sim, Adam, typing. No pop this time! He collected novel data, typed for a couple of days, and got the pop-up message: 'Looks like Adam is done writing the novel. Hopefully it will sell well.' (I object to that message, because of its dodgy grammar; a novel cannot do anything hopefully, since a novel cannot hope. What a pity we can't correct the grammar of those messages!) The blue van arrived with his complimentary copy. He discussed the novel with his wife, and put it on the bookshelf. Then we waited, all afternoon, all evening, all night - no phone call! So, no money, and he can't Sell a Great Novel. I wish I could clear that want from his panel.

His son, Ben, is a sophomore in Cambridge University. He also has the itch to write, finished a novel, and received a copy. I suppose it was worth doing, because he can now earn a quick 500 aspiration points any time by reading his novel for a few minutes. I have heard that Sell a Great Novel is impossible in college. Do you know why?

Last edited by music2ologist : 12th Jun 2012 at 05:31 PM.

Pinstar himself always said that Legacy players can resolve glitches by whatever means necessary, including moving the Legacy family from a glitched lot to a new one, without violating the spirit of the rules.

That's why the very first step is to backup your save game. You will play with a temporary game until you find the problem. At that point, you'll restore from backup and continue to play your legacy.

Well, it has taken me nearly a month, but at last I have success. I backed up my game, withdrew my Downloads folder, and played without it. No joy. I was almost resigned to life without novel-writing, when something else happened. My founder, Adam Gardener, harvested a load of eggplants and served eggplant juice. He set the tray of drinks down on the counter, and it disappeared. Now this was intolerable. So much work went into those six drinks, so the family could acquire six random skill points, and no reward. The glitches were piling up. The lot had to go.

So I restored the Downloads folder, moved out the family, bulldozed the lot and built another as like as I could make it, then moved them all (now four sims: founder, heir and spouses) back in. Getting this novel-writing working had become something of a monomania with me, and with them, too. They all rolled wishes to Sell a Great Novel, and the elders blazed in the zone while typing. At last my founder finished his mystery, and the phone rang! Whoop! Three thousand simoleons.

Thank you for all your help in tracking down the glitch. The heir now has a daughter, and the legacy can proceed in peace.