Hiya all, I have a question about novels written by sims in the sims 2.
I could have sworn there was a way to buy more copies of books that a sim had written, either from the phone or from the computer. Did I imagine this as a feature? While doing a quick google search I only found that it was not possible and there would only ever be one singular copy of a written book. If that really is the case does anyone know of a workaround/object clone glitch/mod that fixes it?

I essentially never post anything publically as I only ever lurk on old forums, I only felt the need to in this case because trying to search this up the old fashioned way led me nowhere and I genuinely want to have the same books in several households. That is my way of saying please be kind to me.

You want the sellable novels mod: https://modthesims.info/d/610895/sellable-novels.html

Designate one sim as "bookseller." Instead of putting the novel on a shelf, keep it in inventory. Give the copy to the bookseller. When the Bookseller household gets played, the owner puts it up for sale in his shop. When it's sold, bookseller restocks it!

Unfortunately when you send someone to his shop from another household, there's no way to tell one book from another. You can deal with this by having a "new books" shelf. When the bookseller gets a new book from the same author, he removes that author's last book to a different shelf and puts the new book on the "new books" shelf. That way you can ensure that your author gets a copy of their own book!

It's not perfect, but it's what we've got.

Wasn't there a trick of replicating it with tables and inventory somehow? I've never wanted to do it so I haven't paid attention to exactly how, but I remember seeing something about it.

Welcome out of lurking

Ah thank you very much. Guess I'll give that mod a try, it is better than nothing.

I noticed when digging around in my hood just now that one of my author sims does infact have two identical copies of one of his books, which would have happened before I even knew that you weren't supposed to get several. I wonder if I stumbled upon a workaround before I even knew that I needed one haha, unfortunately idk how I made that happen ;-;

I did see a very bad description of this when briefly looking for a duplication glitch. But the instructions were so unclearly written that I got nowhere.
Maybe I should look into that, thank you

While I do have the 'sellable' novels, what I also do in a bookstore is put in this hack which will automatically restock everything available for sale, including novels.

Automatic restocking sign (requires Open For Business)-
https://simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_OFB.htm

Just place the novel on a surface and then mark it for sale (at whatever price you want) and also to restock it automatically.

Just to make things even easier, there's also the automatic opening sign, which you can program for whatever hours you want.

By the way, you can also do this: make a sim who happens to have one in their inventory, relieve them of it, and put it back on the table. It's kind of like a repeating habit of spreading the ownership of books.

I remembered my author Sim is moving soon, and I'll need to know how to do this myself for when he moves, so I looked it up Found it here in the 5th post of the thread.

The trick is to put the book on a table in inventory, run the game for a second, then go back to inventory, pull the table out, move the book off the table and put the table back in inventory. Then you run the game for another second, and the book will respawn on the table in inventory even though you took the book off. I tested in my game and it works well And I got the novel out of the bookcase by having my Sim read it, and then removing the bookcase so they could not put it back and instead dropped it on the floor.

Thanks for all the help. I also found a guide last night and it worked to copy the book a bunch, it was the same method with the table just that guide had example images :-D

Replicating a novel through the "inventory" schtick is a bit trickier than most explanations tell.

1. Buy an end table - make sure it is a Maxis end table, custom tables may not work.
2. Put novel on end table.
3. Put novel and table into inventory.
4. Take novel and end table out of inventory. (No you don't have to "run the game", the game should stay paused.)
5. Take novel off end table, place on floor or other convenient surface.
6. Put end table (without book) back into inventory.
7. Click on aspiration symbol. (This is what makes the trick work!)
8. Go back to inventory. The table will have the book on it again.
9. Repeat from step 4 as many times as you wish.

Now, can somebody please provide a similar step-by-step explanation of how to set novels for sale in an owned bookstore? There is clearly another subtle trick to it that I have not discovered and that no one has bothered to explain.

I also found out, to my shock, that you cannot tell a Playable Sim to "Walk To" an owned business (is this another bit of Maxis stupidity?)

My sims walk to owned businesses all the time, and with the sellable novels mod I can set novels for sale with the business tool as usual.

I think something's messed up in my game. Is it that no other Playables can be told to visit as long as the Playable Owner is on the business lot?



Please explain exactly how. In detail. Like I'm a really stupid three year old. (Because that's what I'm currently feeling like!)

You can't go to home businesses. I've never played another household while the owner of a business was still at the business, so I don't know if that works or not. If you've played an owned community lot and sent the owner home and gone on to another household, members of that household should be able to walk, taxi, or drive to that community lot, where they will find the owner and any employees on site, ready to behave in the stupidest possible manner. Seriously, the AI for running businesses when visited by other sims is execrable.

Click the business tool - the price tag - so that it's highlighted, then wave the cursor over the book you want to set for sale until it highlights, and click. Just like for every other item.

That wasn't what I was talking about.

That appears to be precisely the situation. As long as the Playable Owner has not been sent home from the business, no other Playable can go there.

Simler90 made some mods that will hopefully fix the worst of them.

I said explain it to me step by step, like you were talking to an idiot child. WHO can tag the books for sale, WHERE do they have to be put so they can be tagged for sale, exactly WHAT should they be placed on, and why does it not work???

I have already tried the "give the books to the bookstore Owner" bit - it did not work. There was nowhere the books could be placed that they could be tagged for sale - I consistently got "Cannot be set for sale" whether it was on the floor, on an end table, on a specially purchased table, or anything. I suspect an undetected mod clash - but of what and what?
The other possibility is that the "Sellable Novels" mod has somehow gone bad and/or does not work with the Ultimate Collection. Which sucks.

If sellable novels isn't working for you, you probably have a conflict. It does work with the UC. Also, it doesn't matter at all where you place items when you mark them for sale, they can be placed in any location whatsoever, the for-sale-marking code is completely agnostic to that.

The "give the books to the bookstore owner" bit is only for restocking, like with craftable items. Non-catalogue things typically need to be restocked from the inventory, which is why you'd need the owner to have copies at hand.

That seems to be unrelated to the issue you're having, which has to do with putting them up for sale to begin with. Usually, it doesn't matter where objects are. Have you tried placing them in OfB shelves? That's the one thing you haven't mentioned that I can't think of, though it probably won't make a difference. If even that doesn't work, my guess is it's a mod conflict that's affecting it.

@noprobllama Yes that was indeed the problem:
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=5938104

Actually, it made ALL the difference, and was a major "D'OH!" moment. (The illustration for the "Sellable Novels" mod actually shows books for sale on top of Magisplay trays on top of a regular table, which took me the longest time - and several strong hints - to figure out.)

I'm sorry for seeing and suggesting this earlier, in that case! To be honest, I don't usually have issues setting objects on non-ofb furniture (like regular tables) so I wouldn't have guessed that to be the issue. Mods are funny that way, sometimes making them work includes things that are not an issue for vanilla game stuff. Glad it's working now!

I found out one other thing about the "replicate novels via inventory" routine: if you move the table at any time during the process, enough that it moves off its original square (and even if it drops right back onto it), the trick immediately stops working. (Little Maxis quirks!)

If you just one to duplicate an object without paying for the copy, use Charles Object Editor. Select the source object by placing the box close to it, then use Behavior State -> Create a Copy, via inventory, and select how many copies you want.

Thanks, will give that a try. (Looks like a really complex mod, why isn't there a simpler way to copy novels?)

Don't use the other commands that you don't need/understand. If there was one object for copy, one for selecting, one for zooming in the view, one for deleting stuck object, you'd need to place a whole row of cheat objects for common tasks, and have them occupy space on the lot.

If you select "via inventory," it should copy everything. Novels currently placed in a bookcase can be found "out of world". They'll pop up on the floor when copied.

It isn't the issue. You can sell novels from any surface whatsoever with the sellable novels hack, just like any other object.

Yes...but to get them tagged, they must first be placed on shelving that came with the Open For Business expansion pack. If there is a way to tag them while they are on any other surface, I have not found it.

That is what I needed to have explained to me, in enough detail that I could understand exactly what was meant, exactly which surface(s) were necessary, and that no other surfaces would permit tagging. (Especially that last!)

I have not (yet) tried relocating the novels once they have been tagged.

You can set them for sale while they are placed on any surface. In the original version of the mod, I hadn't figured out how to make them placeable on OFB shelves, so you literally could not do that and the mod still worked just fine.