Feel free to ask questions here or on the twitter #Lightnovelber2018
Absolutely! When you use the "create a new project" page, at the classification question you would simply have to select "book". When it comes to uploading files, itchio already accepts .txt, .pdf, .epub and I'm sure many other types of files as well. You shouldn't encounter any particular problem, but don't hesitate to ask a few more questions if you encounter problems with the upload page's interface.
Then, to submit your project as part of the jam, once it is uploaded go back to the jam's main page, click on the "submit your project" button and select it in the list.
If I've been unclear let me know!
Yup you can upload all sorts of files but preferred text format is pdf for this which you can select as a "save as"/"download as"/"export as" option in most text formatting software.
epub is also encouraged for Ereaders but that is more tricky to pull off and not required.
but if you are interested the easiest way I know of to do it is to load the word/wordx file into Caliber ( https://calibre-ebook.com/) and converting it to epub before checking it. Caliber also is great for converting word/wordX to pdf and also allows you to set a full page a4 cover art page without margins if you have one made up in jpeg/png/tiff.
yup short stories are fine, typically light novels average around 8-11k words but personally I over find myself varying around 3-10k myself.
Mainly this jam is about the flavor of a light novel, lgbt+ stuff and transformative experiences but we don't really have any conditions on structure length or medium. Try to capture the flavor and not worry about the rest, remember it is about starting something creative , learning and hopefully catching the bug.
Hey um, another question actually,, is it alright if the story itself isnt heavy on lgbtqa+ themes, and/or doesnt contain any transformation stuff? I just started the story, and while I'm enjoying how it's going, I dont know how much of the themes it would contain, and so Im a bit worried >~< sorry,,
The definition of the kind of entries that are accepted is not fully specified. The types of entries listed in the Entry Format suggests that literally any form of creative work is generally accepted as long as it relates to literature on some level and is not a full scale novel. However, the name of the jam and the random references to light novels suggests this is supposed to be about creating light novels.
This is very confusing as light novels are a very specific literature format, but half of the jam description acts like this is not about light novels while the other half does.
And so which actually is it? As this is the entire basis of the jam.
This has previously been answered elsewhere in this thread, there are jam revolves around two things Light Novels and "transformative experiences". This Jam comes from the community around Alex Zandra Van Chestein and her narrative light novel universes both nicknamed the Zandraverse, this is a very lgbt+ and light novel loving community
What does this mean? : Firstly the entry needs to pay homage to Light Novels and essentially their flavor, the silly titles that act as a synopsis, the types of narratives that are arch-typical of the style etc. E.g. "My Friend Took Me To A Feline Therapy Place For My Anxiety And I鈥檓 Starting To Wonder Where The Cats Are?"
If your entry is literary this is pretty easy it is really just a matter of length, if it is using a game structure it could be a light novel flavored visual novel, a light novel themed choose your adventure story game or just a game that has a light novel style title and story arc. If it is a comic, it likely will be a comic playing at being a light novel possibly similar to how a manga one-shot can be made of an existing light novel. If art there are two ways to go about doing this, designing a fake light novel cover with fake title and cover art, or perhaps an artbook/art collection that would be the illustrations that would often accompany a light novel.
The other jam theme is "transformative experiences", this can be physical, emotional, spiritual or a change in mindset: possible examples including transgender themes, discovering sexuality, perhaps being changed into a monster, a princess or a fridge or a character going a set of circumstances that transforms how they think or feel about something major. It could even include a mixture of these.
The only real restrictions around this Jam is keeping to the spirit of those two requirements, having fun, giving things a go and being kind to others.