Novels

Monies

Skill level didn't made any difference in royalties; it only seemed to unlock genres.

Lifetime rewards related to writing books?

The library

It seems to make it faster. Sims also seemed nigh-guaranteed to crank out hits and best sellers when writing a book in the library, but that could just be dumb luck.

The library does seem to make skilling up faster, so it's worthwhile for that reason if nothing else.

Though I do believe that it does have an impact on profitability of books, I'll have to actually test it 'afore makin' any right-boastful claims.

In the Book XML it states the library grants a bonus 1 point per minute when reading.

In the Homework XML it states the completion rate modifier from the library is 1.111.

In the BuffPowerStudy XML it states the "working from home" performance (for workaholics) multiplier for the library is 1.5.

Reading Books

I'm curious what effect, if any, the genre type has on actually reading the books.

My Sim got a "read a masterpiece" moodlet buff after reading a masterpiece.

Speed hidden stuff:
- Reading 50 books caps out your speed bonus, seems to be a very tiny linear speed progression per book read from 0 to 50. This CAN include books written by yourself.
- Writing 20 books caps out another speed bonus in addition to "Prolific Author" bonus.
- Writing skill (0 through 10) grants another small speed bonus. Bonus is based on partial skill points, full skill points are not needed. Reaching Level 10 doubles this bonus.

Pregnancy Books

Sims can't write Pregnancy books, there are only 2 in the game, and Sims constantly roll Wishes to read them when having kids, even if they've already read both.

There is a third pregnancy book. it comes from the medical career as a reading-material-opportunity and is called Gift of Life. The opportunity doesn't say anything about it being a pregnancy book, but it has white covers.

Traits

"Bookworm" and "Artistic"

"Acclaimed Author" perk, not to mention the bonuses from Specialist and Prolific.

Artistic simply adds a 1.1 multiplier to the speed you learn the Writing skill. It also multiplies the speed for Guitar by 1.1 and Painting by 1.25.

"Supporting Traits" for each genre have 2 effects, increases royalties slightly and allows you to write some genres sooner than normal skill allows.
The multiplier effect for supporting traits are cumulative when increasing royalties if they are applicable to the genre.

Quality (flop/hit/best-seller) hidden stuff:
- Hidden "Genre Skill" for each genre, goes up with every hit and best-seller, goes down with every flop (capped out at 60% bonus chance), also multiplies royalties.
- Sim can be Genre Novelist in multiple genres, regardless of what text says (confirm?).

Writing payments:
- Sim is paid every 20% of his book he completes.
- Sim is paid .5 simoleans/page completed (seems to be flat rate, though can be tweaked).

Royalties:
- A multiplier is added based on your writing skill. 1x (at level 0) to 4x (at level 10). Its a smooth transition, doesn't require you have a full skill point.
- Royalties and book sale value are NOT tied at all to # of pages.
- Flops give 35% of the adjusted payment, hits give 125%, best-sellers give 160%.
- Hidden "Genre Skill", gives 10% bonus per previous book in the genre, maxes out at 200%.

Books

With normal game options there exists only one copy of a Sim-written novel, which can be sent to hir. But with AwesomeMod the books can be added to the library, or bought from bookstore.

Or use an Omniplant to make copies of the book!

Questions

How do you write a biography except through opportunity chance card? No mentions are made for minimum skill, previous writings, or career level in any field.

Is there a difference between Life Story, Autobiography, Biography, and Political Memoir? These 4 genres are mentioned separately, with only Autobiography mentioned as having a minimum requirement.