[[!toc levels=4]] 

# The Process of Writing Books
## Write the book
### Summae & Tractatus

(See ArM5 p 165 for rules)

In summary you spend one or more seasons putting your wisdom down on
paper, and at the end you have your darling written in crabby magus
handwriting. 

Determine at this point what language you're writing in.

There is a limit on how many distinct tractatus you can write on a
subject: half your score in an ability or one fifth of your score in
an Art (round up).

### Commentaries

Commentaries are tractatus about summae

You have to have:

* read the summa
* not be able to learn from the summa any more
* access to the summa for the season

Otherwise you do exactly the same as for writing a tracctatus
(above).  It does count towards your maximum number.

### Correspondences

See the [[seperate page on Correspondences|Correspondences]].

Correspondences don't count towards your maximum number of tractatus.

### Florilegia

(See Covenants pp 90-91 for rules)

You spend a season poring over the tractatus in the library then
produce a list of which ones to assemble and the order they go in.

You can include tractatus you haven't read, but you can't take
advantage of the bonus for a florilegium you assembled.

The languages of the tractatus don't change.

### Glosses

(See Covenants p 91 for rules)

You can gloss summae written by people with inferior Communication
scores to you while reading them.  Well, you can scribble in the
margins regardless; but that has no mechanical advantage.

If you're an awkward cuss glossing in a different language to what
the book is written in then please don't.

Since you're writing directly into the original summa you're done now;
but do please tell the librarian.

### Lecture Commentaries

(See Art & Academe p 102 for rules)

A scribe writes down the nonsense you witter about during a lecture
series.

You can improve the quality by spending a subsequent season editing
the commentary.

You have to have at least two students attend your lecture to make a
commentary; and they can only be written for Academic and Arcane
abilities.

You can produce as many commentaries as your level in the ability in
question.

For all other purposes lecture commentaries count as tractatus.

Scribes are often available to take lecture commentaries, please ask.

### Translations

(See Art & Academe p 87 for rules)

## Produce a fair copy

At this point a skilled scribe will produce a fair copy of the text
for you.  If you are a skilled scribe (Profession: Scribe 6) then you
can produce your own fair copies if you wrote the book yourself; or
can copy tractatus for a florilegia if you want.  This might save
time.

This takes one season per tractatus, or usually one season for a
summa (note that this means a florilegium will take a long time to
produce a fair copy of.  Multiple scribes could be used if they're not
needed elsewhere).

We have a limited number of skilled scribes (2 plus Claudine) so if
they are busy then there might be a delay at this stage.

## Bind and Illuminate 

The book is bound by a skilled binder and illuminated by a skilled
illuminator.  Usually our professionals will be able to do this in the
season following the fair copy being made.

At this point resonant effects could be added; but they are very
expensive.

## (Optional) Clarification

The book can be clarified.  This probably is neither worth it nor a
good idea.

## Calculate the Quality

See [[Rules/HouseRules#index12h2]]

## Give the book to the Librarian

If you want!  Although if you aren't intending to then you will be at
the bottom of the list for scribe time.

If you want you can place restrictions on further redistribution; for
example the Cow and Calf Oath (Covenants p 95).