This is 100% shameless self-promotion and kind of a threadjack (sorry), but that's exactly the problem I'm trying to address in the panel I'm doing at Sakura-Con in a few weeks. More info over here:
The slides I produce for that should make a good basis for a "getting started with visual novels" guide in website form
Use this as a reference maybe you will find something you can use in it http://rockmandash12.kinja.com/the-beginners-guide-to-visual-novels-1541975662