C and writer CJ Ruby at the 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming merchant table, MisCon 24.
Most gamers dream of working in the RPG industry, seeing their amazing ideas in print and hobnobbing with the legends of the gaming world. My fellow dream girl Jennifer Brozek has the 411 on being a freelancer in the industry, and there’s little I could add to her sound advice. But for those who want to go a step further and become publishers – whether you’ve already been a freelancer for a while, or just want to go straight to the top – I have experiences galore to share.
What’s a dream girl know about RPG publishing? Plenty. I have three distinct professional personas. Of course there’s the dream girl you all know and love. Then there’s the shoe girl – she’s the one who brings home the bacon and the health insurance. But the domina of the three is the business woman – the co-founder of 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, the editor, the writer, the layout specialist, the graphic designer, the bookkeeper, the booth babe, the Girl Friday. I have to wear a lot of hats being the leading lady of a small press publisher, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved in the publishing side of the industry (OK, maybe not much sweat), and a lot of the hard work comes from things you don’t even think about when you’re starting out. There’s no RPG Publishing for Dummies book to guide you. Looking back on the past two years of our business, here are ten of the lessons we learned that anyone thinking about making the jump into publishing should consider.
Do It Right. And By Right, I Mean Legally.
Does the guy running your favorite FLGS pay for everything out of his personal bank account? He better not, and you shouldn’t either. If you want to set up a business, go through the legal motions to get a tax ID number for your company. I won’t go into too much detail here, but you’ll have to choose whether you want to be a DBA (“doing business as”, meaning the company is just you doing business under that name) or an LLC (limited liability corporation, where the business is a separate entity not tied to your personal credit). Once you have that tax ID number, go to the bank and set up separate accounts for your business. This may seem like a lot of work to go through before you even start, but you need to do it, and you’ll soon find it’s much easier to keep track of your spending when you’re using separate checkbooks. Speaking of spending…
Everything Costs Money.
From office supplies to paying your contributors to ISBNs for your books, you’ll be shocked at how much money you need to invest in your company. If you’re going the print book route instead of strictly PDFs (more on that in a future column), gird your loins now for that first printing bill. The expense that surprised us most? Shipping.
Contracts Are Of Utmost Importance.
Jennifer has already talked about the vital need for a good written contract, so let me just reiterate what she’s already said: a contract protects both the publisher and the freelancer. Verbal agreements are great for deciding who will pay for the pizza at next week’s game, but they won’t do you any good when an artist or writer misses a deadline and they claim you never gave them a due date. Always put it in writing!
Bang Your Own Drum. No One Else Is Going To Do It For You.
If you publish the most incredible RPG product in the world, but no one hears about it, does it still make a blip on the industry radar? Nope. You need to keep your pimp hand strong and promote the hell out of yourself. Build your internet presence (again, like Jennifer has mentioned): get your own domain and build an eye-catching yet functional website. Make a fan page on Facebook. Get a Twitter account. Frequent the forums for the companies your products support. In real life, march yourself down to the FLGS to talk up your books. Go to every con or game day you can, and go representing your company.
Professionalism Gets You Far.
This isn’t a suit-and-tie industry (thank goodness!), but that doesn’t mean you should go out representing your company in sweatpants and a holey t-shirt. Dress neatly, comb your hair, lotion up your tattoos so the colors are bright – basically, just make sure you look like you care about your appearance. But even more important than appearance is attitude. Any phone calls you make or emails you send in the name of your company need to be done in a professional tone, even if you are friends with the person you’re contacting. Be confident, but not cocky. And always follow Wheaton’s Law.
Your Friends Will Want To Help. Choose Your Helpers Carefully.
Your friends are likely to be your biggest supporters in your new venture, and like all good friends they will say something like, “If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know!” If you have friends who are good artists, writers, editors, etc, either present them with a formal proposal for work or ask them to send you a resume/sample. Look at them as you would any freelancer: can they meet deadlines? Can they handle it if you ask them to redraw or rewrite something? Will they balk at signing a contract? We have a ton of our friends working for us, but we know we’ve been lucky. You can definitely do business with friends, but you have to be careful.
Sometimes You Have To Turn Your Baby Over To Someone Else.
By “baby”, I mean “idea”. My husband and I have far more ideas for books and supplements than we can possibly write ourselves. Unless you want to drive yourself completely into the ground, working 20-hour days and never moving from your computer desk, you need to learn how to delegate in a hurry. It’s hard to hand your wonderful concept over to someone else to write, but it’s either do that or never produce anything because you’re so exhausted.
It Isn’t At All Glamorous.
Before we started our company, I had visions of what it would be like, sitting all day at my computer, writing and creating. I never pictured the days of running around town searching for printer ink and lugging boxes of books to the post office, or losing a whole day to answering email or disputing a bank fee.
You Have To Grow A Thick Skin.
The first time one of our products got a less-than-stellar review, I cried. Then I dried my tears, put on my big girl panties, and moved on. You can’t please all gamers all of the time, and not everyone will like your products. Look at bad reviews objectively. Did you truly do your best with that product? Is the writing/artwork/editing of good quality? Are you happy with it? If the answer to all of those things is yes, then chalk it up to “can’t win ‘em all” and move on with your day. If the reviewer’s criticisms are valid, learn from them and do all you can to improve.
It’s The Most Incredibly Fulfilling Thing You’ll Ever Do.
Running a publishing company is far more satisfying than any other job I’ve ever had. There are a lot of long hours and hard work involved, but every time I read something on a forum about players and GMs using our books in their games, I’m on Cloud Nine for days.
The Tip Of The Iceberg
There’s still plenty of room in the pool for new publishers, and I’m more than happy to do what I can to help them out. Since I have E’s blessing to write columns about the insider’s view from the world of RPG publishing, what would you like to know? Whatever questions can’t be quickly or easily answered in comments just might make it into a future column!
About c
Great article! I have a couple things to add. While I do have a little self-interest here, I have to add:
Don’t Skimp on Production Values
Good graphic design can equal instant credibility. Conversely, even if your writing and concept are stellar, amateur design can get you cast aside without a proper look. It’s up to you as the publisher to know what your strengths are; consider leaving the graphic design to a professional. Experienced graphic designers bring more than just a pretty look to a piece. We know how to organize information so your information is readable and accessible. We understand how to make typography evoke a setting without sacrificing readability. (Seriously, if there’s an albatross around the neck of most RPG design it’s really terrible choices in typography.)
Want to take your baby to the next level? Enlist an experienced layout artist and you’ll leapfrog over a lot of the competition.
Outstanding article! I love “insider” truths and tips like these, especially since I’m literally just starting to bust into the RPG industry myself. Thanks for asking what other things we’d like to know, too. I’d honestly like to know some of the most vital and essential website-building tips you have for an RPG site, from the best and easiest plug-ins and widgets that drive traffic, keep costs down, and even help mitigate some of the website’s own costs. Any tips at all though for an RPG-dedicated site or blog would be awesome!
tiarala – Thank you! Oh yes, I could have titled this article “Ten of the many things you should know…” – we have learned many lessons, and I just picked the ten that I thought were most urgent for anyone considering dipping their toe into the publishing pool.
I completely agree on the importance of good design. I’ve seen some horrible fonts being used and shoddy layout, even by companies that should know better. No one will use your product if they can’t read it.
Kilsek – Thank you! I will have to guide our website gal (one of our freelancers) and my husband to answer your website questions, as I don’t deal with that aspect of the company very much. I will say that we’re fans of a simple, clean website that’s well-organized, easy to read, and not full of music/animations/flash, and having a forum is essential. But in all honestly our Facebook fan page gets far more traffic than our company website. I know for myself, I only have so much internet time each day – so I don’t have time to go to a bunch of company websites every day. Facebook and Twitter are one-stop shops for me to get my RPG industry news and updates. I think more and more people are finding themselves in the same boat.
I honestly can’t answer the website question myself, as all I do is secure the domain name and hosting, and let Patty take care of everything else.
I do agree that FB and Twitter are, in some ways, more important than our website. We don’t do direct sales via our website, so it’s more of an archive, product listing and information clearing house for us. Our forums do see a decent amount of traffic for a tiny 3PP like us, but our FB page is really the go to for up-to-the-minute information.
I can tell you the things that I keep in mind while working on the 4winds main site:
1. Logos and look: You want people to recognize the company’s logo and artwork (and there’s art from the books sprinkled throughout the site) without having to shove their way past it to get to the goods.
2. Updates: Fairly regular updates show what’s moving forward and make the site seem like it’s alive, rather than dead and done.
3. Navigation: It’s really important for people to be able to move through the site easily and swiftly, as folks get impatient pretty quickly. They shouldn’t have to guess about where they’re going next or how to get there.
4. Links, links, links: Providing links to various social outlets and forums will give people a way to talk back to you. Letting people have instant access to where your products are sold lets them grab whatever strikes their fancy, as well.
5. Overhead: Part of keeping overhead low, it seems, is finding services that will do the footwork for you. Our forums are free, as is Facebook, and we don’t have to worry about selling products directly from the main site. That saves a great amount of hassle, right there.
6. Start simple: If you keep layout simple, you can get an idea of what people want and what they’re actually using. Then you can work on new approaches. And in the meantime, users with older browsers or slower speeds won’t have issues accessing the information.
A bit of advice that may be a bit more inside-baseball: hire an editor. A good editor will make a good product great, make an okay product passable and will tell you how to fix a product that won’t make the cut. There are really good RPG editors out there who work at reasonable rates (save vs. name drop…success.)
I won’t mention names, but I’ve shelled out big dollars on beautiful books that I have not been able to translate into a game because they didn’t have a solid editing pass. An editor shouldn’t just find (see page XX) and fix them, but help you organize the thoughts that are your game into a structure that people who have never met you will be able to grab and play.
Heh, so you’re one of the people working at 4Winds?
I may have to show him your website.
My DM took one look at two of your books (Inkantations and Luven Lightfinger’s), and immediately said they were usable in all his campaigns, even the one I’m in that’s about halfway over.
Also, my only complaint is that I didn’t know about some of your monk weapons in Luven Lightfinger’s book SOONER. Would have saved my character a fair amount of gold, seeing how I was indecisive about weapons for a long while. Now all I need to do is help the group catch back up to what our wealth level is supposed to be, and then I’ll add that 2d6 type of jian to my list of things to buy. (though, I do wonder just a little bit about some of the weights of the weapons, such as one that was 15 lbs. But still a good book)
(And heck, if you’re ever so starved for underlings to help with the work that you’d consider some random guy from the internet, let met know.
)
Justin – Absolutely. Editing is one of the most important things in producing a good piece of work. Again, I could have mentioned many things in this article, and chose to go with ten very basic things that (I think) should be considered before even getting into the nuts and bolts of editors, graphic designers, etc.
David – Yes, I am one half of 4 Winds.
I’m glad you like our products, and that your GM has approved them for your games! Please do direct him to our website, and feel free to like our Facebook fan page.
Very timely column and advice for me, as I am in that hotseat of having multiple related ideas for groups of products, wondering if I should freelance them to established 3pp’s or should I dive in and publish them myself. I’ve been in on the founding and growth of a small company (radically different field) but a lot of the advice here are the lessons we learned – sometimes the hard way.
Thanks for posting this – its helping me focus my thoughts on the matter.
Excellent article, Connie! You offer exceptional insight into the pros and cons of rpg publishing, and as always your layout is clean, professional, and enticing. Can’t wait to see more details about the trials and tribulations of working in this industry.
Michael – I’m glad you found my column helpful!
Secret DM (hey, don’t I know you from somewhere? ;P ) – Thank you! I’ll probably do a column on the industry once a month or so.