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Publish and be Damned...
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Before we opened a game shop we were perhaps best known for publishing Dark Continent, the roleplaying game of African adventure and exploration. Back then I'd have chopped my arm off to find out what criteria games shops use to determine which products they stock and which they don't.
Fan Boy Three Tip: If you're about to publish a new game, don't put it in a heavy box so you can't afford to ship it to the States without making a loss on every copy. Doh!
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1) What was the last product from this company like? While we're always willing to give the new guy a chance, some companies seem to make a virtue out of producing poorly written, badly edited and cheap looking cash in titles. Trust me guys - it's not a virtue. Like the saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
2) What was the last product from this writer/designer like? To a lesser extent we try and follow the work of the major RPG industry writers, so we'll always try and stock products authored by writers we've learned to respect (guys like Steve Kenson, Pat Kapera, Wolfgang Baur, Monte Cook, Scott Gearin etc).
3) Merchantable quality and price point. It's pretty obvious really. Even with fantastic game play, a photocopied sheet of paper in a ziplock bag is a hard sell to all but the most dedicated gamer. Likewise if you see a game that's RRP'd at around £10 cheaper than it needed to be (like Dark Continent) you're more likely to flog it. Customers have a good idea of how much they're prepared to pay for an item - we call this it's price point. Good rule of thumb price points are £7.99 for a module thickness, £10.99 for a 64 page sourcebook and £15.99 for 96 pages. If your game is a couple of quid more expensive, it's a harder sell (unless it's full colour throughout and illustrated by RK Post). If you're a new publisher, visit game shops and check out competing products. Get an idea of where the benchmark is, then do your best to raise it. Just don't do that by putting it in a heavy box!
4) Is it souring the market? Cash-in-itis. Too many Manga themed card games gave the entire industry heartburn last winter. Before that, the D20 glut brought the industry to the point of collapse and saw off a number of smaller distributors. Jumping on a bandwagon doesn't mean we won't carry your product, but like you'll see on our D20 pages, we'll try to cherry pick the best and ditch the rest. This leads us to:
5) Generic fantasy roleplaying game number 56. Too many games simply rehash the same tired settings, mechanics, monsters and plots. We want games to be different, look different and read different. A dozen books on dwarves are a harder sell than one. In this situation, we've found our customers always favour the one with the kick ass title, cover and by a company whose work they already like. So if you don't fit those criteria, you better have some pretty cool trick up your sleeve.
6) Does it support Organised Play? Then we're interested. Period.
7) Cover me beautiful. The cover doesn't sell the game, but it does encourage customers to pick it up and look at it. A bad cover might hide a good game, but trust us - nobody's going to ever find out.
8) We're a local shop for local people. All other categories considered, it would be a shame if a British shop didn't champion British games now wouldn't it? After all, companies like Warfrog are practically on our doorstep.
9) A game in the hand is worth two in George Bush. Every year I fly to the GAMA Trade Fair in Las Vegas to scope out the games the publishers are going to release that year. Here's where you can assess if a game has legs or not by talking to the folks responsible for it. If I can snag a review copy, so much the better. Boardgame demo copies are better, as our rolling program of in store demo games mean that at Fan Boy Three they'll actually get played and not just resold for a quick profit. I always feel guilty about not ordering products from companies that send us free stuff. Sad, but true.
10) Keep in touch. If you're a new publisher, we can tell you the pitfalls to avoid and the people to contact, put you in touch with artists, writers and distributors. But we can't do any of that if we never know who you are until your first game launches. Send us stuff. It doesn't have to be product, it can just be sell sheets, posters, fliers, information, window stickers or cold hard cash. Add us to your mailing lists, send us links to your website, even pay us a physical visit in store if you're in Manchester. If you're an established industry figure who's in the area, why not arrange an in store demo day or signing event.
There's no greater reward than seeing your much loved manuscript roll off the presses and into your local games store. Just make sure it's not so heavy that it can't roll anywhere else!
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