by Preston P. DuBose
12 to Midnight has been at this publishing gig for something like nine months. Now that we have two products under our belts, we’re feeling battle-hardened. Or maybe that’s battle-weary. At any rate, I’m here to share with you a few things we’ve learned so far in our first year of existence. This may not be all I’ve learned, but it hits the highlights.
Without further ado, here are 5 things (in no particular order) I’ve learned as a new RPG publisher:
1) Going the extra mile isn’t optional: As a publisher, your reputation is based almost solely on the end result. In our media-saturated world, gamers know quality when they see it. As publishers, we’re competing not only with one another, but every glossy magazine, fx-laden movie, and insane-pixel-count computer game available. Sure we’re competing for money, but just as importantly, we’re competing for time. If you skimp on artwork, or have too many grammar mistakes, or get careless with layout, they’ll know it in a heartbeat. Consumers may not be able to put their finger on it, but at least subconsciously they’ll file you in the “amateur†bin. Fortunately, this is a lesson we didn’t have to learn the hard way. Quality has been a guiding principle from day one because we recognized it’s what would set us apart.
2) Chart your course, and don’t deviate unless rocks are in the way: As an inexperienced publisher, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making it up as you go along. Better by far to plan every detail you can before you ever start a project. Set a budget, approve an outline, decide on art and artists, assign copyediting and marketing/PR duties, etc.—and develop a timetable for it all. Without a plan, it’s too easy to drift off course. Whether it’s a hitherto-unknown-yet-just-right artist who ends up falling through, a mid-project software upgrade gone wrong, or the realization that should have been designing for “landscape†mode instead of “portraitâ€â€”deviations often serve to derail and delay your project rather than improve it.
3) People DO judge a book by the cover: Not only do they judge a book by the cover, but the interior as well—even PDF products. Again, we are very thankful that we made the decision to use a professional cover artist and use professional layout software from the very beginning. I’ve read publishers on forums who get indignant at the suggestion that they drop their text editing software (such as MS Word) in favor of layout software such as PageMaker or Quark. To me, this is tantamount to building a house out of cardboard. I’ll say some few publishers manage to wring decent quality from it, but the majority fall short. You’ve spent the effort to write an engaging product, so now spend the time and money to make it easy to read and visually appealing. If you’re a PDF publisher, always create a demo. You don’t have to give away the farm, but at least show off enough for your customers to feel comfortable with what they’re about to purchase.
4) Don’t quit your day job: Desktop publishing, the open gaming license, and RPG Now make it easy to enter the RPG publishing world. Furthermore, as I mentioned in number 1, we’re actually in competition with not just other RPGs but every other form of entertainment as well. When you stop to think about it, that’s slicing the pie pretty thin. It gets even more depressing when you stop to divide your profits by the number of hours you spent working on it. For the majority, let’s just say you could earn more slinging fries. If you’re not doing it because you have a passion for gaming and you believe you have something new and positive to contribute to the RPG community, you’re wasting your customers’ time and your own.
5) Stand on the shoulders of giants: A lot of very friendly people out there have been doing the same thing as you, only longer. For those who aren’t too competitive or defensive to take advice, there’s much to be learned and many mistakes that can be avoided by learning from the pros. Regularly visit the industry forums on sites such as RPG Now, EN World, RPG.NET, etc. Be polite. Ask intelligent questions. Make friends. Work together. Helping one another produce high-quality game materials is in the best interest of the industry as a whole because it helps capture the interest of new gamers and keeps existing ones from finding more interesting things to do. (Yet again, I come back to the point in #1 about outside competition.)
For some of you, nothing I’ve mentioned here is particularly new. But if you’re just starting out—or you have a really cool idea and you’re just now thinking of starting out—then I hope some of what I’ve learned in the past year will help start you off on the right foot. If you have questions or your own suggestions on important RPG publishing lessons, please feel free to post them in our forums. Or, drop me an e-mail at presto@12tomidnight.com.
