A Publicity Effort gone Completely Kerblooie

[Michael Hopcroft]

I had planned to give a signing at my colcal hobby store, url]www.bthobbies.com[/url], next weekend. That's Bridgetown Bobbies & Games in Portland for those who don;t want to click on their browser.

The problem is my efforts to tell the world about it have failed disastrously. The Oregonian, the local newspaper, refused to accept my press release and put the event in ther Book Events schedule. The local alternative weekly is virulently anti-gamer. None of the radio stations would appeal to my kind of audience anyway and their deadlines are too tight. I posted it to the local fannish mailing loist and got a long list of people who said they couldn't come. Frankly, I think it is highly unlikely that even one person is going to show up. To top it all off, the store (which took a consignment of six copies of HeartQuest as a personal favor, has yet to even come close to selling a single copy.

It's moments like this that fill me with doubt that I will ever be successful, respected, or even tolerated in my community. I'm tempted to cancel the signing, but it may be too late to do that.

[wyrdlyng]

First off, correct the code around the URL. :)

Second, take up drinking or up the meds. You need to seriously relax and stop worrying. Your anxieties and fears work against you. Release yourself from the grip of public acceptance and just be.

Third, go to the signing. If no one shows up then "oh, well." What have you lost? An afternoon? If someone comes all the better. Either way people there will see your dedication and devotion to the game. That works a lot better than a bookshelf worth of supplements.

Finally, determine who you seek acceptance from. Is it the community? The world at large? Gamers at large? Anime fans? Manga fans? Shoujo fans? Determine who is your true audience and concern yourself with them only.

And remember to breathe.

Now, I must resume walking the earth righting wrongs. Good luck.

[Matt Gwinn]

MIchael,
I've never even heard of such a thing as a book signing for an RPG.  I know big name guys like Gary Gygax do it at cons, but I've never heard of it at a gaming store.

I suspect the reason behind that is that eveyone else that has tried it has met with the same outcome that you have.  I wouldn't take it personally.

I would never expect someone to show up to get my signature, but then again I'm against such things.  It's my opinion that there are plenty of people out there that are damn good at their jobs.  You don't see anyone asking for their plumber's autograph, even if they're the best damn plumber on the plant.  Why should actors, musicians or writers be any different in that regard?  But I digress.

The local alternative weekly is virulently anti-gamer.

I'm afraid it doesn't stop there.  I suspect that going to any non gameing industry publication with an RPG press release would be equivalent to asking them to print something about your backyard barbeque you're having this Saturday.  Unless the editor is a gamer I wouldn't expect anything game related to get printed for free.

The exception is when you can tie the event to something controvercial or of interest to a larger group.   You need to trick them.  I think if Ron were to do such a signing it might get more attention if he had someone send a letter to the editor complaining about how Ron Edwards was having a book signing for his satanic evil game.

To top it all off, the store (which took a consignment of six copies of HeartQuest as a personal favor, has yet to even come close to selling a single copy.

At least your game is in stores.  If the game isn't selling, someone isn't doing their job.  Most gamers don't grab a new game off the shelf and buy it just like that.  Sure there are exceptions, but if the store isn't pushing your game and you're not pushing your game it's not likely that it's going to fly off the shelves.  A potential customer isn't goint to know how great your game it unless someone tells them.  Most games in Heartquest's situation sell via their art or subject matter.  You have the unique problem of being in a store that probably sells lots of other anime stuff.  THough this is likely to ensure that Anime fans will see your game, it also means you have to compete with movies, comics and toys that likely have better art and more money behind them.

Then again, I never claimed to be a business genius, so who am I to say.  I'm sure someone more qualified than me will post a useful suggestion.  IN the meantime, don't stress over it.

,Matt G.

[Michael Hopcroft]

To answer Matt's unspoken question about Bridgetown, they have tow primary businesses which draw completely different audiences. One is gaming; the other is scale models (planes, tanks, cars, etc.). The two ends of the business cover for each other -- when one is slow, the other usually picks up the pace. That's one way they've been able to stay in business since the late '70s.

Most of their game business is in the D20 realm, along with Warhammer and related products. GURPS, and White Wolf. They carry a few anime RPG products (the Guardians of Order line, for example), but they don't carry anime proper.

They don't do much product pushing -- they just stick it on the shelves and what sells, sells.

[Le Joueur]

Completely Kerblooie?  Disasterous?!?

Not!

You were ignored (Oregonian, alternative weekly, radio stations) and people couldn't come (fannish mailing list).  You think no one will come and that's a disaster?  A disaster is someone coming there and, because of your games presence, pouring gasoline on themselves and setting themselves on fire (I kid you not, this happened to the bookstore chain I worked for), a disaster is the 700 Club sending a picket line to the store and them getting in the paper, not you, a disaster is the Oregon Family Council blocking both ends of the street while you're there.  Those are disasters.  So you didn't get any attention; a lot of worse things can happen.  Remember you're barely out of the 'chute,' think of it as 'building momentum.'

It really reads like you put this together in under a week.  The national non-profit I work for always gives themselves six weeks or more to put together a debut like this.  I mean, have you considered that most of the people on the mailing list probably couldn't change their schedules at the last minute?

I've worked on local science fiction/fantasy conventions that take years before they can get any media attention.  A book signing?  Heck, short of Stephen King, the book pages rarely care (unless you're a big bookstore like Barnes & Nobles, papers only care about potential advertisers, which you aren't and neither, by the sound of it, is your location).

I'm really starting to worry how much you wear your heart on your sleeve Michael.  To think that being ignored by big media concerns means that your own community (I assume gamers) won't tolerate you is beyond the pale.  How many of them does the media count as an audience?  You want respect from them?  Hold up a copy and say, "Look what I published."  You get all the respect they can offer, really; most of them dream of being in print someday.

And take just a short minute and re-evaluate your priorities.  What is success, anyway?  Making a mint?  Recovering costs?  Does it even have to do with money?  I heard a saying a few years back, just before Wizards of the Coast bought TSR; "How do you make a small fortune in the gaming industry?  Start with a large one."  Did you actually plan to sell out by a certain date?  Do you have a deadline?  What's the deal?

If you can't say specifically what goal you had that was not met by the signing, then there is absolutely no way you can call it a failure (much less a disaster).

If I were in your shoes, I'd say six copies of Heartquest on the shelf of a hobby store is, by itself, a smashing success.  Look for the small successes this early after publication and build on those.

Fang Langford

p. s. And take Alex's advice (but go with the meds), at this rate your going to give yourself an aneurysm before Heartquest even has a chance to succeed.  (I suggest Paxil, worked wonders for my partner.)

p. p. s.  If Bridgetown is a models/games store (the kind where Battletech, Warhammer, and any military simulation games sell well), then you need to turn them on to 'garage kits' that you see selling everywhere in Japan and get Heartquest on the shelf nearby.  (Some of those 'garage kits' sell on prurient interest alone, yet come from many of the anime that suit Heartquest to a "T.")

[Valamir]

Ok, I'm going to take a slightly different tack here.

A book signing for an RPG game at a local game store.

I think that's a FANTASTIC idea!  Why?  Because no one EVER does that (certainly I've never seen one...demos yes...book signing no).

A big chunk of marketing success is finding new ways to promote that people haven't become so so sick of they just ignore (back in the day people actually used to click on banner ads and pop ups...because they were new and original...)

So you tried something new and original.  Hats off and Kudos and all that.

So it might not work...big deal...you lose an afternoon and the time it took to make a couple of phone calls.  Coke once tried to sell New Coke with Max Headroom...that didn't work either...they lost millions...count your self lucky.

Think of all the good things...you now have learned who to contact and what the standards are for press releases.  You've actually GOT RESPONSES from a fan site.  Even if they were "can't make it" responses those are still gold.   How many people do you know that actually take the time to RSVP to an invite?  Capture all of those addresses and send a message thanking them for replying and asking if they'd like to occassionally receive news releases from you.  Give them an opt out option, and if they don't say otherwise, theres a whole addition to your mailing list.  Pure gold.

Plus, you've found a store willing to work with you and try unorthodox things.  Don't bemoan the fact that you didn't get collosal turn out, be thrilled that they wanted to help you.  See if there's a way to do some cross promotion.  A lot of combination game/hobby stores I know of sell those wacky anime and comic book action figures.  A store I used to frequent was stocked full of Sailor Moon stuff.  Maybe they'd be interested in an "Anime display", where they try to unload all of that Sailor Moon and Dragon BallZ crap they have in inventory.  Play a few videos, have a few display racks prominently placed...put your books right next to the Sailor Scout dolls in the rack.  Theme based Point of Purchase displays might help kick start some interest

Anyway...that's just an idea, but the point is, you have a store willing to work with you, and you're willing to put in the leg work to try new approaches.  If it doesn't work...live and learn.  Hell any good salesman will tell you that most sales calls end in rejection.  Every rejection they get is just one person closer to an actual buyer.

Kudos for trying something new.

[Adam]

I look at it this way - at the very least, if two or more people show up, you can run a demo game for them, which seems like a better idea than a book signing anyway, since the people you're trying to reach are gamers and potential gamers.

Three people show up, play a demo, even if only one of them thinks that it's really cool and buys the book, you have one more person with the book, who will talk to his gaming group about it, and if a couple of them are interested . . . well, you know how it goes.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Hey Michael, first thing: you are doing some amazing work in promoting your game. Not all of it's going to fly, for lots of different reasons (many of them due to others' failures), but a lot of it will.

I think there are two aspects to your post that people should consider.

1) Book-signings have been tried at retail stores, most notably during the comics/supers phase and the Goth-Vampire phase. According to the retailers I've spoken with over the last year, they don't have much impact on store attendance, sales of the game that day, or sales of that game later.

I think the real problem is unreasonable expectations. Most retailers want to see a comics-style swarm in the stores: "Wow, Tod McFarlane is at Zowie Comics today? Holy shit!" and every customer, plus a few friends apiece, shows up on that one day. Great big sales spike for Tod-books, people rub elbows in the store all day, and all the other comics that everyone buys get bought too. It's a great way to overcome a shortfall that the retailer created by yet again ordering the "next big thing" and yet again eating tons of worthless paper.

But that model doesn't work for role-playing. There are lots of reasons why (and why in-store demos also fail to accord with it), which should probably be the topic of another thread. For now, I'll say that a good, fun, well-diversified store is what will bring people in to meet a game designer - but a game designer will not bring people into a typical store.

On the other hand, if the designer wants simply to hang out in the store that day and have a good time chattin' up the game with the few folks who are interested, and if the store owner is OK with the idea that it's not going to be a huge horde rushing in, then that could be a good time and very successful on its small scale.

2) The public - or rather, access to public advertising venues such as local radio, the local paper, and so on. Michael, your comments parallel a lot of people's experiences. It's pretty hard to advertise even a local convention, much less something as focused as a signing. My view on this, though, differs from the usual claim that "the public hates gaming." I don't think that's the case at all.

I think that the analogy of a barbecue is a good one - most people who offer advertising space are all about money, sure, but they are also all about shared audiences across what they permit to be advertised. They simply don't see the gaming thing as being within the pale of the other advertisements they have ... and in many cases, they may be right.

If we were to talk about overcoming this, that's a whole 'nother thread too. It would probably be about how a game store can get onto the radar of local advertisers, and how a signing (or publisher-appearance, more generally) is a later tactic, rather than a beginning one.

Best,
Ron

[Misguided Games]

Michael,

Listen very carefully to this:  Get used to hearing the word "NO".  It happens a lot.  It simply doesn't matter.  You smile and move on the next thing.

I did a book signing recently at the Danger Room in Indiana.  They sold three books, which was pretty good considering they had already sold over a dozen copies, and school had just started back, so foot traffic was very light.

Just show up.  Tell people about the book.  Don't be surprised if you sell some.  Don't have a panic attack if you don't.

[Cynthia Celeste Miller]

I think you've done a great job publicizing your game.  I think your only problem lies in your defeatist mindset.  In this (or any) industry, it's important to take hits on the chin.  It's been a rough road for Spectrum too.  Heck, I was forced to be offline for two months.  So, I do know how frustrating it can be when things go awry.

The important thing is that you bounce back from set-backs.  If you let thingsd get you down too much, you may find yourself sinking deeper and deeper in negativity.  This alone can spoil the success of your game.

And I'd really hate to see that happen.

[Clay]

A book signing is a great idea.  Even fiction book signings tend not to draw big crowds.  I've attended a few, and the authors are generally lucky to get friends and family to come out, plus a few people who were curious about the guy sitting at the table.  

The only people you talk to could be people dropping by, who didn't know that there was anything going on.  Every last one of those that you talk to is a major marketing coupe - they're people who probably would never have given your game a second glance and wouldn't know your name.  Even if they don't give a rat's dingus about anime, you've gotten their attention and you're on their mental map.  That's one of the most valuable things you can get, and it will lead to sales down the road, if it doesn't that day. You'd have to spend a fortune in advertising to get that same return.

As for the Oregonian's response, a listing in their book events page isn't too shaby. That's the right place for your announcement. The sort of people who give a rat's dingus about book signings are going to be looking there.  My own experience is that even these short little one-paragraph blurb do drive customers.  Back when I ran O'Brien's Cafe (a web serial), our press releases were always sent to the weekly business section, not the most promising place. They were consistently good for a traffic spike and moderate increase in regular viewership.

So take heart, things are going swimmingly. They're just not as good as you would like.

[Roy]

Michael,

Ron's right.  You are doing an absolutely amazing job promoting your game, especially when you consider how much of a niche market it's in.  You're trying to hit a very small market (anime fan + shoujo manga fan + interested in playing game based on shoujo manga), but you're doing a great job of getting the word out about HeartQuest and Seraphim Guard.

I really loved the sample chapter of HeartQuest you put up (the intro to "GhostTamer Miyaki"), and I am definitely not an anime fan and had never heard of shoujo manga.  Based on that sample chapter, I am seriously considering picking up a copy of HeartQuest when I have the extra money.  AND I AM NOT EVEN IN YOUR TARGET MARKET!

I give you a great deal of credit for being proactive and promoting your book, but I don't think a book signing is a good vehicle for it.  A book signing is a promotion of the author, much more so than the book.  

An established author, such as Stephen King, can draw people to a book signing because he is well known and people have wanted to meet him for years.  Don't take this as a personal rejection, but you are not.  You really need to shift the focus to HeartQuest (if increasing your sales is your real goal).

If I were in your situation, I would definitely not cancel the event.  Here's the way I would approach it:

1) Shift the focus from a book signing to a demo.  People will buy your game if they had fun playing it.[/list:u]


2) Print up some flyers announcing the event, emphasizing the demo aspects of it.[/list:u]


3) Ask the game shop to give out the flyers directly to their customers.  They may not be willing to put them in the bag, but I'm certain they'd at least let you put the flyers up at the checkout counter.[/list:u]


4) Put up copies of the flyers at places where your target market will visit.  I'd focus on bulletin boards at colleges, laundry mats, and grocery stores.[/list:u]


5) Ask the game shop if you can run a special event ("a HeartQuest") after the demo.  If you can get permission, put a full-color paper heart (no, not anatomically correct) with the words "You Win!" in one of the consignment copies of HeartQuest.  Separate the consignment copies of HeartQuest and put them all over the game section of the store.  When the game is over, announce your "HeartQuest" and tell them they get a special prize (literally say "special prize" without telling them what it is) if they find the heart.  I would suggest a $5 gift certificate from the store (ask the store owner if you can just pay the cost instead of full retail; should be around $3.50 if they're operating at 30% markup).  If you've done your job with the demo, that $5 will be going toward the purchase of the book they found it in. :-)[/list:u]


6) Run your demo with passion.  Your excitement will be contagious.  Give them handouts with your URL on them.  Even print out the sample chapter of the "Ghost Tamer Miyaki" download for them.[/list:u]


7) Run your "HeartQuest" event.  Get excited when you congratulate the winner and give them the gift certificate.  Be honest and tell them they can use it to purchase anything in the store.  Even if they decide not to use it to purchase HeartQuest, they will have associated a good feeling with your product.  And they now have your material to take home with them.  With your URL on it. :-)[/list:u]

Don't get discouraged, Michael.  You've got to stop beating yourself up and being so negative.  It's self-destructive.  I know.  I've been there.

Be positive and smile even if you feel like shit inside.  After a while, you start feeling more positive.  The act becomes fact.  It works.

99% of the world's population is NOT going to be interested in HeartQuest.  Don't waste your precious time and effort on them.  It's that 1% that matters.  That's where you need to focus your energy.  Just like a surgical marketing laser.

Is there an anime interest group in your area?  Start one.  Is there a group playing HeartQuest on a regular basis in your area?  Start one.  The event is a great place to announce both of them.

Take a few small steps and you'll have walked a hundred miles before you even realize it.  Have fun and enjoy it.  You're doing something a lot of people only dream about.

Roy

[JSDiamond]

Michael,
The great Superbowl Champion Jim McMahon currently does signings of cards and footballs at Gateway store openings and also accepts 10k to speak at the annual Ford dealers symposium.

My point?  At the Ford dealer meetings he rocks ass.  At the Gateway store openings he gets a crowd of under 50 and over half of them were in there anyway to buy a computer for little Timmy.  And half of those people don't even know who he is.  What I'm saying is that you and Jim McMahon are doing the same type of thing; a public appearance.  The difference is that gaming is fun.

Dude, you're a gamer, your game is awesome and being there in-store is just cool.  Your game is damn beautiful and looks to be more successful with a wider range of role-players than most games (including mine).  So don't look at it as just a signing.  Look at it as a way to meet and talk to fellow gamers for a weekend.  It's gaming.  It's a fun thing to 'have to do', -am I right?  Screw the perception of success or publicity.  That's the old model.

As a gamer yourself, what would brighten your gaming weekend?  If they got in-store gaming order a couple of pizzas for the crew and the gamers playing there.  Make a day of it, talk to everybody and answer questions.  Have fun.  Sit at a table and being playing your game and hang out from open to close.  Pull an all-nighter.

Mike, you finished your project.  You and your game ARE both a success story already.  Now anything you do to promote your game is FUN time.  Enjoy it with vigor.  Hell, I wish I could be there.  

Jeff

[contracycle]

Hehe.  As some with with some experience doorstepping and trying to raise turnout...

Consumerism is  passive behaviour, you can do it speculatively; "I might like it".  Attending a book signing would require firm and vigorous commitment; I love this game so much that having the writers personal sig is Important, and I'm going to go out of my way to get it.    Two very different sorts of mental condition in your target audience.  Public events CAN be built through publicity and argument, its more or less AgitProp.  But it takes time - for one thing, even the most dedicated and fannish fans may be unavailable if notice for your event is short.  Remember that at a practical level what you are really asking your audience to do is stand in a queue.  (I once went to a Pratchett signing; the most interesting thing that happened was that someone did indeed bring him a daquiri.  I also once came across a Johnny Rotten signing in which the most interesting thing was that he was wearing a hideous pink nylon jumpsuit).  And lastly, you have to be inured to failure; in the political realm frex, I would even have a very good idea of the demographics of people who hold a particular position based on public poll, but there is no necessary correlation between the number of holders of that stance and the turnout, because it has much more to do with how and to what extent the event was built.  And such a failure does not necessarily imply the failure of the product or idea to be worthy; real life contains an infinite number of reasons to be be doing other things.