small publisher stuck on the cusp

[Deadboy]

Hi. My name is Jim Taylor, and I'm representing a small RPG company called Happy Nebula  Adventures. We've published two different games, Revelation and War Machine, and have done a supplement book for each of them.

Both RPGs use our own game system. Revelation is what we're calling a "Modern Superheroic Horror RPG" -- along the same lines as movies like Blade or LXG, TV shows like BtVS and Angel, and video games like Devil May Cry, BloodRayne and Legacy of Kain. War Machine is an "Alternate History World War II RPG." It is based on the idea that Hitler found mystical means to create a new type of science called super science, which has allowed automatons, mecha, and all sort of other gadgets to be created.

We have been hitting the con circuit, usually one big one (usually GenCon) and as many local ones as we can manage per year, as costs allow. We have a website, www.happynebula.com, where we can take online orders. We have several small groups of devoted fans who love and have fun with our games, and have sold somewhere in the realm of 200 books between the lines; not bad considering we have nothing to go on but direct promotion at cons.

However, we seem to have been stuck in neutral for the last two years. We have had difficulty getting our books in distribution. Some minor niggling problems that have been giving us headaches are the fact that we have ISBN numbers but no idea how to get the related barcodes, which distributors require. Also, we were looking into the possibilities of becoming an LLC, and looking into getting a small business loan.

I'm looking for any specific suggestions anyone who has gotten past this point may have on how to successfully accomplish the above, and also any recommendations people may have on where we should go next. What sorts of things should we be looking into, where we should be devoting our attention and money, and are there any good ways you could suggest to further promote ourselves? Keep in mind at the moment our funding is fairly limited.

[Paul Czege]

Hi Jim,

Bar codes are nothing more than the ISBN plus pricing information, run through an algorithm. This site will generate a fully scalable EPS file of a barcode for free:

http://www.cgpp.com/bookland/isbn.html

Paul

[Valamir]

You ask some good questions, but, with your permission, I'm going to back up a step.  Your use of language such as "on the cusp", and "stuck in neutral" followed by "difficulty getting into distribution" seems to indicate that you are measuring your accomplishments by the yardstick of presence in some distributors warehouse.

So I'd start by asking you why?  Given that

1) entering distribution means seeing your per unit profit margin dwindle dramatically on a per unit basis
2) distributors are no longer in the habit of ordering several hundred copies of every book that comes out (because they're tired of being stuck with what doesn't sell)
3) distributors aren't in the business of helping you sell your book, whatever effort they make at pushing product will be to push product they know will move in volume.
4) Being picked up by distributors doesn't necessarily correlate into presence on shelves in FLGSs.
5) "so people can buy the game through their FLGS" is pretty iffy too, since MANY store owners simply reply "we can't get that" to anything they haven't heard of, even if it IS in their distributors catalog.
6) Online ordering continues to become a more and more acceptable way for gamers to get their product...and direct sales put alot more in your pocket.

My question would be...why do you seek to participate in that mess?

With good reviews on popular gaming sites (like RPG.net), a solid website with good support and extra freebes, with demos and downloads, with the ability to make chapters of your book or even quickstart rules available as free pdfs, etc etc...

...I'd offer that finding ways to ramp up the level of awareness of your game and spur higher levels of online sales would likely be a more productive (i.e. more money in your pocket, less need to take loans) way to spend your effort.

I'd also discourage taking a loan for a game product without some outside corrabaration as to its profitability.  Thats a dangerous dangerous spiral.  Much better to stick to the largest product you can fund exclusively through your own capital and net cash flow from sales.

If you can't afford your big product, scale back to one you can.  Give serious thought to releasing it as a PDF at first to both generate buzz and additional funds for a full release.

[Luke]

With good reviews on popular gaming sites (like RPG.net), a solid website with good support and extra freebes, with demos and downloads, with the ability to make chapters of your book or even quickstart rules available as free pdfs, etc etc...

...I'd offer that finding ways to ramp up the level of awareness of your game and spur higher levels of online sales would likely be a more productive (i.e. more money in your pocket, less need to take loans) way to spend your effort.

<snip>

If you can't afford your big product, scale back to one you can. Give serious thought to releasing it as a PDF at first to both generate buzz and additional funds for a full release.

Ralph is dead on the money, and he's speaking from experience. I can only imagine the tons of copies of Universalis he's sold.

I am in a similar position to yours (and his, i think): Self-published game, positive feedback, no distribution.  I followed much of the same model Ralph suggests and have had incredible luck this past year.

If I had my druthers, I would have spent the year hawking free pdfs before I went to print. It's an incredible way to drum up interest in the game community.

As it was, when I released my game, I had nothing to look at on my site. I got lambasted for it and quickly posted tons of free downloads.

Sounds like you are on the right track though, and I don't think you need a distributor per se.  I'd keep up with the con circuit and keep releasing material. Persistence helps a lot, perhaps more than anything else.

good luck.
-Luke

EDIT: Hi Jim, I just got done looking through your site and I'd like to offer some constructive criticism: First off, it seems like you have a lot of material in your vault. That's really cool. But if I were you, I might consider taking your best/most popular product and focusing on it completely and slavishly -- pushing it to the exclusion of the others. This way you can drum up support for your mad game design skillz and then use that cache to promote later products.

Second, though you present a bewildering array of options, you don't really tell me (at least not on the surface, or in the individual game overview links) how to play the actual game. Nothing at all about system, mechanics, design. Nothing about the books -- no beauty shots, no shots of people playing. Fiction is great, but gamers need rules to tweak with. I don't want the whole game described, just enough to get my wheels spinning. A combination of the fiction and mechanics just might be enough to make folks press the Order button.

hope that's a bit more helpful.

[Deadboy]

Thanks Luke and Ralph, you've been hugely helpful with your suggestions. We're getting together for a company meeting tonight and I intend to bring forward these suggestions, particularly about more focus on online sales, and about the website changes and including a better look at game mechanics there. Would do you think of the idea of putting more emphasis on online sales but also pursuing distribution? It certainly couldn't hurt to pursue both avenues, could it, or do you think overall costs will become prohibitive?

Also thanks to Paul, who gave me the site with the barcodes, but I've been told by my partner that while we have ISBN numbers, we need UPC codes as well, which are expensive.

If the meeting raises any more questions, I'll be sure to ask you guys about them. You've been a great help.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

The advice to focus on small print runs and direct sales might best be looked at as what to do first, rather than either-or.

Most of the games being cited started as PDFs, then moved to print (or PDF and print simultaneously), all while being sold directly from websites. Then some of them moved into bookstore distribution as a "next step."

My experience with this leads me to think that transferring entirely to the bookstore environment is a very bad idea. But expanding into it, and being wary to avoid being ruled by it, is a perfectly fine add-on option.

I'd really like to emphasize that wracking one's brains over direct sales versus bookstore distribution isn't necessary.

Best,
Ron

[Valamir]

Happy to help Jim.

Re: Barcodes...I don't think you need anything more than the site Paul pointed you to.  I would certainly talk to a distributor or consolidator about it before spending any money.  

Re: Distribution...there is nothing wrong per se about getting into distribution.  But for most small press companies your bread and butter is going to come from direct sales.  Distribution profits are just gravy and give you a little bit of cred with certain types of gamers but you're unlikely to "hit it big" in that arena.  Even alot of the "big" companies whose product is all over game store shelves aren't "hitting it big" as a result.  So I wouldn't ignore the possibility of getting into distribution, but I wouldn't make it the corner stone of your business plan either.

I would recommend looking to make a splash in direct sales first, as Ron suggests.  Get some critical acclaim (preferably from recognizeable folks and not only fanboys) get some solid *reoccuring* sales.  Selling 5 books a month for 20 months is more important than selling 100 books in your first 2 months for this kind of business (and more obtainable).  This is why its important to not build your cost structure such that you need big up front revenue in order to stay afloat.  Slow and steady is the name of the game.

At that point, after 8-18 months of steady sales demonstrating a real viable product with an established base and real support you'll look alot more attractive to any of the several consolidators out there who help get small publishers into distribution channels.  MUCH better to approach them with a "proven" product.  

But as Ron notes, I'd never plan to abandoned (or even slack off on) promoting direct sales.  There's nothing that says a distributor who ordered 200 copies today will ever order from you again and nothing that prohibits a consolidator from giving you whatever notice is contractually required before dropping you.  You don't want to be in that position trying to rebuild a direct sales channel from scratch.

[Jason L Blair]

RE: Barcodes

No, you don't need to join the UCC or get UPCs to get into the distribution/hobby retailer stream. The barcode you see is the EAN/Bookland code that is generated by the ISBN assigned to the book.

[jdagna]

I definitely agree that giving up on direct sales isn't desirable, but I'm not sure I agree with everyone's assessment of distribution as being unnecessary.

For example, at GenCon Indy last year, we did about $1000 in sales.  Margins were wonderful, at about $25 in profit per book.  BUT GenCon cost us about $2000 to attend.  Net profit from direct sales:  -$1200

Our website gets about two sales per month, so about $60 in sales, with high margins.  Hosting costs us $15 per month.  Net profit from direct sales:  $35/month.  Of course, at least half of these can be attributed to conventions, so they're really just ameliorating the losses.

We got two relatively small orders from two foreign distributors that totalled $1000 (72 core books and some supplements).  Margins were low, at about 50%.  They responded to an advertising campaign that cost about $250 to do.  Net profit?  $250.

Now, obviously I can improve my direct numbers, especially as new sourcebooks come out for convention sales and some key reviews in a couple of months should help.  I'm working hard to build on that.  But two orders from distributors made me about a third of my total sales for an entire year in a single month.

Anyway, that's where I am.  It's worth noting, I think, that both of these distributors are foreign (Canada and the UK) and responded to ads we sent by postcards featuring the cover art of our book and a short little blurb on the back.  We sent these cards to about 70 distributors worldwide  and about 350 retail stores.  Besides the two sales, we've had two other inquiries that may still pan out.  They're cheap to print (about $.10 each) and mail ($.23 in US, $.70 outside).  I'd be willing to share my mailing list if anyone is interested (it's entirely drawn from public sources, but did take some time to put together, so I can save you that).  So when it comes to specific advice, that mailing campaign is about the only thing that's proven effective at the scale I want so far.