Rocketship Empires: Q&A

[Edward Kann]

Hi Guys,

I've lurked in The Forge for a while.  Going back to when I started to work on a few free PDF supplements for my fantasy setting.

I am the writer, creator / owner of Rocketship Empires 1936.  If you have not already heard about Rocketship Empires chances are good that over the next year, at some point you will.

We launched our first book for Rocketship Empires on LuLu.com on February 1st (on or around), 2008.  I started out with a free forum and a few announcements on ENworld and RPGnet.  February 15th was our first day on RPGnow and DriveTHRU.  Between February 15th and today (March 15th), exactly one month into what might be considered "going mainstream" with our PDF books I have sold more than five hundred books between LuLu, RPGnow, DriveThru and mail order hard copy sales.

The biggest driving force behind sales has been word of mouth, as I have spent exactly ten bucks so far on our marketing campaign.

Since February 1st I have put out four books for Rocketship Empires 1936.  The fourth being released yesterday.  It sold close to fifty copies within the first twenty four hours of posting and is currently holding the number one slot on RPGnow on their "what is selling lots of copies...at the moment" list.  (All four of our books have hovered around the top 20 mark since launch with our main setting book in the top 10-15 for six weeks.)

Now.  I have no delusions of being anything more than a local GM having a good time out here getting these books out.  Absolutely everything about this is new ground to me, including putting my writing out there.  There are lots of guys with more experience who sell a whole lot more than I do.  Still.  I think it is fair to say that Rocketship Empires comes out of nowhere with one gigantic footprint for such a shoestring budget.

There may be others out there that want to throw questions at me about how this was accomplished, about StoryART, my projects.  How I get four books and more than 250 pages of material out in six weeks as the sole writer and creator behind the line, etc...

I am starting this thread because now I suppose I qualify as an actual Indie publisher / writer, if one of those rogue, grass roots guys.  (I have no plans to quit my day job any time soon.)

A whole huge massive amount of work has gone into Rocketship Empires over the course of several years.  I thought that maybe some other publishers might have questions about specific pieces of the experience and the project, so feel free to post those here.
I will check in on this and answer any questions you might have to the best of my ability.

To close I'll post up the cover of my latest book.