ENnie Awards- Indy Titles Wanted!

[Denise]

Hey all,

I've just been going through the list of submissions for this year's Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (the ENnies), and am noticing a distinct lack of Forge participation.  Maybe we were spoiled last year with Capes and Burning Wheel, I don't know, but it seems that the 2nd and 3rd tier publishers are really dominating in submissions. 

I PM'ed Ron here for suggestions, so now I'm coming to you.  The deadline for entering submissions is June 3rd, so it's not too late to send in your stuff.  So long as it was published between June 1st 2005 and April 30th 2006, an RPG (or aid/accessory, or fan site) can be submitted.

So why haven't you entered?   What can we do to make it more appealing?  Maybe Luke and Tony can pipe in and share some of their experiences with the process...

(For a list of publishers who have entered thus far, check out http://www.dreadgazebo.com/ennies06)

[Thunder_God]

Where can you see the list of publishers who entered, I could not locate it.

On another tidbit, it's unclear from the archives who won what, considering the names without a medal next to them, and the fact the medal location switches every so often..

[Ben Lehman]

Hi, Denise.

The main reason that I have not entered any contests (I didn't enter the origins, either) is because the cost of providing books for judging is prohibitively expensive for me.  I hope that helps answer your question.

yrs--
--Ben

[Jason Morningstar]

Yeah, Luke and Tony, tell me more.  I'm really proud of my beautiful little game, but here's what I see:

Giving the judges free copies is a $120 entry fee for me to a contest that, last year, saw pretty much every winner being a big D20 or D20 variant company.  Unless I saw the wrong list - again, explain to me why I should take part. 

[Luke]

It's nice to be nominated, but don't expect to win. It's a pure popularity contest.

As for "prohibitively expensive" awards, thinking about direct cost for these things is self-defeating. You must consider the potential benefit. If you think your participation in an awards ceremony is going to sell at least the equivalent cost of participation, then it's worth it. Those sales are often to a whole new audience who would not have otherwise found your game.

I have no clue if my participation in the ENnies helped my sales directly, but I do know that BW is selling better than ever. So it definitely didn't cost me anything in the long run.

-L

[greyorm]

So why haven't you entered?

Hi Denise,

I am concerned about two things:

The exact instructions on submitting electronic product(s) for consideration. Is it the same as submitting a single print product (regardless of the number of titles on the CD), or does it cost $5 per CD to enter whether or not you send it to the judges directly? Can I label the archival and display copy differently than the ones I send to the judges? (Say label the former with a nice CD label, and the latter just with a permanent marker?)

The phrase "The Judges reserve the right to dispose of all products entered (upon completion of the judging) as they deem appropriate" which, given that it is an electronic product, makes me cringe. It does so because "I'll give this away to friends and family" is a kind of disposal, and with an electronic product, one that is potentially endless. (I realize that may seem a bit anal or suspiscious of me, but I've learned that when it comes to rights, legalities and business, you don't even trust your own parents -- not because you don't trust them, but because it is business.)

Finally, I wish I had known about this sooner -- I do not read or hang out at ENWorld anymore, so stuff like this just blows right by me sight unseen. Thus, unfortunately and depending on the costs, I don't know if I have $30+ spare dollars right now to blow on submission (at least not before the deadline). There's not a great deal that can be done about that on your end, however.

I'd also like to hear from any other small press folks who have submitted to the ENnies and NOT won or who don't have a huge following or tons of discussion of their product (such as Luke with Burning Wheel): was it worth it? Did it increase interest/help sales?

[btrc]

The previous post brings up a clarification I'd like from Denise. For electronic products, is the fee $5 per -title-, of which you have to submit 6 CD's ($5 total), or $5 per -CD-, regardless of the number of titles on it, a total again of 6 CD's (but $30 total). It's unclear from the reading of the form.

Greg Porter
BTRC

[Denise]

Where can you see the list of publishers who entered, I could not locate it.

On another tidbit, it's unclear from the archives who won what, considering the names without a medal next to them, and the fact the medal location switches every so often..

Sorry I didn't link to it directly.  The list of participating publisers, as well as other links of interest, is on the Links page at http://www.dreadgazebo.com/ennies06/links.html.

As for the amazing moving medals, the winning titles are also in bold beside the corresponding medal, so it shouldn't be THAT hard to figure out, right?  Even though it's great to win, I think that the biggest honour is in the nomination, so I wanted to keep all the products listed (and yes, I confess I didn't feel like spending the additional time cutting and pasting a few years worth of entries).

[Denise]

Hi, Denise.

The main reason that I have not entered any contests (I didn't enter the origins, either) is because the cost of providing books for judging is prohibitively expensive for me.  I hope that helps answer your question.

yrs--
--Ben

Good to hear back from you!
It's unfortunate that for smaller publishers, sending in 6 copies can be too much.  It is much easier on electronic publishers in that regard, for certain.
The good news is, though, in an effort to reduce the pain/burden, we have it set up that if you sent a review copy to an EN World reviewer who is also a judge, you don't have to submit an additional copy, and have also been opening up the entries early so publishers can take advantage of media mail and cheaper freight charges.

[Denise]

Alrighty, to try and clarify (sorry about the confusion)...

-If you ship your product to the individual judges, there is no entry/S&H fee. 

-If you ship all of your product to the submissions coordinator, then you pay a $5/title entry/S&H fee.  If you are submitting multiple titles on a single CD, you still need to ship 6 copies of that CD to the submissions coordinator, but only need to pay $5.  If you send a bunch of PDFs on one CD, and a soundtrack on another, then you would need to pay $10.  Does that help?  Clear as mud now?

The previous post brings up a clarification I'd like from Denise. For electronic products, is the fee $5 per -title-, of which you have to submit 6 CD's ($5 total), or $5 per -CD-, regardless of the number of titles on it, a total again of 6 CD's (but $30 total). It's unclear from the reading of the form.

Greg Porter
BTRC

PS: my hubby's a 3G3 fanatic.  As a matter of fact, I just had to beg him to stop raving about how he used it to modify his ammunition for the Blackhammer Project.  Bla bla bla geek geek guns ammo bla bla...

[Denise]

I'm going to speak here not only as the Business Manager, but as a former winner of an ENnie to try and answer why anyone -particularly small press- should enter. 

A few years back, a book I produced was nominated and was the only entry that year to beat Wizards of the Coast in a category in which they were nominated.  It was a wonderful feeling to know that my beautiful little book took on the big boys and won.

You see d20 winners last year, and I grant you, there are a lot- 25 out of 36 of the prizes went to d20 publishers or 20-variants.  But when you consider the D&D d20 market share is around 70%, it's hardly surprising. 

Once we open the voting booth, it can become a popularity contest.  People vote for what they know.  I publicize the voting booth opening here, on Gaming Report and on RPG.NET and encourage publishers to drive their fans to the booth.  Larger companies will have an advantage because of their deeper market penetration, but smaller companies with a rabid fanbase can rock the vote.

Years ago EN World was primarily d20, but has expanded over past years.  You'd be a fool to think that the gamers over there only play a single system.  Our judges this year have a great amount of experience in a variety of systems.  Heck, one has an openly-stated hate-on for all things d20. 

When you look at the nominations, you get a different picture.  Out of 75 nominees last year, 33 were not d20.  That's pretty darned respectable.

It's a tough call as a small press publisher.  If you factor in the cost of producing those 6 books plus shipping, it can be daunting.  But it's also a great way to get exposure for your product that you'll probably never see without considerably greater outlay.  We're listing all the publishers participating on the links page, which exposes your name to a large audience.  A nomination is worth even more.  Heck, I had dozens of people stopping by the ENnies booth to pick up the list of nominees to use as a shopping list.  I had Tony do  PODCast interview (and also seated him next to the Atlast Games krewe so he could impress some friends).  Thousands od people stopped by the booth to check out the nominated products, and it was always the smaller press guys who got the most comments.

I don't want to give you a big song and dance about using the ENnies as a marketing tool though, because I don't like to think of them that way.  In my heart, they are a chance to have your hard work recognized.  It's a party of geeks hanging out together and sharing jokes and drinks, and some of them get to go home with trophies or medals.

Yeah, Luke and Tony, tell me more.  I'm really proud of my beautiful little game, but here's what I see:

Giving the judges free copies is a $120 entry fee for me to a contest that, last year, saw pretty much every winner being a big D20 or D20 variant company.  Unless I saw the wrong list - again, explain to me why I should take part. 

[Denise]

Once again, thanks everyone for piping in.  I'll do my best to answer your questions!

I think I already answered the electronic product question, but there's no harm in repeating meself, right?
-No entry fee if you send everything to the judges directly.  As a matter of fact, considering the late date, it might be a good idea to ship the stuff directly to the judges.  This is the same with electronic as well as print or other products. 
-$5 for a CD of product otherwise, no matter how many titles you have on each CD.  In other words, if you put your entire catalogue on a compilation CD for submission, you send $5.  You send in 6 copies of said CD, but only pay $5.  This helps defray our shipping and handling costs (we are a fan award afterall!)

As for sending differing versions of the CD for the archival/display copy vs. judges' copy, I wouldn't.  First of all, the judges should be evaluating the product that is available to the public.  If you send out CDs without lables on a regular basis with just the title written in marker, than by all means, send such a beast along.  But judges consider all aspects of the product, and you'd be amazed at how a nice cover in a jewel case can make an impression.

As an electronic publisher meself, I understand and respect your concerns about protecting your product, but you just have to treat the copies as review copies, or copies that went out to customers, and trust in our professionalism.  Last year we had an auction of our library of electronic products on the CDs.  No copies were made.  You'll never see those copies on a file server.

BTW, I actually mentionned the opening of the submission period in this very forum in February, actually. Sorry you missed it!

So why haven't you entered?

Hi Denise,

I am concerned about two things:

The exact instructions on submitting electronic product(s) for consideration. Is it the same as submitting a single print product (regardless of the number of titles on the CD), or does it cost $5 per CD to enter whether or not you send it to the judges directly? Can I label the archival and display copy differently than the ones I send to the judges? (Say label the former with a nice CD label, and the latter just with a permanent marker?)

The phrase "The Judges reserve the right to dispose of all products entered (upon completion of the judging) as they deem appropriate" which, given that it is an electronic product, makes me cringe. It does so because "I'll give this away to friends and family" is a kind of disposal, and with an electronic product, one that is potentially endless. (I realize that may seem a bit anal or suspiscious of me, but I've learned that when it comes to rights, legalities and business, you don't even trust your own parents -- not because you don't trust them, but because it is business.)

Finally, I wish I had known about this sooner -- I do not read or hang out at ENWorld anymore, so stuff like this just blows right by me sight unseen. Thus, unfortunately and depending on the costs, I don't know if I have $30+ spare dollars right now to blow on submission (at least not before the deadline). There's not a great deal that can be done about that on your end, however.

I'd also like to hear from any other small press folks who have submitted to the ENnies and NOT won or who don't have a huge following or tons of discussion of their product (such as Luke with Burning Wheel): was it worth it? Did it increase interest/help sales?

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks for answering my questions, Luke and Denise.  I appreciate it. 

[greyorm]

Thanks for the answers on the electronic/CD costs, Denise!

As for sending differing versions of the CD for the archival/display copy vs. judges' copy, I wouldn't.  First of all, the judges should be evaluating the product that is available to the public.  If you send out CDs without labels on a regular basis with just the title written in marker, than by all means, send such a beast along.  But judges consider all aspects of the product, and you'd be amazed at how a nice cover in a jewel case can make an impression.

Here's my thought process: I don't send CDs with my product on it to any customers, never have and never will. I do electronic delivery only, meaning that a nice labeled CD with a jewel case (or a CD period) isn't something a customer of mine ever receives. However, I would hate for that sixth CD -- what eventually amounts to a public advertisement for my product at GenCon -- to consist of a CD with my company and product name scrawled on it in permanent marker.

I understand what you are saying about trying to catch the judges' eye with a professional container, even if it isn't what any customer ever receives. It certainly makes sense to do so, though it seems to violate the spirit of the rules a bit, which is not sending the judges anything different than what the customer would receive. So, unfortunately, this still seems like a huge gray area for me.

(Plus there is the side issue of paying for the printing of what are essentially six advertisements -- a labelled CD for a non-CD product is an ad -- only one of which will ever be publically seen. But that's a lesser issue.)

As an electronic publisher meself, I understand and respect your concerns about protecting your product, but you just have to treat the copies as review copies, or copies that went out to customers, and trust in our professionalism.

As it happens, I do require specific terms from anyone receiving a review copy of any product from me, and do not merely "trust their professionalism." One of the last few times I trusted in someone's professionalism, instead of cold, hard legalese clearly delineating rights and responsibilities, I ended up with a double-digit thousands of dollars burden and half-a-decade of financial and familial hardship (and am still paying for it).

I don't mean to insult you or call you or any of the reviewers untrustworthy in my saying this, I'm not accusing you of anything, but I have learned the hard way that protecting myself outweighs societal concerns about showing and being shown trust. I'm perfectly fine trusting someone, as long as I have the power to protect myself if they turn out not to be trustworthy.

As such, consider this a suggestion: I think the lack of a clear statement regarding rights and uses of the submitted material by the judges is an oversight that should be rectified. Something more solid regarding what will or can be done with the media utilized by the judges, that also protects the creator from the unthinkable-but-still-possible. It is simple and cost-free to implement, and can help prevent unforseen future problems for both the judges and the publishers.

And again, thank you very much for the answers to my questions!

[Dav]

I'm mildly curious as to the nature of a contest wherein one nominates one's self.  This always seems slightly bizarre to me.  This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only contest where this occurs, and I don't mean to single this one out, it just happens to be handy and the coordinator is obviously here so I can ask the quick question of "huh?".

Are the reasons simply to save the effort of wading through piles of, err, crap, and make certain that each applicant (through the restriction of 6 gratis copies) is serious, or is it something else? 

Dav