Michael PM'ed me about his GenCon problem (see the GenCon thread in "Publishing"). I wrote a response but haven't sent it to him yet. I figure I'd post it here and get your feedback first. Let me know what you think.

My response:

Wow. Well, I really don't know what to suggest aside from "find someone else." Sandy Antunes on the GPA list suggested selling your boothspace and letting your wholesaler (if you're using one) rep your book for you. Not a bad idea. Of course, "rep" in this instance means "sit in a display with all their other books and let people find it on their own."

It's a tough call, and not one I envy. If you have to sell your GPA booth space (or just plain choose to), you can send some copies to me and I'll put them at the Indie booth (the rate for repping sellable product is $100). If you go that route, see if anyone on the Forge would be interested in running some short (40 minute) demos at the booth. Hook 'em up with a complimentary PDF beforehand (so they can learn the rules) and then give them a free hardcopy. Small cost for an active salesperson. I also recommend sending some flyers with those books (black and white Kinko's flyers are fine; they're what I used for Little Fears last year). If we run out of flyers, I'll gladly get more copies. The money from any books sold would be deposited into the Key 20 account and I would cut you a check for the amount of sales (minus flyer copy charges and the shipping costs to send any unsold books back). If you're interested in this, just let me know and I'll have Ron put you on the list.

:end my response.


What do you think?

Hi Jason,

I'm very tempted to say, "Not my problem." We're not selling games from the Forge booth without a person there. (That's different from putting out free ones, like Soap or similar.)

I don't really see the problem. He already has the booth space at the GPA booth; therefore he already has a booth that will have copies of his game there. Better than nothing, if he simply can't attend. Hell, he can probably sell the booth space as Sandy suggests and still have some copies of the game piled up at the booth.

Hopcroft bugs me, man. He's totally low-self-esteem, he gums up posts with emotional bulletins, he's all about "publish at any cost," and he's about ten steps ahead of where he should be on any issue - and flaking out about how it's not working. He strikes me as the kind of guy who acts indie but would be really relieved if someone else would just kind of take care of everything for him. Notice that we have no knowledge at all about his actual game, and my hopes for its quality are not high.

Best,
Ron

I'm only saying this because it's a private forum, but:

1. You think he's bad online, try him in person. He's the most brutal self-deprecator I've ever heard and he most certainly emphasizes his bad body language and speech patterns to make it worse.

2. The game's Fudge. With anime. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah ...

Sigh. The problem is that my irritation with him as a human isn't going to justify being a jerk to him ...

All right, here's my call, and let's see what you two think.

1) We (or Jason, if you want) tell him that he should (a) sell his booth space and (b) be happy that his game's at the GPA booth.

2) Include his stuff in the Big Forge Pamphlet of indie games you can get your hands on, as long as the game is indeed available. We'd do that anyway. (This is distinct from the Little Forge Pamphlet of indie games that are actually available at the Forge booth.)

3) Highlight the GPA booth on our photocopied GenCon map handout, which will have all the creator-owned games highlighted. We'd do that anyway too.

So since #2 and #3 are nothing but what we'd planned to do anyway, all this means is that no one is "abandoning" him (which is probably what he wants to hear). And #1 makes it clear that no, the Forge is not adopting his problem unto itself and selling his game for him, which frankly is what I think he's angling for.

Since he approached Jason, I suggest that Jason is the point-man. Pending agreement or revision of all of the above, of course.

Best,
Ron

Jesus. Considering Michael's newest post in the Publishing forum (about how he would shoot himself in the head if someone told him) I am glad that I didn't send the original message I was going to.

Jiminy Fucking Christmas.

Yeah, I responded with some "tough love" and we'll see how that works. I am also troubled by his reference to how the Fuzion guys think he's a pain in the ass - not only is that called "borrowing trouble," but if it's accurate, basically, we're getting someone who's been shunted around the industry because he's annoying.

Oh well, maybe the Forge can provide some good material for him. It's times like this that I wish I'd really finished the Big Industry Essay by April like I planned.

Best,
Ron