i've written my own rpg, like many other people have here but i've managed to attain a little bit of success with it. a major rpg shop in london has told me they like my work and will stock my game when it's in print in a few weeks time. they're even letting me advertise on their website for people to preorder my game and giving them access to a preview i'm putting together at the moment of the books contents. i'm just waiting for the illustrator i've commissioned to finish my campaign map which should be in a day or two's time now.

is it better for me to stay as an individual promoting my game or is it better to be taken on by an independent/small press rpg company? if so, is there anybody here on this forum with such a company and that might like to look at my work?

This is more of a Publishing topic, incidentally - no big deal, Ron will probably move us whenever he gets back from his latest European adventure.

If I understand you correctly, you're considering whether to print and sell your game yourself or whether to sell the publishing rights. The other thing you might be asking about is whether to do your own fulfillment, but that has nothing to do with promotion, so I'm betting on the first one.

Firstly, a couple of weeks before your planned publication date is much too late to be considering an external publisher. If you have a finished book out of layout, then your options are basically to publish it yourself or revamp your whole market plan and start looking for an external publisher. It'll take months even to find one and engage in negotiations, I would expect, and then you'll have to rework the product or let them do it to fit your new partner's publishing vision. Especially if you're taking preorders, it seems that your duty is to get the game out to your customers.

There is no such thing as an independent rpg company that would take the commercial risks with your game - it's better to speak of a small press company, as that only implies size. Even then, the options range farther - for instance, you could go for Mongoose's "Flaming Cobra" imprint or similar, where a larger rpg company publishes or republishes an experimental small press title using their own resources. The party that publishes your game does not have to be small.

However, I'm wondering if there is perhaps something more to your question - the above seems pretty obvious to me. Perhaps you don't mean to get published by somebody else, but rather to use a fulfillment service of some sort?

you sound like you know what you're talking about and reading your various replies to my posts i can see that i've been naive about how this whole business works.

it's good to make a fool out of yourself and get your fingers burnt occasionally though; you learn very fast when that happens and i've certainly learnt a hell of alot in these last few weeks! :)