Product Idea: eFreelancer's Guide (Especially for the good people at RPGNow)

MatthewJHanson · Sep 21, 2004

As somebody who is starting to do some freelance d20 designing in the epublishing field, I was thinking it would be nice have a collection of publishers that are interested in recieving submissions collected all in one place, including details like what they are looking for, what they pay, how to contact them, etc. (Along the line of the Writer's Market books). It could also maybe include some general advice for freelance writing.

The good people at RPGNow/Minion Games seem like a natural choice if they are interested because a) It's along the lines of the ePublishing Guide, and b) I am guessing they have an easy way of contacting all publishers that sell product through RPGNow.

So that's my idea. I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price for a product like that. What does everybody else think?

jmucchiello · Sep 21, 2004

MatthewJHanson said:
So that's my idea. I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price for a product like that. What does everybody else think?

You mean something like this? I don't know how long it's been since it's been updated. I'm just curious if that's what you meant.

annadobritt · Sep 21, 2004

Ashamed to admit it, but it has been a long time since I updated it. Just haven't had the time. It's a lot of work gathering all the information. Especially for one person who is also a freelance cartographer.

MatthewJHanson · Sep 21, 2004

From the product description, yeah, that is the general idea of what I had in mind (I perhaps should have done a little more research first). Of course it would have to be recently updated. Also I'd be inclined to go with a single producte rather than a subscription, and I would wonder what I could get out a subscription that I couldn't get out a single issue.

I'm not sure how you gathered the info annadobritt, but I think for a product like this to work one would have to find an easier way to do it. If publishers recieved an email saying "Hey we're working on this product, it will benifit you by attracting new frelancers, please send us xyz information," would they be responsive?

annadobritt · Sep 22, 2004

I did contact all the publishers I could by email, asking for permission to use the information in the Guide. More often than not, they directed me to their website to gather the needed information.

Don't forget, most of the publishers also have regular day or night jobs and publish on the side.

If you can think of a better way to do this, I'd be glad to hear of it. I want to get the Guide going again. But strictly as a Guide, no articles or reviews of products.

madelf · Sep 23, 2004

annadobritt said:
If you can think of a better way to do this, I'd be glad to hear of it.

Sounds like the easy way to do it (as opposed to sell it) would be as a link site. Just list the publishers with links to their on-line guidelines. That way the guidelines would always be up to date also.

I would think you could get the publishers to submit you their open calls as they often post them on various fora and mailing lists anyway, dropping you an email as they're at it wouldn't be going far out of their way. You might even be able to set up something automated where they could submit the open calls themselves without going through you.

Now making any money off something set up that way would be tougher. I'm not sure what would work best there. Subscription website? PDFs with hyperlinks?

MatthewJHanson · Sep 23, 2004

madelf said:
Sounds like the easy way to do it (as opposed to sell it) would be as a link site. Just list the publishers with links to their on-line guidelines. That way the guidelines would always be up to date also.

That would definatly make it easier though it wouldn't help finding new publishers. Also would have to be checked semi-frequently to make sure the links didn't die/change.

Now making any money off something set up that way would be tougher. I'm not sure what would work best there. Subscription website? PDFs with hyperlinks?

That's a good question. You could probably get a little ad money, but it might not be enough to pay for bandwidth.