Been Thiking of starting my own D-20 company, where should I start?

[eigam]

I'm a professional Designer with some art skills. I have a few friends who are illustrators and writers who are interested in starting up a D-20 company. We've been putting together some stuff now for the past year. Now I'm starting to put some of it together, and it's looking professional. I read through the open gaming terms, and have looked into costs of printing. Not sure where else to start. I did start to write up a business plan. Any thought, hints, or tips out there? Thanks

 

[Teneb]

I'm a professional Designer with some art skills. I have a few friends who are illustrators and writers who are interested in starting up a D-20 company. We've been putting together some stuff now for the past year. Now I'm starting to put some of it together, and it's looking professional. I read through the open gaming terms, and have looked into costs of printing. Not sure where else to start. I did start to write up a business plan. Any thought, hints, or tips out there? Thanks

Obvious question I guess, but have you looked through the Publishing FAQ stickied on top of this forum? Its got a heapin' helpin' of information. The biggest thing is to ask yourself "why do I want to do this?" If its to make money, I humbly suggest you take a long look at doing something else; the entry curve is REALLy high. If its for "the glory", that's great. However, my totally uneducated advice would be to estimate how well you'll do, and then at least halve it. I have no doubt you and yours have great ideas, but in my experience, folks seem to overestimate how well they'll do. Hate to sound harsh, but reality can be tough sometimes.

In all seriousness, I wish you the best of luck whatever you decide to do!

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I would certainly suggest you contact an accountant and/or a lawyer. You will likely shell out 400-500 bucks for the pair if you actually want to form a company. But it is well worth the investment.

Another thing you will want to do is pick up a copy of . . . I forget the title of it . . . but it is something like 'Guide to d20 Publishing.' It is an e-book over at RPGNow.com. It may cost you about 8 bucks but again, it is well worth it.

I have some experience in freelance work but not running my own business so take my advice for what it is worth.

Hope that helps.

 

[Wycen]

That guide is here: www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1668&

The price is $19.95, which is actually lower than I remember, (which I thought was $80 or more).

Also rpg.net has a forum where somebody posted a thread, "how to start your own company with $1000".

 

[jmucchiello]

The price is $19.95, which is actually lower than I remember, (which was $80 or more).

The RPGNow e-Publishing Guide was never $80. It is and has always been $19.95.

 

[Flyspeck23]

The RPGNow e-Publishing Guide was never $80. It is and has always been $19.95.

But it's worth $80

 

[Warden]

I would even suggest starting out in PDF format as a gauge of how your products could do, not necessarily from a sales standpoint (as there is a vast difference between sales in the hundreds for PDF and sales in the thousands for print), but it will give you an opportunity to work on a book or two, work out the details and fine tuning, without as much cost involved. Spending $1000 to start a book and getting it wrong the first time is worse than starting off with a PDF and much, much lower costs, if you ask me. You'll be able to receive some reviews for your product and learn the basics of the market. Then you can take your material, revise it if necessary, and put it out to print.

 

[philreed]

. . . as there is a vast difference between sales in the hundreds for PDF and sales in the thousands for print . . .

Actually, after speaking with several print publishers I've learned that some of my PDFs have better sales than some print products.

I highly recommend starting PDF. If you're good enough a larger publisher will contact you about a print deal.

 

[Urizen]

well...

I'm starting my D20 business with the immediate goal of producing PDF products. I'll probably definately do a POD run, and, depending on how that goes, move to print, although I'm unsure at this point about what options I have with Printing companies, as well as distributors...but honestly I haven't looked that far into the future yet.

From what I've seen, PDF's are a great way for a small indie publisher to enter the industry. You can do a proffessional job with PDF's, and update your e-books until you are happy with the way the product looks (all without punishing your customers by making them pay for new versions ). The same can't be said for starting out with print.

You'd have to prduce the dreaded "errata" documents every time you found something (or were informed of something) that was incorrect, which I've always found to be a pain in the rear. I never liked buying a book only to see an errata document crop up a couple of months later. It's probably just a nit-pick, but that's my .02 cents

 

[eigam]

reply

Thanks for all your comments. I still have much to think about. I just bought the guide, thanks for that post, and link. I think I will go the PDF route at first.
Thanks again for all your responses.