To Whom might I submit a Fantasy World Setting?

[seskis281]

My thanks to any and all who posted ideas, generated good thoughts, and asked very useful questions on a previous post I made concerning the campaign/world setting I have been working on.

This post is to ask those of you who are connected to publishers, writers who work with publishers, etc. what path I should go to submit what I am nearing completion on. The most basic questions I have are as follows:

1. What companies are even potentially interested in another Fantasy World Setting? I have written my world with C&C in mind, but have made it as generic as possible to fit any system. I know Trolllord Games is coming out with Airdhe soon, so I have no idea if they'd even consider looking at a different setting. Same with Goodman and DCC's Known Realms.

2. What is the best way to approach or query companies that might be interested in new setting material?

3. If publishers are indeed set with their own worlds, what suggestions would be made for proceeding with publishing online?

My thanks to any help or suggestions - I really do feel I have something good here and would like share it with others.

John Maddog Wright

 

[fnork de sporg]

Self Publish. PDF.

 

[SpiralBound]

My honest opinion, (as an observant gamer, not as an RPG publisher - cause I'm not one!), is that the people who publish gaming material have no shrotage of ideas or ability to create their own settings. Trying to sell one of them your setting might be a lot harder than trying to sell them a race book, or an adventure, or "whatever" which could be used with their settings than trying to convince them to back your setting.

Look at it from their point of view. One, who are you? I don't mean that as a slur against you or your ability to create a setting at all, but let's face it. You approach "XYZ Gaming Co." and tell them you've got a great new setting that you'd like them to publish and the first things they're going to ask themselves are, "Do we know this guy? Has he ever been published before? Can we trust him or his material?" and so on. You'll be a stranger to them, so you've got to factor that in.

Two, you're asking for a lot. Much more than perhaps you might realize at first. For a company to take on and publish a setting, they've got to be willing to publish a lot more than just that initial setting book. There'll be support material, adventures, etc. It will have to become a major part of their future promotion, publishing and business identity from then on. They can't just publish "World book X" and then forget about it.

Think about different publishers. Often times, we think of them in terms of the worlds that their material is set in. For many (not all) companies, the worlds they promote are a huge component of their business identity.

None of what I'm saying 100% means that no one will touch you, but it does mean that you should be prepared for it to be a bit of a long search before you do find someone who will be willing to publish your world. You're going to need to find a good publisher who's looking for a world to use, but for some reason isn't able or interested in making their own. That's a tough find. I do wish you the best of luck though. Just cause it'll be hard doesn't mean that it can't happen or that it won't be worth it. If you believe in your setting THAT much, then it'll all be worth it when you finally do get published!

 

[Akrasia]

If you simply want to make your setting available to a broader audience, you could take advantage of dragonsfoot.org. They publish pdf files of modules, rules, campaign settings, etc., for C&C (as well as 1e AD&D, B/X D&D, etc.).

I've been quite impressed with the quality of products offered by dragonsfoot. Solid art, presentation, and editing -- indeed, often better than many professional products.

OTOH, if you want to get money out of this, then self-publish the thing as a pdf.

 

[Cathix]

I would say shop around the EnWorld Game Store, RPGNow, DriveThru, and have a good look at the publishers there. Make a list of the ones whose look and style appeal to you.

Then put together a 1 - 3 page synopsis of your setting. Send this with a friendly email to the publishers on your list. Make the email short, but well written and professional, and even a little complimentary.

You'll want your synopsis to convey the distinct flavor of your setting; what sets it apart from other settings. Don't be afraid to give it a label if you think it warrants one (high fantasy, medieval, eastern, exotic, orient-influenced, gothic, etc.) But let the publishers know you have a larger sample if they're interested, and that you would welcome their opinion and their time if they chose to receive that larger sample. A larger sample should showcase plenty of flavor text as well as mechanics, and personally, I'm happy when I receive setting excerpts that are between 20 and 50 pages long.

Some publishers have lots of small projects earmarked in their schedule for the sake of keeping things rolling, but they can shift things around to make room for a larger project if that larger project is intriguing enough. Settings require lots of art and layout time, but if your setting appeals, someone out there may be willing to risk the investment of time and money. You never know until you try.

Good luck with it!

 

[dougmander]

From my own experience with Northern Crown, I would say that if you want to have your setting published, first give it away for free. I maintained a web site for my campaign world for several years, and it eventually led to being noticed by several established freelancers who could put me in touch with publishers. I don't think that would have happened if i had just sent out my synopses blindly. Several other designers I know used the same route, including Chris Dolunt (Nyambe), who had a free netbook PDF available long before Atlas published him.

The key is to have actual useable content on your site, not just teaser material. Heck, I had several full-length adventures available for my campaign that you could download as PDFs or htmls and play for free. When publishers came knocking, I had over 250,000 words of material for them to look at, plus maps and illustrations.

The bottom line is that ideas are really cheap -- everybody has them. I had several before breakfast. But if you can show that you can deliver finished product, that might make a publisher more willing to give you a try.

 

[Emirikol]

WotC could use a new one...

jh

 

[Aesthetic Monk]

John: You've already gotten about the full gamut here. Deborah's suggestion of a query letter-like approach is a good one for one kind of effort (paid work); self-publishing is probably the other way to go if you want expsoure but no (real) money.

I wouldn't go into any of this expecting any money, and that way you won't be disappointed. Good ideas--sometimes even good, finished product--fails to move. I was briefly associated with a fellow who'd put together, on his own dime, a really nice 300+-page campaign setting and eventually just quit trying to sell it himself out of frustration and the thwarted hope of making money. (Though I haven't heard from him in over a year, I'm assuming that he's still stuck with the inventory.) Granted, he was trying to do it himself, and he really wasn't ready for that, but it's still a cautionary example for me.

 

[seskis281]

Thanks to all so far -

Actually money is not a focus for me - I have a good career and this is a hobby for me, so in expanding my originial request I'd ask (going the route of offering online for free as you did dougmander) - what suggestions you guys might have as to what makes a good campaign web site/free pdf offering (organization of site, what's the best way to set up open-contribution, etc.)?

Akrasia - Thanks for the info on Drangonsfoot. I will certainly check out the site.

Cathix - I appreciate the query advice.

Aeshetic Monk - Don't worry, I am patient - I am a freelance playwright and screenwriter and THAT comes with lots of frustration - just the 1st time entering the writing market for RPGing and after years of homebrew and love of the game, so trying to get the sense of the facets of this market. I think I'll be good here as I really don't care about making money (not that I'd ever turn it down lol) but rather just want to find the best way to get my ideas out to as many people as possible.

Thanks and certainly appreciate any other ideas people have!

Cheers!

John Maddog Wright

"In the immortal words of Socrates.... I drank what!?"