Adventures in RPG Self-Publishing

[RichGreen]

Thanks for sharing your numbers!

Will the book be sold in any kiosk at GenCon?

I think that's unlikely as it's a Print On Demand title. Paizo have the print edition in stock on their website and may have taken a few copies to Paizo Con last year though.

 

[RichGreen]

So, when will you be able to quit your day job? How do you balance a day job with writing, editing, and managing sales?

If only I could make enough money from RPG publishing and/or freelancing to give up my day job... Even people like Wolfgang Baur, publisher of Kobold Press, who've released dozens of books, have one. I see this very much as an extension of my hobby, and any money I earn from it is a bonus that I can spend on gaming or other fun stuff.

I write at weekends mostly, but will often jot things down during the week on my way to and from work. I'm happy if I manage to write over 1,200 words a day. I actually wrote the first draft of Parsantium when I was between jobs. The book is 93,000 words so would have taken me a long time to write over weekends!

Kate does all my editing and layout. She's a professional freelance editor, so while writing is fun for me, editing my stuff feels more like (unpaid) work to her. I'm very lucky to have her

I tend to do all the admin stuff here and there. If you've only got one book to worry about, it doesn't take too long.

Cheers


Rich

 

[Samloyal23]

I have written one actual book, a short supplement for 3.5E Paladin variants. Problem was, before I could finish it, 4E came out and made it obsolete. Writing a whole book solo seems to be a Sisyphean task...

 

[MortalPlague]

Thanks for the write-up. A friend and I put together an adventure designed to be run in a single two-day game, and we were considering going this route after we've refined it. This has been very informative!

 

[Gradine]

Thanks for sharing your process as well as your outcomes! It's certainly been informative. I've been considering delving into the world of self-publishing, and you've definitely made it seem more feasible, and doable.

One question I have is in regards with trademarking and copyrighting. Are either of these something you've taken the time to do with your work? The costs seem prohibitive considering the likely amount of revenue from this particular endeavor. Are there any other ways you've considered to protect your intellectual property?

 

[RichGreen]

I have written one actual book, a short supplement for 3.5E Paladin variants. Problem was, before I could finish it, 4E came out and made it obsolete. Writing a whole book solo seems to be a Sisyphean task...

Could you update it to Pathfinder, maybe?

Writing and publishing a book as large as Parsantium is a big task, but no reason why you couldn't start small with a short PDF product. Good luck!

 

[RichGreen]

Thanks for the write-up. A friend and I put together an adventure designed to be run in a single two-day game, and we were considering going this route after we've refined it. This has been very informative!

Great! Really glad it's been helpful

 

[RichGreen]

One question I have is in regards with trademarking and copyrighting. Are either of these something you've taken the time to do with your work? The costs seem prohibitive considering the likely amount of revenue from this particular endeavor. Are there any other ways you've considered to protect your intellectual property?

Copyrighting your work doesn't cost anything and is easy to do. You just need to include text like it like this inside your book:

(c) Richard Green 2015, all rights reserved.

Trademarking is a different matter and does cost money. To be honest, I haven't looked into it – copyright should be enough to make it clear that the book is your intellectual property, and should not be reproduced without permission.

Cheers


Rich

 

[pedr]

Copyright registration has significant advantages under U.S. law, apparently, but doesn't exist in the UK. In both counties something is copyright by virtue of being created and written down, but the opportunities for enforcement in the U.S. change if you register, I believe. .

A trademark is worth registering if you think a competitor may use a confusingly similar name to advertise/market competing products. As that's not terribly likely in the small-press RPG world, it's probably unnecessary. UK law has some protection for unregistered names/marks/etc which are associated with a product in the mind of consumers, so there's less necessity to use the registration process. I don't know anything about US unregistered trademark law, though.

 

[RichGreen]

Copyright registration has significant advantages under U.S. law, apparently, but doesn't exist in the UK. In both counties something is copyright by virtue of being created and written down, but the opportunities for enforcement in the U.S. change if you register, I believe. .

A trademark is worth registering if you think a competitor may use a confusingly similar name to advertise/market competing products. As that's not terribly likely in the small-press RPG world, it's probably unnecessary. UK law has some protection for unregistered names/marks/etc which are associated with a product in the mind of consumers, so there's less necessity to use the registration process. I don't know anything about US unregistered trademark law, though.

Brilliant - thanks Pete!