Have you been published? Share your experiences here.

[Napftor]

If you ever have the time and inclination to branch out, I'm always looking out for fluff writers.

Wulf
(the rules guy)

Is this an open invite, Wulf?

 

[Napftor]

I also recently read the entertaining posts by Samothdm regarding his writing and publishing experience -- also informative and helpful. It is great to read these sorts of experiences and hear the nitty-gritty details about the work.

It would be, I think, both useful and enjoyable reading to have a collection of these sorts of "stories"...

Here's another one for you Mark: http://www.absolutewrite.com/specialty_writing/bret_boyd.htm

This was posted a few months ago here I believe, but it's always worth a cheap plug to bring it out again. The road to publishing is an interesting ride and everyone always has a different and entertaining story. And congrats on your DRAGON work! I'd love to get in there but third-party d20 publishers are calling my name. Good for the writing credits, of course, but DRAGON is, well, DRAGON!

 

[Zhaneel]

Thanks! I saved off your comments to an e-mail.

Additionally, for my own journey: I posted these in Martin's thread, but I thought I'd repost them here. I haven't been published, but this is a recording of my journey toward that goal.

Part 1 – The Early Years, Part 2 – Baby Steps, Part 3 – Falling Down, & Part 4 – Links & Blogs I follow

Zhaneel

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Is this an open invite, Wulf?

Ditto what he said.

Also, not to be rude, but the last time I tried to e-mail, at support@badaxegames.com, Bad Axe, it got bounced. And I could not find any other e-dresses to send a message to.

 

[Drifter Bob]

I enjoyed reading this. Mine was a print publisher as well, and I had a lot of the same experiences. Be interested to see how things follow up after publication. The chief difference with me was I think that the publisher was based overseas, and was perhaps a little smaller, which led to some unique situations.

I had a lot of the same likes and dislikes in the process. Getting everything balanced for D20, i.e. taking it from the level that I am comfortable with as a DM and then paring down to the much, much more specific details required for the D20 market was quite tedious at times, though necessary. It would be nice if there was someone who really liked that kind of thing who could go through and fix it or at least point out problems, the way the editor does with grammar and punctuation. As it was, a lot of time spent researching the finer points of rules in the SRD, comparing my new creations to existing ones in the rulebook.

DB

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Is this an open invite?

Yes and no.

Yes, it's an open invite, but either your reputation needs to precede you (as in the case of Destan) or you need to have some publishing credit under your belt.

Barring that, you'll need extensive writing samples. I shouldn't need to mention that if your email contact or writing samples do not demonstrate a command of English grammar, you'll find a very uphill battle with me...

And finally, it's not an open invite in the sense of "I'd love to publish your campaign setting!" but rather an open invite for talented writers who can support our existing product lines (and demonstrate it).

Also, not to be rude, but the last time I tried to e-mail Bad Axe, it got bounced. And I could not find any other e-dresses to send a message to.

Server issues-- still unresolved, but the email is at least working again. (We're switching servers, and the DNS servers lost me for a day or two till we switched it back. I was having email withdrawal!)

Wulf

 

[Olive]

Great post!

I'll admit it, I haven't been following the story hour much lately, so I might be asking easy questions, but what's the book called and when is it out?

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Well written Destan! Thank you for taking the time to share all of that with us. It was a great read.

Low Points:

....2. I'm not a rules guy. Synthesizing the new races, feats, prestige classes, narcotics, weapons, et al. - that was more difficult writing for me. I'd find that I would fly through a chapter on regional trade, for example, only to bog down when I attempted to apply racial traits to a new PC race. Telling stories, for me, is easier than designing game mechanics. But, justifiably so, customers expect both "crunch" and "fluff" in these sorts of works, and I wanted to do what I could to appease anyone who picks up a copy of the book.

This is so true. I'm delighted to see that I'm not alone. While working on a huge manuscript, I've discovered that writing good mechanics is time consuming. There's something about D&D/d20 manuscript that require this checking against external sources. Bogs one down. So thanks for sharing that tidbit as well.

 

[Destan]

Who was the publisher?

I figured this might come up; it's a valid question. I checked with the publisher and found that they'd rather remain "nameless" for the moment, as they are not "ready for business". In short - the web site ain't up. Everything's set to roll for GenCon.

Do they take submissions?

At the moment, no. But I imagine their take on the whole thing is similar to Wulf's - if you wow them with your stuff, then they'd be foolish not to extend you an oportunity.

What is their favorite color?

Paisley. Not sure if that's a color, come to think of it.

For myself, I published two articles in DRAGON back in 1999, and then stopped writing to deal with other things. Recently, I started writing again and DRAGON has accepted five articles of mine (4 of which are very short, one is longer).

Now it's my turn to be envious. I've been lovin' Dragon since the times when it still had a "The" in the front of it's name. I'd love to get something in there. In fact, I may give it a shot in the near future.

Be interested to see how things follow up after publication.

Yah, you and me both. I'll probably start a new thread when I get some info to share in the future.

I'll admit it, I haven't been following the story hour much lately, so I might be asking easy questions, but what's the book called and when is it out?

Dagnabbit, Olive, get your butt back over there and read up! The first book is simply the Valus and the follow-on module is The Return of Ippizicus Child-Eater. You might remember ol' Ippi from the early days of the story hour. (If you don't remember him, don't tell me - it would hurt my feelings.)

The books are both due out by, or slightly prior to, GenCon.

Tomorrow starts the weekend - enjoy it folks!

D

 

[Olive]

The first book is simply the Valus and the follow-on module is The Return of Ippizicus Child-Eater. You might remember ol' Ippi from the early days of the story hour. (If you don't remember him, don't tell me - it would hurt my feelings.)

Well, I hope it'll help if I say that not only do I remember him, but that I will probably buy it (and I never buy mods), because it made such an impression.