How do I market to other countries?

[Gargoyle]

Hi folks. I have a question that other small companies may have as well. What are your tips for marketing your products to countries other than the US?

One of the big advantages of creating an electronic product is that it's internationally accessible, but other than creating A4 sized versions of our PDFs, which we've done, I'm not sure how to make our products more appealing to other countries. Is there a cheap an easy way to get your products translated to German or Russian, for instance?

Thanks,

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, if you want it translated, you could run it through Babelfish.

 

[Cergorach]

Ack! BlowFish...

Being a european myself (dutch), i'm pretty sure that unless you go 'all the way' with supporting your products in a foreign language your throwing money away.

1.) Unless you hire someone that will do your product justice in a foreign language you'll get a bad product. The crunchy bits might be good, but the content might not sound right...
2.) What is your target audience in a foreign country? certainly not people who can read english? Your then targeting audiences that have the PHB in their native language, the people who'll buy those probably won't be able/want to read english. How are you going to sell that to them? You'll need someone/something representing your company in a foreign country, costing more money. You need a website in a foreign language, cosing more money...
3.) How many units do you expect to sell? The general perception is that in parts of europe where english is not the first language (or the second), there are often less RPGers than one would expect based on the numbers of RPGers from the US (did that make any sense?).

So in conclusion, unless you can write (well) in a foreign language, know someone who does (and is willing to so for free or a very small fee), or have the 'next best thing', you should probably not try. Europeans are hard arses when it comes to buying stuff, i should know, i am one ;-)

 

[Gargoyle]

Ack! BlowFish...

Being a european myself (dutch), i'm pretty sure that unless you go 'all the way' with supporting your products in a foreign language your throwing money away.

1.) Unless you hire someone that will do your product justice in a foreign language you'll get a bad product. The crunchy bits might be good, but the content might not sound right...

Agreed. Putting a product through an automatic translator is out. They're useful tools for end-users, but not adequate for producing a product that someone is willing to pay for.

2.) What is your target audience in a foreign country? certainly not people who can read english? Your then targeting audiences that have the PHB in their native language, the people who'll buy those probably won't be able/want to read english. How are you going to sell that to them? You'll need someone/something representing your company in a foreign country, costing more money. You need a website in a foreign language, cosing more money...

Target market would be those with non-English PHB's. I actually hadn't thought of translating the website. (Doh) Looks like I need someone to faithfully translate for a low price.

3.) How many units do you expect to sell? The general perception is that in parts of europe where english is not the first language (or the second), there are often less RPGers than one would expect based on the numbers of RPGers from the US (did that make any sense?).

My goal would be to sell as many non-English copies as English copies. There may be a smaller percentage of gamers in Europe than in the US, though I'm not sure of that, but if you add up the number of non-US gamers, not forgetting Asia and South America, etc, it amounts to a lot of people.

So in conclusion, unless you can write (well) in a foreign language, know someone who does (and is willing to so for free or a very small fee), or have the 'next best thing', you should probably not try. Europeans are hard arses when it comes to buying stuff, i should know, i am one ;-)

Thanks!

Any other tips other than those related to language translation? Any cultural caveats? Any good international gaming web sites that I should know about?

 

[JohnNephew]

> Is there a cheap an easy way to get your products translated
> to German or Russian, for instance?

No. Professional translators are paid considerably more than RPG writers are typically paid to write content in the first place.

For the typical game company, foreign markets mean two things:

1. Sales of English-language product. If you're selling PDFs via web, you are probably doing this already, even if you don't know that some of your customers are overseas.

2. Licensees. Someone who really likes your stuff arranges a license to translate it and sell it in his or her native language. You get paid a percentage of the revenue this activity generates.

Unless you are completely fluent in a foreign language (as in, you grew up bilingual, or English is your second language), and are familiar with the markets and cultural differences of the target market, I would strongly advise against trying to do your own translations and marketing. Frankly, it would be a waste of time and money. How can you exert quality control if you don't have a native understanding of the text you're selling, for example? How many foreign-language markets are big enough to have any chance of paying you back for your investment and headaches? (The answer: Probably zero.)

A licensing arrangement is better than hiring someone, because the responsibility AND the bulk of the potential reward are in the same hands, your licensee. If they botch the translation, they suffer more than you (you lose potential revenue; they lose actual cash they invested in the product). If it does well, the revenues you get from royalties are nice gravy on top of your English-language sales. Just don't plan on getting paid on time -- write your business plan around English-language sales only. (And prepare to be good-humored when pirate translations appear without your authorization.)

FWIW, that's my view from the last 15ish years in the biz...

-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games

 

[Gargoyle]

Thanks John!

 

[RangerWickett]

You could always just use really small words and very simple sentences. It'd be easy to translate those.

Sadly, the only foreign language I'm even remotely good at is Japanese, and they have their own, wholly separate RPG industry. It'd be a blast if we could break into it, though.

 

[Paradigm]

Just some add ons to John's good posts.

We currently distribute our English Language products overseas. Nations like the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia are ideal markets as the natives can read our stuff with no issue. Other nations still buy a significant amount of our stuff, but likely less than a translation would sell.

Some pointers:

Many of our counterparts in the small press use fufillment houses, many of whom have several distributors in nations other than the US. If you place your good with these folks, the international issue should resolve itself. If it doesn't, ride them on it until they get you into other countries, they do work for you after all.

If, like us, you are placed directly into distributors, it will take more work. I would recommend a consultant that represents other companies so that you are part of a group with some muscle to get paid. Make a point of attending Origins this year and look for these people. I also advise GTS, but since that is 11 months away you should start now.

If you are going to license a translation, get some money up front so that you at the very least get something out of it if they decide to not pay you.

I am certain that the overwhelming majority of folks will pay you in an honest manner, it is hard enough to get payment from disingenuous US sources. Imagine the troubles with such companies in another country.

Hope this helps!

 

[darklight]

I would say that it's probably only feasible for the largest non-english speaking markets.

I remember years ago there was a danish translation of the D&D Basic Set (the red one) and the D&D Expert Set (the blue one). A friend of mine got a few copies, since he was teaching rpg to 10-12 year olds, who weren't good at english, so I read it. Even though it was done by a danish licensee, it was hilarious, the whole tone of it was ruined by some very odd sounding translations. Not that the translations were really incorrect, it just sounded wrong. All in all, I think that danish translations aren't worth it, most people who want to play, would prefer english versions. On a personal note, I would like a danish traslation of the PHB though, for a couple of my players.

darklight

 

[Gargoyle]

I would say that it's probably only feasible for the largest non-english speaking markets.

I remember years ago there was a danish translation of the D&D Basic Set (the red one) and the D&D Expert Set (the blue one). A friend of mine got a few copies, since he was teaching rpg to 10-12 year olds, who weren't good at english, so I read it. Even though it was done by a danish licensee, it was hilarious, the whole tone of it was ruined by some very odd sounding translations. Not that the translations were really incorrect, it just sounded wrong. All in all, I think that danish translations aren't worth it, most people who want to play, would prefer english versions. On a personal note, I would like a danish traslation of the PHB though, for a couple of my players.

darklight

I've been to Denmark. Y'all speak better English than I do... so you're probably right. (and are some of the nicest people I've ever met, for that matter, I'm looking forward to visiting again someday...)