I'm Published! A Writer's POV

[Drifter Bob]

Go to "My Account", then "Edit Signature", and enter the following text, except with all angle brackets (< >) replaced by square brackets ([ ]):
(Feel free to change the link, of course )

Hey, thanks a lot! More proof that ENworld is a friendly place.


DB

 

[Drifter Bob]

I saw the initial thread on Primer of Magic on usenet and left it alone, for the same reasons you mentioned. The only reason I still look on newsgroups is to see if there is anything interesting at all. But to your question - a few places to announce new d20 or rpg related material.

Of course, ENWorld. Others include Gaming Report , Mortality.net , d20zines has recently started posting new d20 related material. These sites also have reviewers who can read your work and do reviews if requested. But I don't think you need that anymore from something else you said in the post.

Hope this helps you or others in the same boat.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. I have two other reviews coming out right now, one here on ENworld and one on ATfantasy. We had one of the old ones on gamingreport.com I think, but I haven't seen mortality.net or d20zines.com. I see from your sig that you are a reviewer, would you be interested in doing a review?

DB

 

[maransreth]

As I don't want to hijack this thread (great to read the original post and the replies), I'll just give you my email address so we can talk about this elsewhere.

But yes I would be interested, but please look at my location: Australia. I'm not sure if the publisher would want to send a review copy to Australia with the postage.

Email though is maransreth@optusnet.com.au and I would be happy to review the sourcebook, esp as it is about magic and I LOVE sourcebooks about magic.

 

[elforcelf]

Celt,talk to Khan's Press about your book.Maybe your book be brought and you be the Happy Celt. elforcelf,pimp for Khan's Press.

 

[tensen]

I have been unsuccessfully trying to have published a gaming book I wrote last year.

I'd be tempted to take a look at it just by your nick alone. It is memorable.
And also intrigued to find out what concept got dropped by two publishers after they "lost interest" in it. Send me an email, since you have your PM turned off on the boards.

 

[tensen]

I wrote the Primer of Practical magic for Pelgrane Press

That was your work? Not bad. I didn't agree with all the spells, but you had it right on with the flavor to the product. From my standpoint it could have done with more flavor, but thats the sort of product I like. It is after all what my company is known for.

In some ways it is a good test of your writing. You get to show you can write in someone else's style. In the other way it is hard, because you don't get to show your own personal style of writing.

 

[Carnifex]

I'm another person whose first work was published recently (Steam & Steel: A Guide to Fantasy Steamworks published by En Publishing). I'll summarise my experiences here:

I was originally asked by Horacio to write something steampunk-y for the now non-existant Horade Publishing company, because he was a big fan of my story hour, and my homebrew features some steam tech and steampunk elements. I was originally intending to write a little mini-setting, like a sample town or city, with a few minor rules for steamtech equipment attached. It then ballooned into a proper steamtech sourcebook, which I naively originally thought would only be 32-64 pages. It ended up 128 pages long

Anyway. I was well into writing Steam & Steel for Horade, when Horade went down. Basically Horacio went out of contact for a while, and I was left with this nearly-completed manuscript for a sourcebook and no one to publish it. I waited quite a while in case Horacio resurfaced as it was him who had encouraged me to write it in the first place, but in the end I decided to see if EN Publishing would be interested. Contacted Hellhound, showed him the manuscript, and he was indeed interested Sadly problems with the art delayed it for months, but it was a gerat relief to see it finally published this month!

I'm now working on several new projects. Due to my work on Steam & Steel, I was 'headhunted' by Malladin's Gate Press to help with one of their lines. I also sent a proposal to Enkwell Press for another sourcebook which they accepted, and also sent in some stuff to open calls as well.

I have no idea how typical my experience is of getting published; what I do now know is the terrifying experience of waiting for the first reviews of your product to turn up, and now the elation of those reviews being good ones

 

[Drifter Bob]

That was your work? Not bad. I didn't agree with all the spells,

Getting the rules balance right for the spells, especially caught off guard as we were by the 3.5 switch, was extremely challenging. A lot of the Dying Earth spells were very different, and Pelgranes own philosophy on rules and balance is the opposite of D&D, (Dying Earth rpg is very rules lite) so it was hard to make some of them fit. I also had no idea the level of detail and research necessary for every spell! I still think most of them came out well balanced though. A few errors were addressed in the Web Enhancement.

but you had it right on with the flavor to the product. From my standpoint it could have done with more flavor, but thats the sort of product I like. It is after all what my company is known for.

In some ways it is a good test of your writing. You get to show you can write in someone else's style. In the other way it is hard, because you don't get to show your own personal style of writing.

Yeah, that was a challenge as well, though I have been such a long term fan of Jack Vance that writing in a sort of 'vancian' style comes fairly easily to me now. Translating the prose of the other Dying Earth rpg writers was sometimes tricky, but a lot of the 'flavor' material which was in the Primer was all mine, such as the chapters on Magic in the Dying Earth and on using The Dying Earth in a Campaign setting. A lot of the d20 rules including the spell failure system and the various Feats were also purely my invention, as were many of the magic items and cantrips, and a few of the spells such as "Gochnours bootlip".

Pelgrane originally didn't really want the 'flavor' sections that were in there, let alone more, but it turned out that they were needed and appreciated. We also did a web enhancement, and a mini adventure, though the latter still hasn't been published yet due to a delay over editing.

I'll have to take a look at what your outfit does. Do you do print or pdfs? I am working on something for The Riddle of Steel right now but when that is done I have a few ideas I'd like to find a home for.

DB

 

[Samothdm]

To keep everyone up-to-date:

The PDF got as high as #29 during the month of June for all products on RPGNow (despite the fact that it was only on sale for 9 days of the month). Currently, it's at #18 for all products for July, and is the #10 d20 book for July so far. It's also the #1 d20 Class/Race book.

I'm working on another proposal for the same publisher, so apparently they liked my work! This one, so far, is turning out to be a little bit harder to write, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

I started a thread in the Rogue's Gallery forum here at ENWorld, constructed using some of the rules from the the Quintessential Aristocrat. The first NPC, Cedrick Arvino, Patron of the Universal Church, is posted here. Take a look and let me know what you think!

 

[Samothdm]

First Review!

I got a pretty good (non-playtest) review today over on the Mongoose forums for the book. It's in this thread, post #11.

I've also got three other reviewers lined up, but with all of the products coming out, most of them have a backlog of reviews to get to.