Should I publish my idea or sell it?

[Gaon]

I started putting together a book about goblins with about 20 new goblins, prestige classes and more.

I was wondering if I should turn it into a PDF and try to sell it myself through RPGnow and other sites, or if I should try to sell it to a larger company and have them take care of the technicalityies?

 

[philreed]

What do you think?

It all depends on how much work you're willing to do? In most cases, writing a short book is less work than actually selling it.

But I am a big fan of people doing everything on their own. It's good experience no matter what you do later in life.

 

[jmucchiello]

The real difficulty of going on your own is getting the book out there and advertising it so that it sells. If you don't mind plugging your book on a bunch of website; Supporting your customers; Being a business; then be a business. It is tiring and also fulfilling. If you cannot devote that much time to do that shop the idea around.

 

[jgbrowning]

The real difficulty of going on your own is getting the book out there and advertising it so that it sells. If you don't mind plugging your book on a bunch of website; Supporting your customers; Being a business; then be a business. It is tiring and also fulfilling. If you cannot devote that much time to do that shop the idea around.

This is one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is not as a business. If you just want to put it together and put it out, you're not required to have a web site to support your product or to spend time plugging your book. That's only a requirement if you want to treat it as a business. If you just want it to be a hobby and enjoy the thought that others value your ideas treat it that way.


joe b.

 

[Frilf]

Writing up a concept and selling it off is a good way to get started. However, if you feel the product is somewhat "your baby" so to speak, you may not want to go that route. It really depends, as Phil said, on the amount of work you're willing to do. Going from concept to finished product is a long road, though, but a very good learning experience.

I also agree with Joe B. that you don't have to make it a "business" if you don't want to. Just write what you like because you dig the hobby.

Hope all that made some sort of sense.
Cheers!
Ian

 

[Iron_Chef]

Why don't you shop it around first. If you can't get a decent offer, then self-publish.

Here's a couple publishers whose product lines have such a niche to fill:

Mongoose: Pitch it as "Slayer's Guide To Goblins"
Goodman Games: Pitch it as "Complete Book of Goblins"

Good luck!!!

 

[Blacksad]

if you go to the selfpublishing route, you might want to hire the author of the goblin a day thread in the Rogue Galery for a follow-up book, or to expand the first one.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=116

Another thing to consider, is that if your book get good reviews, you might be able to get a publisher to print it (ala malhavoc or natural 20 press) after publishing it as a PDF.

 

[Strutinan]

Over here at DaemonEye I've taken in two VPs who want to publish their pet projects. Basically, I help them with gussying thier stuff up when its ready to go, getting it on ROGNow, ect. They help me by providing 10% of the gross to business expenses (so far our #1 priority is saving enough for a non-geocities site). We help each-other because we consolidate our work under one "flag", providing each of us with a geater maret preasence than we would have as individuals.

At least in theory. Right now DaemonEye is still in it's infancy, and I'm the only one to produce product. It looks like the d20 guide is going good, and we will (hopefully) have our licensing issues ironed out, so the future looks bright!

The point of this is to illustrate that there is a third alternative for you: limited partnership. You produce the written book, and collaborate with your parent organization on the publishing aspect. Then the two of you split the profits. You get the benefits of a guide through the morass of publishing (even by PDF), and immediate market penetration by using thier name. They gain the benefits of a wider product line (diversification is a good thing), and a larger product library. In other words: a win-win situation. Just be sure to live up to your end of the bargain! I've already had two "vapor-authors", and let me tell you: it does NOT promote a good working relationship when you bug out with a near-finished manuscript after the other guy put in alot of work to help you get it to that state!