Concept to Book in Hand

[myrmidon08]

Anyone know of a book out there that covers the process of what needs to be done to get a RPG book into print. I have a decent idea (I think) but would like to do more research so I can prepare in advance.

Thanks

[Tim Gray]

Depends what you mean by "print".

For some values, the answer might be to negotiate the tortuous waters of Lulu's help pages. If you include PDF, RPGNow's e-Publisher Guide could be useful (though maybe a bit out of date now).

[Destriarch]

Write Book.
Obtain Art.
Layout Book.
Create print-ready PDF.
Print book with reputable printer partner.
Obtain orders from fulfilment house and/or distributors.
Watch the money fail to come rolling in.
Write another one anyway.

:D

Of course you'd not necessarily do it in that order, for instance it's wise to source your fulfilment house and printers early on in the process to get the ball rolling rather than wait until you're ready to go to print, and you certainly wouldn't want to go to print before you knew you could obtain orders from fulfilment or distributors.

Ash

[Adam]

This book may be of interest to you: http://www.starfleetgames.com/book/

[hellsreach]

Write Book.
edit manuscript
Obtain Art.
Layout Book.
re-edit manuscript
Create print-ready PDF.
Print book with reputable printer partner.
Edit proofs before runs
Obtain orders from fulfilment house and/or distributors.
Watch the money fail to come rolling in.
Decide to put the book into PDF; earn beer money
Write another one anyway.
Decide to either not got to print or print POD only
Sell from website only because you cannot get book in distribution
Build a hardcore fan base-- sales increase
Buy more expensive beer.

:D

Of course you'd not necessarily do it in that order, for instance it's wise to source your fulfilment house and printers early on in the process to get the ball rolling rather than wait until you're ready to go to print, and you certainly wouldn't want to go to print before you knew you could obtain orders from fulfilment or distributors.

Ash


Corrected

[Richard Lionheart]

Try this series of books. It has some good information in there.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1668

[Charke]

Myrmidon, what is your experience and what are you planning to do?

Have you done any publishing before? Any freelancing? Are you trying to start a company or just get one of your books published? Have you written the book yet?

If you haven't done any freelancing or publishing before, it would help to write something for another company and see how the process goes.

If this is your first book, and you're at the idea stage with nothing written, I might go to another publisher and try to sell them the idea. Putting a book together is enough work to be daunting and self publishing is plenty more work.

Mark Charke

[The Grey Elf]

What Charke said. Getting into self-publishing for profit in the RPG industry is not an easy prospect, and lots of publishers are open to new ideas. Not new games, necessarily, but find a system whose core book is either generic, or fits your concept, and query the publisher about you writing a sourcebook.