Publisher vs Distributor

When you SELF-PUBLISH you are putting out a NEW "Game" probably from an un-heard of designer. The misconception is that you will sell 1,000+ game sets... The reality of FIRST TIME Creators is that you should expect about 100-250 backers.

It's also not an issue of Project Management, it's an issue of having a talented Graphic Designer ready to RENDER the Kickstarter page and do DAILY updates with different STRETCH GOALS, artwork to make the page look professional, etc. So you definitely need a 100% Graphic Designer who can handle the overall look of the KS page.

Next you need someone with a business acumen who can articulate the PROPER information regarding the game. You need to know your GSM counts and chipboard thickness as well as VAC-TRAY knowledge to be able to fit everything into the right box. Getting the proper quote is very important because realistically most Chinese Manufacturer quote HIGHER prices knowing that many game are only going to be KS-ed. And therefore the margins are not the same as with traditional distribution.

Having said this, a Publisher can handle all the KS-ing, production and Graphic Design. They also have an EXISTING "Fan-base" to promote your game to... We connected with over 1,500 backers and got about 1,000 for our game. The Publisher has also taken over the entire DESIGN PROCESS for the game (in our case over 500 cards all with Artwork and Story blurbs).

Think about Jamey Stegmaeir who has a Fan-base of 17,000+ gamers. When he releases a new game - he targets his backers ... but also GROWS his Fan-base.

If you want to be a PUBLISHER, it's going to take SEVERAL games before you make it. What this means is that it's a question of pumping out games on a steady basis and gradually grow your own Fan-base.

As a "Game Designer", I'm fairly aware (going through the process with "Tradewars - Homeworld") that the whole Publication is NOT FOR ME. I'd rather work on new designs and expansions for our game. The more people that get involved with our game, the better the outcome for me. So I don't want to worry about manufacturing and freight shipping and port fees and fulfillment houses/warehousing, etc. My publisher worries about all those details.

I personally work with their Developer (Joseph Pilkus) and their Game Manager (Mike - who does a whole lot more than just graphics) an we discuss what can be done, budgets, sales points, etc. In addition to playtesting via various groups around the USA (Washington, Virginia, Pensylvania, Florida, etc.) where we can get some collective feedback. We also talk about expansions, artwork, schedules, etc.

But I don't need to oversee this - Mike handles and manages the schedule.

If YOU have NOBODY as of TODAY on some kind of MAILING LIST, do yourself a BIG FAVOR and do something to start getting e-mails of people. Because if you have NOBODY, your KS-odds are not in your favor. Like I said expect 100-250 backers without any sort of Fan-base.

So while you said you have everything a Publisher has to offer... I caution you to be more aware of the situation. OLG has over 1,700 Twitter followers and over 7,000 Likes. That's a GOOD start, like I said we got about 1,000 backers on our KS.

You may WANT to be a Publisher and Self-Publish all your OWN game ideas... But the point is you don't have any Fans to back up your ideas. It's a process ... not instant gratification. And it can be very costly, requiring investment in artwork and talented Graphics (sometimes 3D models too...) There's no road to "INSTANT SUCCESS"... it's a process.

Last thing I wanted to mention -- perhaps the most challenging aspect of all is "discoverability" or PRODUCT AWARENESS. Even if you have had an amazing KS, you got to go further in spreading the word about the game. And this is a process that could take several years. You KS in 2017, the game is made and release in 2018, people start to play and you've got exposure for 2019... What happens NEXT is what matters. Is your game still HOT -- are people still playing it... Does it have enough "juice" to encourage more "expansions", etc.

Just some thoughts... Cheers.

I'm also pretty new to the industry with nothing released yet, but I've signed two games to publishers, so I'm just very slightly ahead of you in the process.

For me, deciding to pitch publishers vs self publishing was about deciding what my goals are for designing games.

• My #1 goal – get as many people as possible to have fun playing my games.

and placing my games with publishers instead of self publishing was the best way to do that.

I think of my core skill is as designing experiences, making objects that provide those experiences, and analyzing how to improve those experiences (In my day job, I design experiences for the retail stores of a large retailer).

However, making crafts, art, prototypes is NOT the same things as full scale production and publication. To self publish, I'd need to be running a whole business, not just doing the parts of design I really enjoy – making games, assembling prototypes, and running playtests.

Even using contractors for most of that work (which you likely should be doing) requires a lot time and of knowledge of the market and process. Self publishing also means I'd be unable to pursue as many games per year, as I'd be tied up doing work on each game well after the design was done instead of moving on to the next title.

It's also about risk: the chances that you mess up somewhere along the way are huge. Hiring artists and graphic designers, doing promotional work, getting review copies and choosing reviewers, spending your marketing budget wisely – it's easy to spend too much money or waste money at each of those stages. Knowing how much to print, choosing a manufacturer for the game, setting your price point for your kickstarter or addons, There are a million little things that can go wrong. And even after the game has shipped – how are you selling additional copies? Can you place the game into distribution chains or retail stores? are you selling direct? are you going to end up with a bunch of copies you sell at a loss just to move them? Lots of small publishers have lost money even on successful KSs because they miscalculated just a few costs or didn't anticipate a failure point

So for me it's a tradeoff: I give up four things I care about:

• control over art direction
• control over graphic design
• control over component quality
• a larger stake in the profits

and of those things, I can certainly provide input to the publisher if I think they are making poor graphic/art choices (though ultimately it is their decision and not mine).

But I get the following benefits:

• Close to zero financial risk
• access to distribution and retail right away
• time freed up to work on other games
• don't need to do customer service directly
• don't need to manage parts of a business I'm not interested in – fulfillment, design for production, manufacturing
• don't need to market as heavily (I do still do some)

You asked if publishers are looking for ideas – they are not. But they are looking for complete, well-tested games, and if you have one of those, you will definitely be able to at least get some meetings. One thing thats pretty wonderful in the boardgame industry is even most of the big players will take a meeting with you if you want to talk to them at a convention. + The UK indie publisher scene is growing leaps and bounds.

I can only speak from my personal skillset, but placing games with publishers is the best option for me. I've signed two games so far this year, and may be able to sign 2 more before the year is out. Were I focusing on self publishing, I think I could really only be doing about 2 game a year max, possibly only 1 if it was a bigger game like Mars Rover. When those games come out at the end of next year and early 2019, maybe I'll be saying something different, but for now, I like focusing on designing games, not running a board game company.

Without talking about the specifics of my personal contracts:

Royalties: You can expect to receive somewhere between 3%-8% of the price of a game wholesale per unit sold, and likely the same percentage on merchandise or add-on content. Note that for most games, the publisher will be selling the game wholesale at around 40% of MSRP, so a 35GBP game at 5% of wholesale is netting you about 70p per copy. If the publisher is going to kickstarter, they are getting a higher percentage of the profits, but depending on how your agreement is worded, you may be getting 5% of that higher selling price as well.

Profit sharing: It's rarer in the industry to structure a game contract based on profit, and most of the time, you shouldn't do it unless you really trust the publisher. It's very easy to make the "profit" from a game shrink into other aspects of the publishers business, such as marketing or warehousing spends. Better to base contract on selling price, wholesale price, or net invoices. That being said, I have one acquaintance who has done very well on a profit share contract, though his game went to three print runs.

Advances: Some publishers pay them, some don't. I was offered an advance on one game that was roughly the 1000 unit print run's royalties. So I'm going to see additional money only if they can sell more than 1000 of the game. I'm not picky about advances as I try not to spend TOO much money on prototype development and shipping protos to testers.

More:
There's a wealth of great info about contract structures over in the cardboard edison reports page.

Why would you post this comment in the thread as it surely doesn't advance the conversation.

I greatly appreciate the time and energy that so many designers have expended to share their stories and experiences, among which I certainly include John. In a like manner, I'm thrilled to have assisted many folks along this exciting, creative journey.