This is awesome. I've been all over the industry (mostly retail and now distribution), and even tho I've done a tiny bit of publishing, I really love seeing publishing costs and margins broken down so clearly and pointedly like this. Thanks for sharing, Sean!
I would love a part two for this. Personally I would love some monetization alternatives to crowdfunding. Right now it's difficult to see why someone would not just run a BackerKit campaign.
Let me think about that one. I do think overwhelmingly most people should crowdfund but I can layout the case for why you wouldn’t and what your path would be I think pretty succinctly!
I ran into a comment from a developer of a setting book about how they find adventure modules to be the most-requested yet worst-selling product. They sounded utterly discouraged from module production. I’d be curious how going long on a system has gone from your perspective; Mothership seems to have done quite well on the module front. Is there an overlooked factor that might explain the different experiences?
That’s a great question and I think for me what’s worked has really been thinking of each adventure as something “big” that expands the scope of the game into some territory it hasn’t gone to before. This really requires asking questions like “what is the thing that I would be most excited to play,” or thinking of toolkits that would make my life much much easier.
This is hard work really! That’s product design at its core. Trying to find something indispensable to your customers. So the advice here is basically “take big swings.” Rather than the “here’s another cool adventure,” it’s more like “this is absolutely the thing we think will improve the game the most right now knowing what exists and what we’ve done in the past.” We try not to retread the same material over and over. It’s hard!
Interesting. So, don’t think of a book as purely rules / setting / adventure - always provide a compelling mix of the three. That’s become the norm for a lot of core system books. It’s common with settings. And adventure modules seem to be slower as a category to reflect that thinking.
Huh. The most successful bestiaries also often bring rules and adventures too.
This is awesome. I've been all over the industry (mostly retail and now distribution), and even tho I've done a tiny bit of publishing, I really love seeing publishing costs and margins broken down so clearly and pointedly like this. Thanks for sharing, Sean!
Thanks for the kind words!
I would love to see a part two
I would love a part two for this. Personally I would love some monetization alternatives to crowdfunding. Right now it's difficult to see why someone would not just run a BackerKit campaign.
Let me think about that one. I do think overwhelmingly most people should crowdfund but I can layout the case for why you wouldn’t and what your path would be I think pretty succinctly!
I ran into a comment from a developer of a setting book about how they find adventure modules to be the most-requested yet worst-selling product. They sounded utterly discouraged from module production. I’d be curious how going long on a system has gone from your perspective; Mothership seems to have done quite well on the module front. Is there an overlooked factor that might explain the different experiences?
That’s a great question and I think for me what’s worked has really been thinking of each adventure as something “big” that expands the scope of the game into some territory it hasn’t gone to before. This really requires asking questions like “what is the thing that I would be most excited to play,” or thinking of toolkits that would make my life much much easier.
This is hard work really! That’s product design at its core. Trying to find something indispensable to your customers. So the advice here is basically “take big swings.” Rather than the “here’s another cool adventure,” it’s more like “this is absolutely the thing we think will improve the game the most right now knowing what exists and what we’ve done in the past.” We try not to retread the same material over and over. It’s hard!
Interesting. So, don’t think of a book as purely rules / setting / adventure - always provide a compelling mix of the three. That’s become the norm for a lot of core system books. It’s common with settings. And adventure modules seem to be slower as a category to reflect that thinking.
Huh. The most successful bestiaries also often bring rules and adventures too.
Thank you! That is a really useful perspective.