The lead-off of this article is a sobering reminder of the bonkers nature of scale in TTRPGs vs everywhere else: I have *taught* with the Micro RPG book, it’s sold over 12K copies, & that isn’t anywhere near a success for a Big 5 publisher. - ThreadSky

friede.bsky.social • 7 days ago

The lead-off of this article is a sobering reminder of the bonkers nature of scale in TTRPGs vs everywhere else: I have *taught* with the Micro RPG book, it’s sold over 12K copies, & that isn’t anywhere near a success for a Big 5 publisher.

Reposted from Rascal News

What does it take to convince a big five publisher to buy your tabletope game? @oneshotrpg.bsky.social‬ explains how -- and why -- he worked with Simon & Schuster to publish his Desceneded from the Queen game, Oh Captain, My Captain!

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hagiologist.bsky.social•7 days ago

The power of a major publishing house is surreal. The ability to not just put a book on a shelf in a game store but Barnes and Noble, Target and freaking Michaels is absolutely absurd. Through Amazon I can see some of the industry wide sales reports for books I've contributed to and it's wild.

oneshotrpg.bsky.social•7 days ago

It's wild when you see the barriers that exist even at this level.

Ultimate RPG is in most major bookstores, Düngeonmeister is there too with the addition of Michaels. But so far we can't break into Target because it's up to one person deciding if we are a good fit.

hagiologist.bsky.social•7 days ago

And that's all for top notch plug n play 5E applicable resources. I have two full systems I'm working on and I'm almost certainly shopping them to Evil Hat or self publishing just because I can't imagine the folks I get to work with taking a risk on a non D&D product

shing.bsky.social•7 days ago

I am at ~5000 copies of A Mending sold, which is successful in this niche field, and has been a decent chunk of my income. I have maybe 5-6x that of those sales on my Big 5 graphic novel, which is critically acclaimed AND commercially unsuccessful, and has made me a fraction of that income.

shing.bsky.social•7 days ago

And obviously I still make comics because I love the medium and the people I work with, but the scale of Big 5 pub is absolutely enormous and even with an amazing and supportive team, fundamentally not built to support most creators.

oneshotrpg.bsky.social•7 days ago

It's a pretty big trade to have the publisher take care of the publishing side. I have learned that I'm not suited to the logistical side of publishing. I write and my duty for the most part ends after editing.

oneshotrpg.bsky.social•7 days ago

Everything I wrote is still making money without me having to do anything else.

You need a big hit or multiple projects a year to make it work financially, but for me that's easier than managing a separate business.

shing.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yeah, I get it! I am still working with both traditional Big 5 publishers and self-publishing at the same time, and enjoy both. but I can currently make self-publishing income equivalent to a full time job and I cannot make my Big 5 publisher income a full job, even if I did it full time.

dicedeeds.bsky.social•7 days ago

My toxic trait is that I look at this article and think 'I'll do it my way'

But the reality of it is that I would love to be able to have someone do the publishing + marketing for products.

hamsandwchwoman.bsky.social•7 days ago

Will be interesting to see how Daggerheart does now that Darrington Press has a deal with MacMillan

topmarx.bsky.social•7 days ago

I think Perilous Wilds sold something like 18k copies over two editions and the span of about a decade? If that's not the best-selling PBTA supplement then thats gotta be up there. Probably one of the best selling works in PBTA period.

loremistress93.bsky.social•7 days ago

This article really puts things into perspective!

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