Overview

  • A Year in RPG Self Publishing: Year 1 by Ian Yusem. This is a great peak behind the curtain on some of the realities of self publishing. Ian does a great job of consistantly opening their practice (and a few of their blog posts about Kickstarters are linked in the funding page).
  • Zine or Pamplet? The format you choose to present your writting will be a factor when trying to market your game. Jared Sinclair (bookseller for spearwitch, editor, and writer) wrote a great thread of the financial considerations to choosing your format.
  • My Adventures In Selling Stuff by Sean Patrick Cain is a fantastic series of twitter thread that detail Sean’s journey in printing, selling, & shipping his book Long Haul 1983.
  • Publishing Costs & Budgeting, Sean McCoy

Selling PDFs Of Your Game

If you are selling your digital game, two major market places for selling digital games are itch.io as a physical game (yes, ttrpgs are tagged as physical games even though they are PDFs) or on drivethrurpg.

Printing & Publishing (Yourself)

So you’ve put your game on itch or drivethru and you want to get a print run going. Here are some resources that can help guide you in the right direction.

Printing Options

There are a few different options in terms of printers that you can use. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but is a place to start.

  • Mixam is probably the most common/popular way to print physical ttrpg zines.
  • Tabletop Hotdish is a newer small business printer who has been working with indie zine publishers (and does free print proofs). Currently they are launching a full website, but dm on twitter to see about starting a partnership.
  • short Run Printing
  • Jukebox is another web based printer that offers a ton of different formats (stickers, booklets, brochures, etc). Often seen as a good mixam alternative.
  • Spencer Printing offers both offset & digital printing, as well as short-run book printing.
  • Taylor Specialty Books
  • Smartpress
  • Pet Riso Studio is a US based risograph printer.
  • Lulu allows you to upload your print files and sell print on demand either through their platform or your own store.

PoD Steps:

  1. Write and design you adventure, getting it ready to print! Remember that each printer has its own specific margin/design guides.
  2. Set it up as Print on Demand Lulu (resources) https://www.lulu.com/publishing-toolkit Formatting (Book Creation Guide) Includes PDF specifications, spine guides, and formatting terms to help you print your book https://www.lulu.com/sell/sell-on-lulu (selling on the Lulu bookstore allows you to set up print on demand for no cost, sell direct to customers, and Lulu prints/drop ships them). Drivethru (resources) Overview: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/joininfo2.php Book cost and formats: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/pub_pod_cost.php Quick book specifications: https://help.drivethrupartners.com/hc/en-us/articles/12780800178583-Quick-Specifications-for-Print-Books#h_01HFVSQQNE7CNT9CBGDAMQC835
  3. Price your work. A pretty standard rate for adventures is $10-15 for zines, 20+ for perfect bound soft cover, 25+ for hardcovers. But you can set it to whatever you like.
  4. Launch the title! 5.Start making money of print titles as well as your digital options! If writing for Liminal Horror
  5. Reach out to the LH team to let them know your work is in print:
    • discord
    • LH library submission
    • DM
  6. LH team will post it to the library, the main hub page, and promote print projects regularly in newsletters, etc

Publishing Partnerships

One option for funding a print run is to partner with a publisher/distributor. Many indie storefronts regularly partner with game writers to get a finished game to print. This tends to involve a partnership where the store fronts some (or all) of the cost to print. Afterwards they handle distribution, and after the print costs are recouped they pay regular royalties to the game’s designer. This is the avenue I went through for Liminal Horror (I had it published through Exalted Funeral Press).

  • If publishing it yourself is out of reach (logistically or financially), it is worthwhile to reach out to one of the great small ttrpg retailers listed below. Sometimes all it takes is emailing the right person to make a connection that can help you get into print.

Selling You Game

One option for selling your printed game is to sell it yourself (on your website, as an add-on on itch, or using some other platform). The other option is to try and get some of the fantastic online sellers to carry it. This means reaching out to their buyers. Below are some different sites that sell ttrpg zines along with where they are based out of. If they are located in a different country, it may be benefitial to coordinate with them about doing a print run near them to cut down on international shipping.

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Liminal Horror is developed by Gobin Archives, Josh Domanski, and Zach Hazard Vaupen