The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Buying Time

Are you a creator or a businessman? That's today's discussion. Wait, don't start talking, I don't want an answer yet. You need more information and...

What, you're upset I told you to sit down and listen? You must be some sort of 'artiste', then -- great, just read the first half of this and go away. This is about the odd business of self-publishing your creations, and iron hides are required.

I've been seeing a recurrent issue here, a variant of "I want to publish my own game". Usually, they are asking whether it's a good idea to use fulfillment houses, marketing services, or vanity publishers. They've taken the step of saying "I will publish" and are curious about the best path.

So let's back up. That statement -- "I want to publish my own game". Nowhere does it assume "I want to start my own gaming company". I mean, you want to play a game of baseball, does that mean you buy a AAA-league team and start recruiting? No, it means you pick up a ball and get together with some friends and play.

Likewise, we're looking at 2 completely different ballgames here. If you want to publish your own game, you can do that pretty easily.

Now, there's always the chance you'll have an idea that is so strikingly original, it'll sell itself, right? The odds of this are easy to evaluate. WotC's Design Contest got over 10,000 one-page setting submissions. So you can assume any idea you have, you're competing with 10,000 other people who are able to articulate their ideas. Hey, what's the odds your idea is unique?

What matters is how you express it, and whether you have the sticktoitivness to get it to market-- and keep it in the market.

It all boils down to: Time versus Money

Handle a task yourself, and that's less time you have to do things that are more important-- things only you can do. Heck, even handling freelancers or dealing with your fulfillment house is going to eat into your time.

Are you ready to run a business? Does accountancy turn you on? Is the concept of sitting up past midnight putting 150 copies of your book into packages to send to reviewers fill you with bliss? Do you get a thrill catching typos? Have I sufficiently impressed into you that business is work, completely different from that masochistic joy that is the creative process?

There are two routes for this. You could devote your life to it, plunge ahead, do all the work yourself. Or you could pay other people to do the parts you can't do, leaving you more time for the two fundamentals: branding and positioning. No, wait, I mean 'creation' and 'marketing'.

If it's your game product, you're the creative lead. You gotta be. That's also the fun part of the business.

You also have to take the helm for marketing. Consultants and firms are great, but only you know your products well enough to be convincing, so you'll still have to do a lot of the work here.

* Now you can also do the other tasks yourself.

* Or you can use freelancers, subcontract it out.

* Or you can outsource to an established firm.

Here's a handy time budget to get you started. We're assuming you got hit by the clue stick and at least have an accountant, editor and layout person, plus someone (likely a fulfillment house) handling sales.

Creating your work: Assume 4 pgs/night raw text, then ship to an editor, so a 72 pg book is 3 weeks.
Setting up a corporation through an accountant: 1 day
Hassling your freelance editor and layout person and doing revisions: half a week.
Designing your website: 2 weeks
Updating your website: 30 minutes/day (thus 2/3 day/month)
Handling routine company emails: 2 hrs/week (1 day/month)
Handling routine website and customer emails: 1 hr/night (1.5 days/month)
Postal mail and bills: 1 hr/week (0.25 days/month)
Gathering information for your accountant: 2 hrs/month
Signing and mailing out tax and business forms (that your accountant prepared for you): 1 hr/month
Shipping review/comp copies: half day/month
Coming up with that snazzy ad: 2 hrs
Redoing that ad when your significant other points out its flaws: 4 hrs

So for your first three months of existence, you'll be working over 42 days just doing the bare minimum to keep a company going and produce a single product. And that's with all the help you can afford! Assuming moderate 6-day work weeks, that means two thirds of your working hours are devoted to just staying alive.

And, of course, at the end of three months, you have to be ready to release product #2. And test your products. And arrange Con and Trade Show stuff. Oops -- I don't think we have much time budgeted for that.

Now, do you really want to handle your own printer brokering, sales, order taking, phoning of distributors, et cetera? You know, the entire set of skills for pushing your product through the sales chain, that you probably haven't ever done before, but that you now have to learn and do well in your non-existent spare time?

So the lesson here is Use Other People. Really. Time isn't just money, it's survival. Spend your money well, but spend your time even more wisely.

Soapbox: About the Industry

Buying Time

Buying Time

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Soapbox: About the Industry Buying Time by Sandy Antunes Jul 04,2002	Buying Time Are you a creator or a businessman? That's today's discussion. Wait, don't start talking, I don't want an answer yet. You need more information and... What, you're upset I told you to sit down and listen? You must be some sort of 'artiste', then -- great, just read the first half of this and go away. This is about the odd business of self-publishing your creations, and iron hides are required. I've been seeing a recurrent issue here, a variant of "I want to publish my own game". Usually, they are asking whether it's a good idea to use fulfillment houses, marketing services, or vanity publishers. They've taken the step of saying "I will publish" and are curious about the best path. So let's back up. That statement -- "I want to publish my own game". Nowhere does it assume "I want to start my own gaming company". I mean, you want to play a game of baseball, does that mean you buy a AAA-league team and start recruiting? No, it means you pick up a ball and get together with some friends and play. Likewise, we're looking at 2 completely different ballgames here. If you want to publish your own game, you can do that pretty easily. Now, there's always the chance you'll have an idea that is so strikingly original, it'll sell itself, right? The odds of this are easy to evaluate. WotC's Design Contest got over 10,000 one-page setting submissions. So you can assume any idea you have, you're competing with 10,000 other people who are able to articulate their ideas. Hey, what's the odds your idea is unique? What matters is how you express it, and whether you have the sticktoitivness to get it to market-- and keep it in the market. It all boils down to: Time versus Money Handle a task yourself, and that's less time you have to do things that are more important-- things only you can do. Heck, even handling freelancers or dealing with your fulfillment house is going to eat into your time. Are you ready to run a business? Does accountancy turn you on? Is the concept of sitting up past midnight putting 150 copies of your book into packages to send to reviewers fill you with bliss? Do you get a thrill catching typos? Have I sufficiently impressed into you that business is work, completely different from that masochistic joy that is the creative process? There are two routes for this. You could devote your life to it, plunge ahead, do all the work yourself. Or you could pay other people to do the parts you can't do, leaving you more time for the two fundamentals: branding and positioning. No, wait, I mean 'creation' and 'marketing'. If it's your game product, you're the creative lead. You gotta be. That's also the fun part of the business. You also have to take the helm for marketing. Consultants and firms are great, but only you know your products well enough to be convincing, so you'll still have to do a lot of the work here. * Now you can also do the other tasks yourself. * Or you can use freelancers, subcontract it out. * Or you can outsource to an established firm. Here's a handy time budget to get you started. We're assuming you got hit by the clue stick and at least have an accountant, editor and layout person, plus someone (likely a fulfillment house) handling sales. Creating your work: Assume 4 pgs/night raw text, then ship to an editor, so a 72 pg book is 3 weeks. Setting up a corporation through an accountant: 1 day Hassling your freelance editor and layout person and doing revisions: half a week. Designing your website: 2 weeks Updating your website: 30 minutes/day (thus 2/3 day/month) Handling routine company emails: 2 hrs/week (1 day/month) Handling routine website and customer emails: 1 hr/night (1.5 days/month) Postal mail and bills: 1 hr/week (0.25 days/month) Gathering information for your accountant: 2 hrs/month Signing and mailing out tax and business forms (that your accountant prepared for you): 1 hr/month Shipping review/comp copies: half day/month Coming up with that snazzy ad: 2 hrs Redoing that ad when your significant other points out its flaws: 4 hrs So for your first three months of existence, you'll be working over 42 days just doing the bare minimum to keep a company going and produce a single product. And that's with all the help you can afford! Assuming moderate 6-day work weeks, that means two thirds of your working hours are devoted to just staying alive. And, of course, at the end of three months, you have to be ready to release product #2. And test your products. And arrange Con and Trade Show stuff. Oops -- I don't think we have much time budgeted for that. Now, do you really want to handle your own printer brokering, sales, order taking, phoning of distributors, et cetera? You know, the entire set of skills for pushing your product through the sales chain, that you probably haven't ever done before, but that you now have to learn and do well in your non-existent spare time? So the lesson here is Use Other People. Really. Time isn't just money, it's survival. Spend your money well, but spend your time even more wisely.