Friday, May 13, 2016

My First Quarter as a Publisher

Publishing is always something I fantasized about, and I shocked myself when  I simply started doing it when the DMsGuild.com went live. 

Today marks the end of my first quarter as a creator of DnD 5E material and for Cross Planes Game Studio. Thus far, I've published fourteen PDFs under the rules of the Dungeon Master's Guild and three products (two supplements for The Black Hack and 1one supplement for the Cypher System) on it's sister site, OneBookShelf.com.

It's been a wild ride, creating seventeen supplements in seventeen weeks. In some ways, I look at how many posts I did last year and I get upset with myself for only doing a post a day on here, but then I remember what else I've been accomplishing.

What's great is that along the way I've gotten closer with old and new friends who've been kind enough to help me improve my work through their valuable feedback. 

I'd like to offer a giant Thank You to Matt Rieper, Ben Bach, Tim Baker, Mica Fetz, Justin Hall, Carl Matthews, David Black, Thomas Woodall, Talon Waite, Timothy Brannan, Christopher Helton, Erik Tenkar, and my wife, Priscilla. If I've forgotten anyone, I deeply apologize.

In the early days of the DMsGuild.com, the money I was earning made it look like I might be able to finance a vacation, but it slowed down quickly. However, the success of The Class Hack and The Race Hack for the The Black Hack, has been amazing.

I've quickly learned, however, that whatever I make I'm not doing this for the money. I do this for the joy of creating and sharing those creations. At this point, I've used what I'm making to pay for the Worlds of the Cypher System and Savage Rifts Kickstarters and a few PDFs, here and there.

I wouldn't be on this journey without my blog and the fine folks who stop by to read my tiny corner of the Internet. You gave me the courage to try this out and I'm forever in your debt for sharing your valuable time with me.

If anyone has any questions, ask away. I'm fairly transparent and am glad to share whatever wisdom I might have.

As for the future, my goal this year was to publish 52 PDFs in 2016, but I don't think that will happen because this if the first week I won't have a product ready.  I have been given the opportunity to work on podcast which I'm very excited about. Finally, I am collaborating with another game designer on a future product.


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