Defendi
Jun 8th, '07, 06:13 AM
6/8/07
All right, it’s been a busy month or two so I’ve gotten a bit behind in journaling. Let’s start with an update, because there are new people reading this and they probably want to know what’s going on.
I’ve started a company called Final Redoubt Press. I publish and roleplaying setting called The Echoes of Heaven for d20, Rolemaster, HARP, and HERO. We’ve released three products so far to great success and reviews, all in PDF. This is my developer’s journal. Here I promise to lift up the curtains and show my customers all the foibles and trials of a new publisher. The only information I hold back is stuff that’s not mine to reveal.
For more info on the company and setting, see www.finalredoubt.com. (http://www.finalredoubt.com./) Download our free preview and products.
Now that the new intro is done, the most important news: I’ve finished the first draft of product four and turned it into the editor. He’s returned the Bestiary already. I haven’t gone through his edits yet. His wife has come on as a volunteer to do all the brute force work on HERO and D20 conversions as well. She’s already turned in all the monsters . . . for both, I think, so that’s going to make finishing the HERO version and getting it in a snap.
In the meantime, I’ve been doing oh so many things. The Adventure Seeds put me way behind schedule, since I had to play catch-up to get so many written at once. They’ve all been edited and sent back. I’m going to go through the edits on 3a and 3b very soon. Probably before I go to bed today.
I’ve finished the next two short stories. These come after the two already for sale on www.finalredoubt.com (http://www.finalredoubt.com).
I’ve been ramping up for print versions. I have a lot on the plate there, and I still have options coming in. Lulu is the lead contender right now for individual printing and fulfillment, as there’s no startup and I can do soft and hard bound for each of the four systems (8 books) without a lot of large setup fees. I have a larger publisher or two that’s been talking to me about taking me on under one of their imprints. I don’t have enough info to choose on them, yet. In addition, a certain company offered to help me out on printing and they beat Lulu’s price on POD runs. They don’t handle fulfillment, but if I need to order a slightly larger load of books (more than one or two), they are definitely a better way to go than Lulu.
But the Lulu front looks good. I’ve ordered and EN Publishing product from them and looked it over. The cover is beautiful, the paper quality good. The interior art and binding are more than I expected from print on demand. Fulfillment is slow on hard bounds (12 days), about 3 days on soft. Longer than we’d expect in this modern age, but not bad when you realize they have to print the book to order. The only complaint I had on the book I received was the actual text was pixilated. Everyone I know who’s bought books from them is surprised by that, though. I think it’s something special with the EN World pdf.
If I go with Lulu, listing on Amazon is a snap, but there’s a setup fee. I’ll likely only do the d20 version that way, and softbound because their subcontracting printer doesn’t do hardbound in the proper size. Still, that will get the d20 stuff into the browsers of a bigger audience.
I’ve also spoken briefly with Alliance. There are so many upstart publishers that they don’t accept many new ones right off the bat, but there are options to pursue there.
That and the convention season put me WAY behind.
But we’re in the grove again.
One other thing. I fairly big-named writer approached my recently. I can’t be specific, but he’s big enough that most people I ask have read one or more of his books, and the last one made the NY Times Best Seller list. We don’t have a deal yet, but he asked me if I’d be interested in doing an RPG based on his biggest product. There are a lot of rights issues to work out, but it’s a happy thing if it comes through.
All right. I think that’s everything. I’ll let you back to your regularly scheduled gaming.
All right, it’s been a busy month or two so I’ve gotten a bit behind in journaling. Let’s start with an update, because there are new people reading this and they probably want to know what’s going on.
I’ve started a company called Final Redoubt Press. I publish and roleplaying setting called The Echoes of Heaven for d20, Rolemaster, HARP, and HERO. We’ve released three products so far to great success and reviews, all in PDF. This is my developer’s journal. Here I promise to lift up the curtains and show my customers all the foibles and trials of a new publisher. The only information I hold back is stuff that’s not mine to reveal.
For more info on the company and setting, see www.finalredoubt.com. (http://www.finalredoubt.com./) Download our free preview and products.
Now that the new intro is done, the most important news: I’ve finished the first draft of product four and turned it into the editor. He’s returned the Bestiary already. I haven’t gone through his edits yet. His wife has come on as a volunteer to do all the brute force work on HERO and D20 conversions as well. She’s already turned in all the monsters . . . for both, I think, so that’s going to make finishing the HERO version and getting it in a snap.
In the meantime, I’ve been doing oh so many things. The Adventure Seeds put me way behind schedule, since I had to play catch-up to get so many written at once. They’ve all been edited and sent back. I’m going to go through the edits on 3a and 3b very soon. Probably before I go to bed today.
I’ve finished the next two short stories. These come after the two already for sale on www.finalredoubt.com (http://www.finalredoubt.com).
I’ve been ramping up for print versions. I have a lot on the plate there, and I still have options coming in. Lulu is the lead contender right now for individual printing and fulfillment, as there’s no startup and I can do soft and hard bound for each of the four systems (8 books) without a lot of large setup fees. I have a larger publisher or two that’s been talking to me about taking me on under one of their imprints. I don’t have enough info to choose on them, yet. In addition, a certain company offered to help me out on printing and they beat Lulu’s price on POD runs. They don’t handle fulfillment, but if I need to order a slightly larger load of books (more than one or two), they are definitely a better way to go than Lulu.
But the Lulu front looks good. I’ve ordered and EN Publishing product from them and looked it over. The cover is beautiful, the paper quality good. The interior art and binding are more than I expected from print on demand. Fulfillment is slow on hard bounds (12 days), about 3 days on soft. Longer than we’d expect in this modern age, but not bad when you realize they have to print the book to order. The only complaint I had on the book I received was the actual text was pixilated. Everyone I know who’s bought books from them is surprised by that, though. I think it’s something special with the EN World pdf.
If I go with Lulu, listing on Amazon is a snap, but there’s a setup fee. I’ll likely only do the d20 version that way, and softbound because their subcontracting printer doesn’t do hardbound in the proper size. Still, that will get the d20 stuff into the browsers of a bigger audience.
I’ve also spoken briefly with Alliance. There are so many upstart publishers that they don’t accept many new ones right off the bat, but there are options to pursue there.
That and the convention season put me WAY behind.
But we’re in the grove again.
One other thing. I fairly big-named writer approached my recently. I can’t be specific, but he’s big enough that most people I ask have read one or more of his books, and the last one made the NY Times Best Seller list. We don’t have a deal yet, but he asked me if I’d be interested in doing an RPG based on his biggest product. There are a lot of rights issues to work out, but it’s a happy thing if it comes through.
All right. I think that’s everything. I’ll let you back to your regularly scheduled gaming.