Name My Book Winner

[terin]

And the winner is:

"The Indie Game Developer's Guide to Selling Games"

From Matteo at Ragdoll Software!

Visit http://vgsmart.blogspot.com for more info on the category winners!

Congrats to all the winners and thanks for the HUGE pile of suggestions.

[PoV]

Mike is really creative I guess, but not creative enough to reach that #1 spot!
Drat. Ah well, I tried. ;)

[soniCron]

Can't much say I like that name. Not catchy, way too long, boring... (I find it best to think twice if a single word appears more than once in the same title.) Oh, well. Looking forward to the book, anyway! :)

[Tom Gilleland]

I have to agree with Sonicron that your choice is boring. But it will probably Google very well with all those keywords. I'm still going to buy one when you ship.

Tom

[Andy]

Well. I took no part in this but basically Yes. Why not just:
Guide to Selling Your Games

?

Or something else simple and obvious...

[Alex Hanson-White]

congrats to the winner,
the winning title seems pretty straight forward, so im not surprised that it may be most suitable, although with a creative medium being games, i'd rather see something more creative

[svero]

Id have to agree that the title is too long. Im a big fan of clarity and straightforwardness, but that title doesnt really work for me. Also don't like the repeat of the word game.

[Sharpfish]

The repeat is pretty weird sounding. I think it is implicit that you will be selling *games* if you already say "Independent Games Developer", what about:

"The Independent Developer's Guide To Selling Games"

OR

"The Indie Game Developer's Guide To Selling"

Can you not adjust it? Ok so you have your winner but a bit of "fine tuning" wouldn't hurt? :)

[Don]

A little tweaking wouldn't hurt (winner is still valid ofcourse) ... what about: The Indie Game Developer's Sales and Marketing Guide

[svero]

I still say that title is too long. How about...

"The independent or casual game developers guide to selling independent or casual games online on the Internet or casual games portals from the comfort of your own home"

There you go. Leave no stone unturned.

- S

[Savant]

I agree with the above that there are WAY too many words. You can't relate that to a friend easily. "Hey, have you read the new book 'The Indie Game Developer's Guide to Selling Games'?" Doesn't work.

[Anthony Flack]

Maybe, but I don't mind it. I think the repeating of "game" is good. It emphasises the point that you make games, so shouldn't you know how to sell games? if there's too many words, you just make some small and some big. The Indie Game Developer's GUIDE TO SELLING GAMES.

Or, you could just call it HOW TO SELL VIDEO GAMES.

[jankoM]

I like sharpfish's more. What about just "Selling Indie Games" or "How-to Sell Indie Games".

edit: ok, now it seems I am cloning Antonys ideas, but he was just typing faster

ok some more poped to my mind "Selling Indie Games Bibble", "From Games To Sales", "Indie game marketing handbook", "Sell your game"... must stop now...

[wazoo]

I don't care if it's called "The ABC's of Indie Game Marketing" or "Fleeb Flubb Flob : Surviving the Noodle"

I'm still buying it.

Gratz @terin, I can't wait to see it. Well done!

[Anthony Flack]

Actually, I'd be quite interested to learn how to survive the noodle. If there's nothing in the book about that, I'm sending it back.

[Andy]

If Joe will publish in the book the list of emails to send your pressreleases please just let me know here guys! - I'll purchase the list immediately.

If he doesn't - please keep in mind that he doesn't say you whole the truth in his book. :p

[terin]

I debated the long vs. not long title. Descriptive vs. "less descriptive"

I do agree, in hindsight, that the word game being repeated is a little weird :) So, that is ONE less word.

See- the debate I came up with was to use a creative name, like Purple Cow (Ok, purple cow is not a very good example for numerous reasons) or to use a descriptive name.

In the end I came to two conlsuions:

First, people don't buy books because it has a creative name. Creative COVER, yes, creative name... no. Believe me, this book is going to have a good cover :)

Second, people DO buy books because it has information they need. Book name therefore should tell them what information it has.

And so: The runner up lost the race
Title: Smart Marketing
Subtitle:An Indie Developer's Guide (possibly "to sales" or "to selling games")

I think in a competitive field a creative name CAN lead to increased sales (you remember something creative)- but since there is no competition at this time... descriptive is the way to go!

Plus I think this title will get better google results :)

-Joe

[terin]

ALSO, and mildly important:

The layout of the title will PROBABLY look like this:

The Indie Developer's Guide To
Selling Games

[Andy]

What is "The Indie" Joe?

I couldn't imagine the definition by three years ago and don't think I agree with the term even now... Do you really need this so much?

Nope. I'm not pretending on the award: Let it goes to the proper person - Matteo. ;)

[soniCron]

The layout of the title will PROBABLY look like this: Not in 99.999% of the cases when the buyer is skimming the book spines. :)

[Savant]

Heh, that reminds me. David Michael's book has "The Indie Game Development Survival Guide" on the front cover but the name he should have used appears on the spine: "Indie Game Development". :)

[terin]

Like the French, my book has no spine.

(Kidding! Sheesh, you guys are so touchy).

It isn't in book stores and this version never will be :) - Ergo, no need for a spine.

-Joe

[soniCron]

Oh, so this is self published? Are you going to print/bind it yourself? (Well, send it out to be done, I mean. :) )

[terin]

I'm going to get some Print on order copies through Cafepress. If they meet my quality needs I will go with them. Otherwise I will probably use Lulu.

-Joe

[soniCron]

And an ebook for good measure, right?

[terin]

I can't seem to justify having an e-book. Risk and hassle vs. reward is pretty low. The first run is going to be print only at this time. I may slap it over onto E-book format after the first revision.

-Joe

[digriz]

If you use lulu.com, you can specify ebook and printed version..You can even make a custom sales page on their secure site.

[Ricardo C]

Meh... Sounds like a working title. I mean, sure, it's best to go to with a descriptive title, but come on, a contest to come up with such an obvious name?

I'm still buying it, though. So good job, I guess :D

[terin]

Yeah, my problem with Lulu for E-books is they take 20%. That's a BIT high :) For printed books its still 20% + cost of printing- but at least their cost of printing is lower than Cafepress (still ends up costing about 10% more)

-Joe

[digriz]

Yeah, i agree about the costs. I did look at amazons print-on-demand service too, their costs are way above lulu's....I guess it's worth shopping round a little, but for the general service lulu seems like a good option.

Good luck with it all anyway; i'm looking forward to buying my copy.

How much are you going to sell it for?

[terin]

How much would you pay for it :)

I haven't decided on the exact price, bouncing between two figures currently. Seriously, how much is it worth to you ;-)

-Joe

[digriz]

How much would you pay for it :)

I haven't decided on the exact price, bouncing between two figures currently. Seriously, how much is it worth to you ;-)

-Joe

Hard to say, it depends whether it helps me sell my product ;)

I've never really bought any books like this, but if it was a computer manual i'd expect to pay anywhere between $20 - $60...

Personally, i'd consider paying up to $30 dollars for it...but it depends on how big the book is and how extensive the information is too.

[soniCron]

Seriously, how much is it worth to you ;-) Without a chance to skim through it, it's worth nothing to me, and I don't think anyone else will be able to give you anything more valuable until a page count, table of contents, excerpt, and perhaps on-line resources become available. Because I know you, I'd be inclined to pay up to $20 for it if you said it was worth that much, and I suspect many others here would do the same. But that's an incidental choice that shouldn't influence your pricing decision because it is fundamentally valueless.