The Indie Developer’s Guide to Selling Games Now Available

[terin]

The Indie Developer’s Guide to Selling Games Now Available

May 1, 2006- VGSmart, a leader in independent game marketing, announced today that their first published book, The Indie Developer’s Guide to Selling Games is now available in print and PDF forms from their website, www.indiegameguide.com. The book is an informal look at game marketing, from development to post-published. While neither a research paper nor a text book, it contains a mix of opinions, facts, and crash courses in marketing. It is written to be an enjoyable read even if the developer in question despises marketing.

The book is divided into six main chapters, covering marketing in pre-production, production, release, post-release, and looking to the future. The sixth chapter covers some advanced marketing theories, including Joseph Lieberman’s Motivational Pyramid, a unique perspective on motivating the sale of games by using a hierarchical structure of motivational factors specifically found in games.

Samples of the book’s first three pages and the table of contents are available at the www.indiegameguide.com website. More information on VGSmart can be located at www.vgsmart.com.

[Tom Gilleland]

Okay, I just ordered mine from CafePress.com. I was going to wait for the movie, but usually the book is better anyway. :)

Tom

[Arkadesh]

Fix the spelling mistake on front page :)
"In the Take the Tour section you may browse a sample sub-chapter in the book as well as take a look at the complete Table of Contets."
There are also problems with Opera browser - the buttons at the top work a bit weird - like only their top pixel row was hotspot.
And congratulations - I'm just preparing to read sample chapter

cheers,
Arkadesh

[terin]

Sad to say my HTML ability is pretty lacking. I can only make it work in MIE.

Spelling errors I can fix though :)

-Joe

[terin]

Btw, since I am rediculously nervous about this (Just because I publish games all the time doesn't mean I am calm about publishing a book) - Anyone planning on the paperback book may want to wait until I am certain they are printing without error. My test copy came out fine, but hey... im nervous :(

I feel silly :)

-Joe

[Cartman]

Well I just ordered the pdf. Congratulations by the way. I'm looking forward to a good read.

[mustardseed]

Congrats you made the front page of Kotaku! (http://www.kotaku.com)

That should drive quite a bit of gaming traffic your way, hopefully that will translates into lots of sales. The author of the post seemed a little skeptical of your credentials though since all he had was the press release and you site to go by.

We may need someone who has an account there to post a comment explaining a bit maybe (I tried but apparently you have to be 'invited' to be able to comment).

[PoV]

Comic Sans MS! :D

Congratz Joe. Never even considered using Cafepress for book production.

Oh, and it seems there's a coupon code. Sadly, I wasn't able to use it, but apparently "JOUSTTULIPS" will save you $5 from Cafepress, if you're new. In theory, that shouldn't hurt Joe's bottom line.

[Drake]

"JOUSTTULIPS" will save you $5 from Cafepress, if you're new.Thanks for the tip, PoV!

I would have ordered the tree-free version, but I'm hoping to get my copy signed next week. :D

[Gilzu]

Humph.

Purchasing a downloadable version just proved me how i'd be more inclined to buy something if i knew i could get it right away and not wait for it.

anyway, my pdf *should* be on the way, depending on BMT.

[terin]

Let me know asap if it arrives- I havent been able to see it in action (I'm sure we'll get it sorted out if it doesnt)

-joe

[urbansquall]

Guess you got your PDF issues sorted. ;) Card swiped.

[Cartman]

FYI Joe,

The BMI micro transaction went very fast. Took about 10 minutes for the email to come in with the download site.

One thing that irritated me was that their site shows a Paypal logo, however I couldn't find anywhere to choose paypal to pay for the transaction.

[Gilzu]

Let me know asap if it arrives- I havent been able to see it in action (I'm sure we'll get it sorted out if it doesnt)

-joe

It took them about 4 hours, but i got my dl link :)

I'm about halfway through the book, great read, well written.

congrats :)

[dustin1138]

Bought the PDF. I think the email arrived in less than 2 minutes, flat!

[Jon Trainer]

Congratulations!

Purchased the PDF version. Reads great so far!

[Addictive 247]

PDF link came through about 1 min after purchase :)

Good read so far, although I've been skipping around a bit (which I shouldn't do!).
In the section "Contact Resources" (Page 114) you mention DIY Games, which funnily enough hasn't been updated since December 2005 !

[Sakura Games]

come on, some of you, upload the PDF and share the link please... :D

joking!

[terin]

I know about DIY Games. I pondered removing it, but since the site is still there there is a CHANCE it will come back to life. I figured better to leave it in there than to leave it out.

-Joe

[Glen Pawley]

I still need to release my first game, and I found the book very informative. Definitely explained some things I had heard about but had no concrete idea how to approach and tackle. Thank you Joe. You've given me a lot to chew on.

[spellcaster]

Is it a "normal" PDF or does it use a CRM system? if it's a normal PDF, I'll buy it right now, but the Adobe CRM seems to crash my System more often than not, so I'd like to be sure before I buy it.

[kevglass]

Just ordered my paper copy - should be here tomorrow. Really looking forward to reading through.

Kev

[terin]

The PDF is just a normal "press quality" PDF.
-Joe

[vjvj]

Just purchased the pdf! I'll probably pick up a copy of the paperback version as well...

Congrats!

[pls]

Bought the pdf version... it will be my weekend reading.

PLS

[svero]

From the looks of this thread the irony here is that Terin will make more from this book than most people around here do selling games :-) Well I'm convinced. Twilight... e-publishing... yeah... Has a nice ring to it.

[Anthony Flack]

That's not unusual. How about all those books that tell you how to become a millionaire? Each book makes exactly one person a millionaire. Terin is living proof that the business of this business is big business.

The interesting thing is, if someone is successful with something like this, it validates their own position - they must be worth listening to...

[terin]

I'm not sure if the 18 purchases so far amount to a millionaire :) It's certainly well on my way to the 50 it will take to repay how much I spent in dollars to create it.

Still a long road to my goal of 300... but hopefully the reviews and interviews I have lined up will each provide a boost to that goal.

-Joe

[Anthony Flack]

If not, you could always write The Indie Author's Guide To Losing Money. Anyway, good luck, but since promoting things is your business... well... you should do okay I'm sure.

[Ratboy]

Comic Sans MS! :D

Congratz Joe. Never even considered using Cafepress for book production.

Oh, and it seems there's a coupon code. Sadly, I wasn't able to use it, but apparently "JOUSTTULIPS" will save you $5 from Cafepress, if you're new. In theory, that shouldn't hurt Joe's bottom line.
Cafepress is pretty good for niche books. I'm selling my space combat ruleset (http://www.cafepress.com/irrationalshop.55793484) through them, and am pretty happy with the print quality.

And yeah, the $5 coupon won't hit Joe's bottom line at all.

[amaranth]

If not, you could always write The Indie Author's Guide To Losing Money. Anyway, good luck, but since promoting things is your business... well... you should do okay I'm sure.

Hey, I think that's a good idea. I'm not sure why, but I remember the big No nos better than I remember the good practices.

Just bought the book!

[kevglass]

Just recieved the paper version of the book. Printing looks fine.

So far - great book too!

Kev

[Shaz]

I bought mine too. I'm a big fan of paperbacks, but I like to have things NOW more than I like to have things on paper! :D I may yet print it.... Looks good at first glance, looking forward to some quiet reading time!

[Tom Gilleland]

I ordered my print version on 5/1. I just got an email today (5/5) that it shipped via UPS. That seemed kind of slow. And the UPS tracking number is invalid. Here's the UPS link that was emailed from CafePress:

---------------------
Hi from CafePress.com!

We have shipped your package to:

Tom Gilleland
4980 N. Campbell Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85718
UNITED STATES

This package contains:
1 x The Indie Developer's Guide to Selling G

To track your package click this link:
http://www.ups-mi.net/packageID/PackageIDPresearch.asp?strPackageID=91021370538440 01373535

Please note, it may take until the next business day for you to access your information through the tracking system.

If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Service Department:
- On the Web at http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/.
- Phone toll-free at 1-877-809-1659

Thanks!
CafePress.com

This is an automated e-mail. Please do not respond.


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I'll let you know when/If I get it. Just thought you would want some feedback on the fullfillment process.

Tom

[terin]

It works Tom, you didnt read the part where it said "may take 24 hours to appear in UPSs system" or whatever :)

and now we ALL know where your package is. Muahaha...

[Ratboy]

In addition, Cafepress just switched all their production over to the Kentucky location, so there were some slowdowns over the last couple of weeks.

[Tom Gilleland]

Got my book today. Seems pretty good so far. Thanks. I like the spiral bound format so that I can read it on a small table over lunch.

FYI:
Ordered (5/1)
Processed (5/5)
Received (5/10)

-Tom

[Greg Squire]

Same thing happened to me Tom. I put my order in on 5/4 and it shipped on 5/8. I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Judging by your experience that may be around the 13th or so.

[PoV]

Apparently shipping to Canada is slow (5/1 and processed 5/5). Still waiting, hopefully monday.

What's annoying about our (US/Canada) postal services is this is lower Canada too, 2 hours from the border. And it's common. Meh, ah well.

[terin]

Yeah I noticed the only shipping option for Canada was "international" - which not only was 2 dollars more expensive or something but took 2 days longer. You'd think a socialist territory of the US would be quicker to deliver to (kidding!)

-Joe

[jetro]

I bought the book too! Have read about 100 pages so far. It is quite easy reading, and clearly contains info what indie developers should already know when starting a project.

It was processed/shipped May 8, and I received it thursday or friday (can't remember which) in Finland, so the shipping worked quite ok all the way here as well!

[PoV]

Ok, if the book made it all the way to Finland from the US as of the 8th, that's dissapointing to see. Boo, thumbs down US/Canadian postal system.

[Hamumu]

When I did my own shipping, I dealt with Canada Post plenty... and there is nobody worse. I've sent things to Australia, Korea, Japan, Finland, UK, Italy, South Africa, Mexico... they'd take a while at times, but not more than a couple weeks. Shipping to Canada is random. It can get there in two days, two weeks, two months, or NEVER. I've had something returned by Canada Post as undeliverable, because it had (apparently) been run over by a truck. Repeatedly. There were tracks.

Now, it may not be on the north side of the border that the antics happen, as it has to get there first, but the Canadians with whom I communicated seemed to expect this sort of thing. It's apparently a well-known horror of the Canuckistan lifestyle. Get with the times, PoV!

[Bouncer]

terin: Your websites button hotspots are not right when viewing in Opera. It's hard to hit the buttons. Just wanted to let you know.

I'll be ordering the book later, but you should really have an option to get the book as .pdf too to someone who orders the printed version. So that you could start reading right away and still get the paperback a little later without paying for them both seperately. Would be too expensive... for me at least ;)

[PoV]

Now, it may not be on the north side of the border that the antics happen, as it has to get there first, but the Canadians with whom I communicated seemed to expect this sort of thing. It's apparently a well-known horror of the Canuckistan lifestyle. Get with the times, PoV!
Perhaps, but I do maintain the right (or occasional privilege) of complaining about it. /me shakes fist at post offices.

Anyways, story's over. I discovered this overly large CafePress envelope in my mailbox a few minutes ago. Hurah.

[Tertsi]

Ok here's my review:

An excellent compact book for those of you who haven't read these forums a lot or who wish to get all the IndieGamer marketing knowledge + some in one package.

For those of us who have read these forums a lot, developed at least one indie game and have a marketing mind established, there's only a little amount of new and usable information. But hey, at least it got me to finally re-design the colours of my website and I got a couple of new demo optimization ideas. :)

While normally the price would be too high, the information that is there is valuable enough to easily justify the price for the first group I was talking about but for the second group, it is enough to justify the price just barely so at least for me it was only barely worth it or not quite worth it.

But no matter what, I recommend it because there can be a gem in it for you.

[terin]

Thanks for the review Tero :)

-Joe

[sphinx]

I want to order the book and let shipping takes its time to Egypt but in the mean time I want to get the PDF version to start reading immediately!

Is this possible?

[terin]

Send me an e-mail and I will magically make it happen :)

-Joe

[Promaginy]

Joe,

What are the differences between your book and the Shareware Blunders Book available here at http://swb2.com/ ?

Your book is less expensive and is focused on gaming. Is that the major differences? Is there anything in the other book that yours does not cover? I have been thinking of purchasing the Blunders book, but with yours being released I want to make an informed decision before putting out the cash.

BTW, there was another article in my local newspaper reporting how a few Canadian postal workers stopped delivering mail because they did not feel like it. I guess we have some work performance issues. :p

[terin]

I haven't read that book, so I can't really compare it. I'd love to claim mine is better of course :) By the sound of it, that book is random tidbits of information that could help you. It has a lot of good names behind it, people I would trust.

My guess is this book is a deep look at a few issues whereas mine is a broader scope, start to finish book that is designed to help you get the general understanding and make the final fine tuning yourself.

However, I don't think our price tags should be a comparison. I see little reason why you wouldn't order both, if both really do pretain to what you are doing and your skill level. I would say my book is 'beginner to intermediate' level (in terms of your skill in marketing, not in terms of your skill in programming). I'm not sure what this book is, could go either way depending on how it is written.

So... I don't know, but if it costs only 80 bucks or so to have both books I see little reason why you wouldn't grab both. In the grand scheme of your hopefull success, a single tidbit of knowledge that causes two or three extra sales (per book) over the space of your company makes it all worthwhile.