Comments on: My Personal Domesday

By: Domesday 2: The Reckoning « JeremyKeller.com

Domesday 2: The Reckoning « JeremyKeller.com — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:02:16 +0000

[...] while back I told the story of how Cellar Games was started and Chronica Feudalis was published. This was in the tradition of [...]

By: Jeremy Keller

Jeremy Keller — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:45:38 +0000

Thanks Paul. You’re right, there is a lot to think about when starting a business and a lot to consider legally when publishing a book. I didn’t go into much detail on those points here as that’s not my area of expertise, so thank you for elucidating on these items in appropriate terms.

Interesting, John. Good points. Yeah, to be honest I have not looked into distribution via Ingram or Amazon as an outlet. In my mind, and for a small-press RPG, Indie Press Revolution is the best and most direct route to my customers.

By: John Culleton

John Culleton — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:39:53 +0000

With CreateSpace you have to give Amazon 40% discount. With LSI you can set a 20% discount. Alternatively with LSI you can set a 55% discount and have distribution through Ingram to e.g., Barnes & Noble etc. Unfortunately you cannot set more than one discount rate with LSI.

Createspace limits you to Amazon only.

By: Paul Curtis

Paul Curtis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:54:34 +0000

Without sounding too much like a shill (Full Disclosure: I am a lawyer), I’d like to just comment on the “Starting a Publishing Company” portion of the post.

While the paperwork involved in setting up a company is fairly straightforward, some of the choices involved are not. If these choices are new/unknown to you, I would certainly recommend at least speaking to someone with more familiarity … be they a paid consultant or not.

Additionally, while you don’t have to form a new company every year, most states do have an annual filing fee (particularly for LLCs) that needs to be paid to keep the entity in good standing (i.e. doing what it should be doing for you legally).

So at the risk of conflating TN’s with skill ranks, here is a break-out of what someone with the ability Business Lawyer should be able to do:

d4: Form a LLC with a single owner.
d6: Form a single owner LLC, hiring some contractors or forming a corporation.
d8 Form an entity with multiple owners.
d10 Multiple owners and selling product in multiple jurisdictions.
d12 Hiring full-fledged employees.

I hope that is helpful.

By: Following the Money | Ditchwalk

Following the Money | Ditchwalk — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:54:23 +0000

[...] Publishing your own RPG? Here’s what it cost someone to do just [...]

By: Darren Brewster

Darren Brewster — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:22:09 +0000

Makes sense. A human voice is worth a lot in this day and age.

By: Jeremy Keller

Jeremy Keller — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:05:53 +0000

Really, it’s for customer service. If I have a problem with CreateSpace, I have to fill out a form and wait three days for someone to respond to me. And once that happens, the response I’m likely to get is “try again.”

With Lightning Source (who I’ve now signed up for an account with) I can pick up the phone and call my account rep. At this point, that’s worth a lot to me.

By: Darren Brewster

Darren Brewster — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:58:05 +0000

How come the switch to Lightning Source? Is it just more economical for the quantities you want to print?

By: Jeremy Keller

Jeremy Keller — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:38:18 +0000

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Will, yes, I remember you from Gen Con (we have some mutual friends as well). My plan is to make quarterly posts from here on out with updates of the sales. So check back regularly and you’ll be able to see how CF and future books I publish are doing.

By: blue collar space – The numbers on Diaspora

blue collar space – The numbers on Diaspora — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:53:25 +0000

[...] at Jeremy Keller’s blog he talks about the cold hard numbers behind his costs and profits on Chronica Feudalis (and in passing I find it amusing to note that his game web site is blocked [...]