Over the past couple years, I've been getting a lot of requests to write a book on the subject of building a successful indie business, covering much of the material in my articles (http://www.dexterity.com/articles/) but with much greater depth and breadth. I've resisted the idea because of doubts that there would be enough of a market for such a book, and I'd probably have to sell the book for a fairly high price like $99 in order to have any hope of making such a project profitable. And even then I might still lose money because my time might be better invested elsewhere. So I thought I'd post a poll here first to see if there's any interest in such a book.

Some of the contents for the book could be:
- starting a new indie business with little or no money
- market research (selecting the right product to develop)
- web site design / product sales pages
- designing the shareware demo / registration rates
- registration incentives / nag screens / time & feature limitations
- licensing / intellectual property / dealing with publishers
- personal skills (motivation, self-discipline, negotiation, time management, etc)
- legal / business issues (copyrights, trademarks, contracts, accounting)
- closing the sale / upselling / cross-selling / pricing
- business planning / strategy / USP / mission statement
- host-beneficiary relationships / affiliate programs
- marketing / PR / advertising / distribution
- search engines / keywords / pay-per-click advertising
- order forms / merchant accounts / registration services
- tech support / customer service
- physical media / shipping / CD-burning options
- risk reversal / money-back guarantees / fraud
- dealing with piracy / cracks
- measuring results / metrics / stats
- optimization / automation / testing

Some bonus material I might include could be:
- Step-by-step checklist for launching a new game
- Sample NDA you can use/modify
- Sample publishing agreement you can use/modify
- Sample independent contractor agreement you can use/modify
- Sample web site scripts to perform useful functions
- a CD-ROM with relevant demos/freeware
- Discount coupons for useful services/hosting/products

Assume the book would be written from the standpoint of building an indie business from scratch, focusing on practical how-to information as opposed to theory. This could either be an ebook or a physical book, and if I took on the project, I'd probably be inclined to self-publish such a book, since I think I'd be able to do a better job marketing it than a publisher would. I'm familiar with this process because my wife has written a book of her own and is self-publishing it through her web site.

Please take the poll to let me know what your level of interest in such a book would be, and also let me know if such a book would have enough value/relevance that you think it would be worth $99 to you. I'd love to be able to sell such a book for $10-20, but I just don't think the market is big enough, so I'd almost certainly lose money unless I charge a premium price. I guess the question is whether or not you think you'd learn enough from such a book to earn back at least $99 (which would be tax-deductible too as a business purchase).

This is a bit of a loaded question :)

The people here know who you are, and know the wealth of your information. They therefore have a better idea of whether or not the book is worth it than someone who doesn't know you, who I imagine would need an awful lot of convincing before handing over $99.


As an addendum, I would like to point out that if you wrote a much shorter book (an ebook would be fine) which just concentrated on marketing your game online & getting more visitors, I would hand over $30 or so in a second.

A shorter, simpler book is definitely a possibility, but the challenge for such a book would be more in marketing it, not in writing it. I think there would be more of a market for a complete, comprehensive book on the subject. The focus of the book would be on the business aspects of being an indie and making the business profitable, not on things like programming or artwork which are well-covered in other books.

I realize that this is a biased place to ask such a question, but if everyone here says they wouldn't buy such a book at $99, then it makes my decision that much easier. What I'm mainly curious to know is whether a price tag of $99 is so high that people would automatically say, "no way." If people would only be willing to pay $20 or $30 for such a book, I can't see the project happening, since I think the audience would be too limited. Writing and publishing the book would probably require at least as much time as completing a new game, and if the price tag is $20-30, I'm better off releasing a mass-market game instead of a book.

Steve, I think the timing for a book like this might be just about right. However, I think a book with you as the editor (perhaps contributing a few chapters) and others also writing chapters would be more likely to get a good publishing deal.

I've contributed to two such books this year (one on MMP games, and on one the game dev business). I don't know the publishers, but I do know the editors, as well as one or two other well-published authors. If you're interested in this, I could put you in touch with any of these folks, who could point you to the right people at the publishing houses.

I know it might seem odd for an indie game publisher to go with a mainline book publishing deal, but I think you'd do well to at least investigate this option. There's probably not a lot of money in it, but it could be a good boost for you, Dexterity, and the indie scene overall.

Firstly Steve I would absolutely pay $99 for the wealth of experience you've acquired through your business and research. Even if it was just a spiral bound Kinko’s printed affair. In fact i just purchased a book on drawing for 40$ that was just like that. It came highly recommended by an artist I respected so I went ahead an ordered it.

Secondly there definitely is a market for this stuff. After I posted my session summary on David Michaels "Can I make money as an indie?" session at the IGC, my unique visitors went through the roof. On a site that typically gets 20-30 unique visitors a day I got over 100 hits the first day it was posted, over 208 the second day and today I’m well over 350 unique visitors today with no slow down in sight.

I also know that Charles River Media has contracted David to write an "Indie game developer Survival guide" which is essentially a comprehensive guide like the one you describe here. There must be some market for this stuff if a publisher like CRM is going after it. If you take the IGC into account, they expected 30-50 attendees and were shocked to see over 100 in attendance on Saturday. Look at the growth in the IGF for example, this Indie thing is really catching on. For every beginning game development book out there, there’s a guy wondering how to "go indie" because he knows he's not good enough to landa job as a retail devloper yet. That's my take on it anyway.

Steve,

While the information that would be contained in the book is certainly valuable, $99 is too high a price for me. But I understand your point that a limited audience demands such a high price.

I truly believe this do great service if it were a free, online encylopedia of indie game business that all of us can add, edit and keep it upto date for anyone to use. For example:

http://www.wikipedia.com/
http://www.nupedia.com/
http://www.everything2.com/

The encyclopedia would require relatively minimal investment of your time and opens up participation of many intelligent folks on these forum.

I am ready to start such an encylopedia with above points you have mentioned and let all of us add, edit the result. What do you think?

My 2p.

From a strictly financial stand point the book is never going to make as much as a new game. Dweep at $25 bucks only needs to sell 4 copies to equal the revenue. If your next big game sells 10,000 copies then the book would need 2,500 copies to equal it. At its peak the IGC has 120 people at it. Now that’s a small sample because it is the first year but there probably isn't enough people who are serious enough about indie development to justify a $100 dollar purchase and who aren't already mildly successful enough where the book doesn't has enough value for $100.

If you want to write a book then I say that’s great and I'd probably buy a copy. If you want to compare is solely on a financial basis to developing a game then I think the game is going to win hands down.

I think I would more than likely buy such a book for that price. Of course, I only say probably because I would never buy any book more than $20 without looking through it or reading a lot of good feedback, no matter who wrote it, so don't take that the wrong way.

If someone is serious about being an indie, I can't imagine the price of $100 being too high. Computer books routinely sell for $50 - $80. Without even getting out of my chair, I can see a couple of small stacks of computer books worth about $1000 right now. So I don't think it is a question of whether such a price is too high. I think its only a matter of whether or not there is a large enough audience to make it worth the opportunity cost. I would hope the answer is yes, but somehow I'm afraid it's not.

Steve, I think there is a wealth of information about this topic on the web, but I would definitely like to see this in a more organized and accessible form such as a book. While I would say that the information that you could pass on would be well worth 100 bucks, I would most likely not pay over 50... maybe thats just me though. I would prefer a hard-copy book as opposed to an e-book, unless it was short (as mentioned in previous posts). Hope that helps at all.

Originally posted by Dexterity
I guess the question is whether or not you think you'd learn enough from such a book to earn back at least $99 (which would be tax-deductible too as a business purchase).

i personally think your book should fall into
the $30-$40 range....$50 at the most.

also you should have a preview version available for download....
with the option for the reader to purchase the full version or
have the "premium information" available as purchasable bonus
chapters at least.

I voted that I would probably buy the book. As GLIPS mentioned, it would be very convenient to have a preview version on the site. I personally think that there is a big enough depend for a book like this, think of how many people visit gamedev.net, new topics regarding indies pop up everyday, and that is only one site, I'm sure that with your marketing skills you will do just fine.

IMHO, if book will be in high price range, it must be printed, while I will consider to buy it for $99, no way that I will give such money just for ebook. However, I think price $50-$60 will have much bigger audience.
Potential customer can look at it also other way, you (Steve) mentioned bonus material, I think it can be very valuable, soon or later everyone of us need some sample license agreement, contract for artist, musician, other programmers involved, publishing contract... and instead to pay for it somewhere, one can just buy that book and use it.

Also, in a short run it will probably pay you more to work on some new game, but maybe in a long run being the author of such book (I don't know about similar book?) can maybe bring you some new networking and deals ...


Just my 2c

Nedzad
www.yupgames.com (http://www.yupgames.com)

Well you know I've always wanted you to write a book. I think most folks are gonna find 90 bucks steep though.

Seems to me any person that would buy a book on game development would certainly come accross your book even with out heavy marketing if you put in on Amazon.com.

You have allready gained enough notoraity that they mentioned you a few times at the IGC. And this might be a way to continue to build your place as a figure in the indie movement.

There are a few authors that I'm aware of that hang out on our game servers. One is pretty much an indie author, that is he thought it would be a good ider to right a book on spades, got a printer to whip some up, and on Amazon as they have a fairly effortless way to get a book for sale on thier site. And from the production values of this 1st version of his book, I'd say they were not too picky.

Who here doesn't do a check on amazon when looking for a book?

How about doing the book in parts. You could probably get the 90 or more if you did the book in 3 parts.

I agree that there would be a limited audience. Having said that, $100 isn't much to pay for a book if it's going to improve sales. The Bottom Line: If the book is full of practical applicable information, it should pay for itself.

By the way, $99 looks better then $100 - but it's only 1% short. I hope my intelligence isn't being insulted :p

Steve, remember some od us dont live in the US. My currency is pretty worthless compared to the dollar, (9-1).

I would purchase a book like this for $30 any day but 90 bucks is way to steep.

Personally I would be unlikely to buy a book for $100.
Remember steve, what you are selling is the difference between the demo and the full version ;) and you have written enough high profile articles, that rightly or wrongly, many people will assume they know what you are going to say in the book.
I think you should do it, and sell it for $30, and accept the fact that its not a big money spinner. I know a few people who have written books, including my wife, who is a scientist, and none of them have really done it for the money.
If sales from Dexterity are as high as they seem to be, surely you dont 'need' the money. I suspect that in your heart you want to write the book anyway, but you are just too shrewd a businessman to let yourself do it unless its profitable.
I say, for once forget about the money and do what you want to do! ;)
Writing if off against Tax doesnt help me. As a small business in the UK, my earnings currently mean I pay zero tax on all my games income, so there is nothing to write it off against...

One pseudo-word: E-BOOK!

If you write it as an e-book in .pdf or even .doc format you incur none of the cost or headaches of the print world and can be assured a reasonable return on your time. I'm sure most of us would pay at least $20 - $30 for an e-book of your information.

Sure you don't make as much as a game but realistically the book shouldn't take as long - and is something that can be worked on in your spare time.

I think if you are solely looking for another source of revenue then the book might not be your best bet. Although, much like your articles, the book could be considered a loss-leader to draw more people to your site and expand the community here.

A print version is doable. My wife is having her first book printed, since she took a poll on her web site and discovered that a lot more people would buy the book that way. She went through the process of getting an ISBN number as well as several other numbers used to catalog books. She had the cover designed, researched printers, etc. She's getting a first run of 300 copies printed and shipped for roughly $4.30 per book. She'll be selling it for $19.95. So if I wanted to create a print version of a book as well, I could simply follow the blueprint my wife has already created.

I'm always looking for new ways to apply our assets to their highest and best uses. Initially I thought this was developing games, but a couple years ago I realized that our best asset was our system of selling games, so we got into publishing, allowing us to apply that system to much greater benefit. Now I'm beginning to realize that a bigger asset than the system itself may be the knowledge of how to setup and maintain such a system in the first place, as that knowledge could be a greater benefit to many more people. So there's a process of going from applying our system for ourselves, applying it to benefit others, and then teaching others how to create such a system from scratch.

I agree that having something in print is the best way to go. There's something about paying 100 bucks for a series of 1's and 0'1 in some intangible media that still rubs me the wrong way (call me archaic). Also when you spend as much time in front of a computer as I do, you look forward to opportunities to do things away from the computer that can still be considered work. Like reading articles and books that relate to your game business.

I agree with cliffski in that there is an intangible value associated with writing a book that isn't necessarily reflected on the bottom line. How do you value opportunities that arise from writing a book? The impact on your network affect? The things you learn just from trying to organize your thoughts and put them down in a cohesive and consistent manner?.

You of all pepople should konw the value of volenteering :)

Earning more publicity for myself is one of the reasons I'm hesitant to take on such a project. That isn't what I want because it doesn't help Dexterity. Right now we don't need a bigger reputation in the indie community to attract more game submissions -- we're pushed to capacity with our current submission volume. What we need right now is to continue to expand our marketing and sales on the end-user side and to improve our service to the developers whose games we've already published. My concern is that writing a book would detract from those more important goals.

If such a project could be done profitably, however, this could add more fuel for Dexterity's growth, which means we could potentially hire more people and serve more customers and developers.

While it might seem on the surface that building my own personal reputation would benefit Dexterity, historical data suggests just the opposite. The book Good To Great by Jim Collins, one of the most rigorous business books ever written, makes a pretty strong case that building the CEO's reputation is usually at odds with building a great company.

I think $100 US is a bit steep. However if you go to a traditional publisher I'm sure you could sell more copies at a lower price. If I saw something like this in a bookstore for $30 US I'd definiately buy it.

While I do next to nothing in the realm of productive reading (Is sci-fi productive?), I still feel compelled to share my opinions. So take the following with a very large grain of salt.

While I agree with the general statement that publicizing your C.E.O is counter productive to building the whole company, it seems that there's a little more given and take when the company is composed of one or two people. The act of writing and publishing a successful book does lend a certain notoriety to the author. But it also can lead to opportunities to make contacts and expand your business in ways that you couldn't before. There's potential for reaching a whole new set of opportunities through a printed medium that really aren't presented you by having a few articles online.

There are unique partnerships and marketing connections that you could make by having someone who might read your book on Amazon but wouldn't think of coming to a web site and reading articles.

On one hand you want to build value into your company not your personal name. On the other hand you want to be connected to enough people that you have plenty of relationships to leverage to make things happen. As well as connect you to new opportunities that will enable you to grow your business in the way you want it to grow.

So yeah, just publicizing your name and having it soak up all of Dexterities successes is a bad thing for dexterity as a company. But building value into you own name and increasing the amount of people you reach will allow you to grow dexterity more effectively.

I could be way off base here though, not having read much on the subject and only just now putting some thought to it. Feel free to critique it to smithereens.

:)

Just to throw in my two cents...

Back in April, after the GDC, I found myself pondering the idea of a book about indie game development. I had just read "Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices", and I wondered if there was such a book aimed at indie game developers. A quick search showed that, no, there wasn't. There have been a handful of books published about shareware (mostly e-books), but nothing specific to the indie game market. So I started whipping up a table of contents. Much like the one Steve posted.

And then I sat on the idea for 4 months.

Not sure what I was thinking. The idea just got pushed out of the fore by other projects and concerns.

Over Labor Day weekend, though, I suddenly felt Really Foolish for sitting on what was probably one of the best ideas I'd had all year. I finished up the table of contents, wrapped a book proposal around it and sent it off. And it worked. I got a contract. :)

There are several reasons I'm writing the book:

1) I want to share what I've learned. After 6 years of learning a lot of things the hard way, I figure I have something to contribute.

2) I want to learn more. There's a lot I don't know, but since the book needs to cover it, I'm learning about it. Even in only 6 weeks I think I've learned quite a few new things.

3) I wanted to connect into the indie community more. And I wanted to help the indie community to become more aware of itself.

4) I want a book credit. This will be a non-fiction credit, of course, but it will be good practice for when I get around to writing a novel. :)

5) I want to become a freelance game producer. The book credit helps in this regard.

6) I want to present (topic: indie game dev) at the Game Developer Conference in 2004. In a similar vein, I think it would be cool to give presentations at colleges here and about.

7) I wanted the advance payment. ;)

Besides the profit motive of #7, I'm more interested in the book as a way to do something new and different that supports the indie game movement and transitions my career slightly. Part of how I want to spend my 30's, I guess. :)

In any case, the manuscript for the "Indie Game Developer Survival Guide" is currently about 1/3 completed, and should be on shelves next year. I think the cover price will be $39.95.

That's great, David. Even if we both wrote a book with similar topics, there would probably be quite a few differences, and you're right that it would be great for the indie community to have such a resource. If I wrote such a book, I'd probably target it towards independent software developers in general, not indie game developers specifically.

Any idea when we'll be able to see your book on shelves? Our office is located next to a 2-story Borders bookstore with a wide selection of computer books, so it would be nice to see your book on the shelves there. I'll make sure it gets a good shelf location. :)

That's pretty cool David. I'll definitely buy it when it comes out. Just want to throw in my two cents here: in my opinion the cost of a book (or anything else you pay for) doesn't matter, as long as it will pay for itself in the long run. I think many people don't understand that. If you pay $100 for a book and in the long run you save or make an extra $100+ because of it, then it's worth that much money. If the book is $1000 and it again pays for itself then it's worth even that much. That's just something I wanted to throw in.

I'd buy both books in a snap, and I would probably do it even if I didn't know David RM from gamedev forums and Steve from, well, these forums. ;)

First of all, forgive any language mistake I'll make.

I read all articles Steve had written and sometimes they really shocked me (sometimes I felt like it is all about me, especially the "Overcoming Procrastination" chapter!)!
I would surely buy the book because it really makes me curious if there are any more "secrets" about making and selling games on our own.:)

Thanks for the feedback, guys. =)

I don't know the actual planned publication date. I know my deadline for turning in the completed manuscript, and if it hits shelves a few months after that, it'll be in the summer or fall of 2003.

Here's an example of one simple concept I might detail in such a book. This idea takes only hours to implement but has netted Dexterity thousands of dollars in additional sales:

One general principle that has produced wonderful long-term results for me has been taking concepts/ideas from other industries and applying them to this business. I.e. what is our industry lousy at doing that other other industries have mastered?

A good example is keeping in touch with customers on a regular basis. After you buy a game in a retail store, how often do you hear from the publisher or retailer? In my experience, if you actually fill out the registration card, you might get a brochure mailed back to you at best, but most likely you'll never hear from that company ever again. But in certain other industries, once you become a customer, they keep in constant contact with you.

My insurance agent is a good example. I first started doing business with him for a renter's insurance policy (less than $100/year) about 2 years ago. That's all I needed at the time, and that's all he tried to sell me. But he kept in touch, and over the past couple years, I ended up buying a $250,000 life insurance policy, then a $1 million life insurance policy, an auto insurance policy, a complete business coverage policy, a workers' compensation policy, and a special policy for my wife's wedding ring. In addition, he helped me setup an investment fund for my daughter's future education.

How often does the typical indie developer contact their customers? Usually never. I'm not talking about newsletter subscribers -- I'm talking about people who've made actual purchases. We contact all of our customers via email once every 2-4 weeks on average. Customers can tell us to "shut up" and opt out of these emails permanently just by clicking a link, but less than 4% of the total have ever opted out. In fact, many customers have expressed gratitude that we keep in touch. Many even let us know when they change their email address, so they don't miss out on future emails. This isn't spam -- this is keeping in touch with people who've already bought from us. Someone who bought Dweep in 1999 is still hearing from us today if their email address is still valid.

I can easily attritribute thousands and thousands of dollars in sales to the application of this one simple idea, and it's just one concept among many. When you combine lots of simple ideas like this together, you end up with exponential growth.

Simple concepts like this abound... ideas that people can apply in a matter of hours that would permanently increase their income by a large amount. Anyone is capable of implementing such ideas. But why don't people do it consistently, even after hearing about it? This is why I think the psychological factors of running an indie business outshadow the intellectual ones. In the long run, possessing qualities like self-discipline, focus, and commitment are far more important than any single product, strategy, or creative idea. It matters little what volume of inspired ideas you conceive if you don't have the daily discipline to follow through.

Reading this concept immediately brings up a whole bunch of questions:

- What do you tell them in the emails?

- What has changed in the last 2 to 4 weeks that might now be of interest to them?

- Do the emails just offer information, or order codes for discounts, etc.?

- What is the best software to use to manage this kind of customer email list?

- Is the mail structured like a newsletter, or does it read as though it is a personal email to the customer?



These are just off the top of my head, but as an indication, would the book go as indepth as these questions demand?

Have you approached a book publisher about your idea?

A friend of mine with no writing experience what-so-ever was offered a book deal on game programming.

I'm just saying right now publishers are clamoring for good books on "games" and their development. I'd see if you could get it put on shelves. You'll get pro editors who will ensure your book is a better product, plus the end result would be at a price the average joe can afford.

In those emails we normally tell customers about the launch of new games. But we'll also let them know about things like these forums. The emails are plain text, written more like a personal email than a newsletter, and they contain links to our web site.

Customer data is stored in our online database and is managed by a private control panel called "Athena," custom built with PHP and MySQL. I login in to Athena and can perform various functions, like building emailing lists, sending out emails, processing refunds, checking real-time sales data and monthly projections, etc. For instance, I can build a list of anyone who bought a particular game to send those people a notice that there is a newer version available, along with a download link. To send an email to a particular list, I just go to a particular page in Athena, type in the subject and body of the message, and click "Send." The message is then queued for delivery, and our mail server sends them out at the rate of about 5000 per hour, slightly throttled to minimize the impact on our server.

Athena automatically appends a custom link to the bottom of each outgoing email that allows the recipient to discontinue such messages. Clicking that link adds the customer's email address to our "do not email" list -- Athena always removes these addresses when generating lists.

Athena evolves month after month towards becoming our central control center. The reason I wanted to implement this in-house from scratch is so that all functions are integrated into a single system. Ultimately everything will go through Athena -- sales, support requests, demo downloads, ad click-thrus, developer royalty reports, etc. The goal is to take maximize advantage of all available data to make "wise" choices. :)

Originally posted by shaft
Have you approached a book publisher about your idea?


I haven't explored that possibility at all, so I have no idea what a publisher's interest in such a book might be.

Hello Dax

It seems like you would like to know more for free...
Maybe this chapter gonna be to shareware version of the book?
:-)

Bye
Oleg

heh, no I wasn't actually asking for answers to those questions (Though thanks for the response Steve :) ), I just wanted to know how indepth the book would be.

Who knows? It's little more than an idea at this point. :) My personal preference would be to go as deep as necessary to reach the point that a developer would be able to apply the ideas in a practical sense. But I'd probably avoid any discussion of specific technology, since that's likely to change rapidly.

Dax
I do not mean any harm I was only joking. :-)
My english might be not the best, so tread me like a foreigner and not a rude person please!
I would really like to have friends here not people disliking me.

thx
Oleg

Do not worry, I knew you were joking and I take no offense. :) :) :)

Phuh. :-)

looks like the poll is in favor of the book....

so what's the verdict, Steve?
is the book a go or what?

i'm also actually looking forward to David's book too.

No verdict yet, but these results are better than I had expected... 28 people saying they'd probably or definitely buy the book at $99 gives me hope that there may be enough interest to make the project worthwhile.

I'm very serious about taking your book idea to a publisher. Game books are very profitable, and providing something NEW could stand to make a lot of money.

Send out emails to the different publushers (coriollis (sp?), o'reilly, etc.). Find out what they need for a book submission. My guess is just a fairly complete outline of your book. I'd be suprised if at least one publisher doesn't jump at the idea.

Plus, while I'm sure you can write. Having an editor "FIX" your work is crucial.

How profitable are such books if one goes through an established book publisher? Mostly what I've heard from others who've written technical books is that it's a lot of hard work for little pay.

Originally posted by Dexterity
How profitable are such books if one goes through an established book publisher? Mostly what I've heard from others who've written technical books is that it's a lot of hard work for little pay.

i think it might be the same as with a game publisher(guessing....)
you wouldn't want to go that route again would you, Steve
based on your previous experience(game devver/retail publisher)?

but...i think the Premier Press, Charles River, and Wordware people probably do a good job with their authors...considering
all the game development related books that are on the shelves..

What about people that goto Borders spend the day, read the entire book and leave it at the store and go home? They have gained the knowledge, but you have lost a sale. I feel this happens to non-technical books more often than technical ones because once you read a non-technical book (fiction, non-fiction, management, self-help etc), you have read what it has to offer and you rarely go back to it again. But a C++ book, a Photoshop book or a math book is not like that. You cant assimilate all the concepts at once because you wont understand them. So you buy it, take it home, read it at your pace. You dont also bother returning it within the 28 day window to get a refund because you know that you will need it for later reference.

Therefore, I feel there must be some content in the book that will be substantial enough to have "reference" value for people to buy the book. What do you think?

My 2p.

Our office building is located next to a 2-story Borders bookstore, so I pop over there frequently. While I have skimmed or read parts of many books I haven't bought (i.e. using the bookstore as a library), I've also bought a lot of books when the first chapter really grabbed me. It's just another example of try-before-you-buy at work.

Well...from my research, writing computer books can be grueling work with little pay. But it depends on how you approach it, I think.

If, as happens with many first-time computer book authors, you are unrealistic about the time it will take you to write and edit the book, and you don't properly value your time enough to ask for a decent advance, the experience is going to be very painful. For you and the publisher.

Say you target a book that's about 350-400 pages, with about 30-40 chapters. That comes to about 100K words.

If you target writing 1000 words a day for 5 days a week, you'll generate 5000 words a week, 20000 words a month. That means you can get the first draft done in about 5 months. Add about 2 months for editing and proofing, and you should be able to deliver the completed manuscript in about 7-8 months, start to finish.

Now, assume you received an advance payment (spread across 3 milestones) of $6,000. Doesn't sound a lot for 8 months work, does it? But...at 1000 words per day, you weren't working full-time.

Let's say it took you 3 hours per day (on average) to generate that 1000 words. Break that down into about equal parts research and writing. That comes to 15 hours per week, 60 hours per month, or 480 hours by the time you submitted your completed manuscript. That works out to about $12.50/hour based on a $6,000 advance. Again, hardly exciting. But if you can produce at a faster rate, and negotiate a better advance (I do, and I did) you can improve that.

And then you get into royalties. Most computer books advance and royalty structures, especially for first-time authors, are designed to "break even" after only a few thousand copies sold through. It's unlikely you'll see royalties for the first year after publication. But after that, depending on sales, you'll see something every 6 months or so. And the nice part of these payments is that their "residuals." They come in without additional effort, and serve to make the original investment in time worth more.

Again, it depends on your goals. I had been willing to find a part-time job to earn a few hundred$ extra per month, because fall is a traditionally slow time for sales (for The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal) as well as the games). The book deal made that unnecessary, and, unlike the part-time job idea, actually moves me closer to one of my career goals.

Your mileage may vary, of course. Just hope that provides a bit more information about how to make money writing for a publisher. :)

I might pay 99 dollars for a book, but it depends on the depth and presentation of the book's content. It should explore important issues in sufficient depth and avoid wasting space on trivialities.

I would not pay 99 dollars for a book like Game Developer's Marketplace. It's a useful book, but I think suffers from "newbie book" syndrome. I will not pay 99 dollars for a book that treats me like a complete newbie who needs condescending explanations to understand a certain subject.

The most I've paid for a single book is $130 for a book called "The Art of Violin Making". That book is detailed enough for a newbie to understand the process of violin construction yet at the same time avoids treating its readers like dummies. For that the book is worth every penny.

The type of book I had in mind to write was one that goes very deep into the practical side of succeeding financially as an indie. I haven't seen any book cover this topic in depth. I'm often disappointed at the excessive fluff in game dev books (especially those on design). Why does each one have to start with a history of gaming as the first chapter?

Of course I would offer a money-back guarantee on all book purchases, so if someone bought the book and didn't find at least $99 worth of value in it, they could get a full refund.

In that case I'd probably buy it. Done right it should prove a very valuable book, and from what I can see you have precisely the knowledge required to pull it off. A well-written book about building and running an indie business is sorely needed.

Yes, I also think that this site (and the forum) probably visited by developers (publishers) or wanna-be developers (anyway the guys who interested in some ways) so it is not the real forum to do a market-research. Even if the most (28, including me) said that they probably or definitely would buy the book. I think (but I am not a professional in this area) that this book should sell to thousands or even more readers to be profitable.

Now I speak against me, because I definitely buy the book (thus building Steve goals :-))) ) and I really would like it to be born, but I think the above things.

I went to my local Barnes and Nobel this past week and was happy to note that GameDevlopment related books now have their own bookshelf as opposed to being thrown in on the "Computer Graphics" or "Computer Programming" bookshelfs. This is definitily a sub set of computer programming literature that's on the go.

Game developement books have had their own shelf space in specialist stores for a couple of years but last week was the first time I noticed a major bookshop having their own shelf for game developement. The market of books seems to grow. Is there more wannabees or actual practitioners? But they are probably related.

I think that with a certain amount of game programming book sales, you have a large quantity of purchases from 'hopefuls' i.e. people with little or no programming experience who impulse purchase based on a whim. Most game programming books (especially in the past) have been aimed at the amateur/hopeful as opposed to the professional.

However the amature/hopeful is just as interested in starting his own game company as the next guy. He's the same amature / hopeful that buys a book on MMORPG programming because he think's he's going to make one. ;)

I still say try to get a real publisher first. A professionally edited book is a much easier read.

If the publisher says "Make the first 500 pages an intro to DirectX" then walk away and publish it yourself.

I haven't read all the posts, so maybe someone already mentioned this, but it appears that Charles River is coming out with a book along these lines.

Secrets of the Game Business (http://www.ludumdare.com/campus/group_project.php?id=63)

Although, from the brief description it sounds like it might be more 'how to start a gamedev company and get published by EA'.

If that's the case, I won't be buying this book, but I WOULD be interested in the 'How to succeed financially as an independent developer' book :D

I wrote at chapter for that book. It's not targeted specifically at indie developers (and I really would like to see a book that was!), but it's also not specifically targeted at the BigGameCo crowd either. Along with the Game Design book that Francois edited earlier this year, I think these two will make good reading for any developer.

If you're interested, you can read my chapter at my website. (http://www.onlinealchemy.com/docs/gamedev.html) But please don't noise that link around; I've put it up solely for a few of my friends to read.

My chapter for Amy Jo Kim's upcoming book Power to the Players (http://www.naima.com/powertotheplayers/) can also be found on my site (http://www.onlinealchemy.com/docs/grouproles.html) (this was also recently on Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com).

I'm bringing this thread out of the depths to say that I finally voted as one of the 13 who "would definately buy it." Recently I was able to join the ASP and although there's a wealth of information there, I like the idea of one man (Steve) putting everthing he knows about being a financially succesful indie all in one book. I really need this book. Even if I'm done my next game before it comes out the book will serve tremendously well during all those following months and years when I'll have to constantly refine my marketing techniques for the same game and many others to come. I've got $99 with your name on it Steve. :)

I would definitely purchase a book about indie game buisiness. Even though 100 bucks is a bit steep for me, I think that the book would provide valuable information that could lead to a great career. All new buisiness ideas require startup funds, and all new ventures require a good foundation of knolwedge to start on. I think that a book, if it were very long and detailed, and went to great lengths analyzing the shareware market with statistics about what games sell best, then it would be worth the money to buy.

Originally posted by Dexterity
I've resisted the idea because of doubts that there would be enough of a market for such a book, and I'd probably have to sell the book for a fairly high price like $99 in order to have any hope of making such a project profitable. And even then I might still lose money because my time might be better invested elsewhere. So I thought I'd post a poll here first to see if there's any interest in such a book.


Steve,
I understand that this may not be a profitable project, but I know it would be extremely helpful for the indie community. Since I found your site from a link to your articles on gamedev.net I have been very impressed with your business. Not only because of the quality of your games but your willingness to help other indies from writing articles and publishing the ones that qualify. I think this commitment to indies will increase your profits even if the book doesn't directly make a lot of money. When you give so much from a desire to help it always comes back. And I'd pay the $99 price if that helps. :D

-Josh
www.nutrigames.com

dealing with piracy / cracks

If you make a book that tells me how to successfully do this I would pay $99 just for that.

I think I would be a lot more likely to but Vol I, Vol II, and Vol III at $33 each (or even $50 each).

Also, like others have said. This book would have to have a lot of detail to interest me.

I have learned many things in this forum that are not obvious (linking to download.com to increase your download count example). This is the type of information I would pay to find out. It would be nice to get kind of a “heads up” from someone who as been there and can tell the unforeseen problems they came across.

Unfortunately, I think a fluff book with chapters “This History of Gaming” and “Choosing a Programming Language” and sections like “What is a Compiler” are more likely to sell, because most developers are wannabe with no drive to actually FINISH a game. They will never get to a point where the specific, detailed, good information that you could provide would be of use to them.

Originally posted by alchemist

My chapter for Amy Jo Kim's upcoming book Power to the Players (http://www.naima.com/powertotheplayers/) can also be found on my site (http://www.onlinealchemy.com/docs/grouproles.html) (this was also recently on Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com).

alchemist, the "Power to the Players" link is broken. :)

If you make a book that tells me how to successfully do this I would pay $99 just for that.

piracy/cracks can't be avoided in any way, unless you make an online only game like Everquest or with multiplayer like Age of Mythology.
Most software houses are planning such games because they have piracy cut down a lot by the ID-Key and online registration systems. If you want to avoid piracy, this is the only safe way...!! :(

Tell ya what, Steve. If you could bundle with the book something really useful in addition to raw information, like say a game framework in C++ or Java or something, it'd add alot of value and I think people would be very willing to part with $99 for that added value. But don't just call it something like, "How to succeed as an indie developer", call it something like, "Indy game developer starter kit". Emphasize that it's an actual *KIT* - not just a book with facts and tips. So they're not just buying advice, but they'll also perceive that they're buying tools they'll be able to use to get up and running. Bundling a framework or something similar would really help to reinforce this concept.

Just a thought.

I don't think any framework is needed to make the book interesting or useful, since there are a lot of ways of making a game that indie game developers use: blitz,sdl,java,etc..

The book might be very valuable on its own, but it still wouldn't hurt to get permission to include a bunch of freebies for convenience and experimentation - free compilers, libraries, IDEs, documentation/books (like that "Thinking in C++"), Blitz3D demo, etc.

I'm not saying it has to have a code framework or something to be useful and valuable. But it might need something along those lines to be *perceived* as being worth $100. In reality, we both know that it's worth far more than that even without any extras. But the average coder out there may not know Steve, may have never read one of his articles, may not be confident that this book would really help him. So added value could help turn that "maybe" into a "yes".

In short, it's not about what the book IS worth, it's about what people THINK the book is worth. And if you're familiar with Steve's articles, you're selling the sizzle, not the steak. To me, I hear more sizzle if I feel like I'm buying a "kit" that will get me started rather than just buying a bunch of tips and advice.

Originally posted by CoLSoN
I don't think any framework is needed to make the book interesting or useful, since there are a lot of ways of making a game that indie game developers use: blitz,sdl,java,etc..
Not needed, as others pointed out, but useful - I don't know Blitz, but neither SDL nor Java can be considered frameworks. SDL at least is a very low level library which you can use as a hardware abstraction layer for your framework, but it's no framework. Most of us end up making our own, which takes time and debugging effort.

I think I would be less likly to buy the book if it had information about c++ or java in it. I would think to myself, "I all ready know c++," or "I don't want to use java, so I don't want to pay for something I all ready know/ don't want to use."

I don't think the book's text should cover C++ or Java, I just think if it came with a CD with some bonuses that would be useful to the an Indie who is just starting out that it'd add alot of perceived value. It doesn't have to even be C++ or Java. It could be lists of good download sites to submit to, press release templates, website templates, whatever. Just something that is more than tips and advice. Something "physical" or "concrete" that can be immediately used to get going as an indie.

The bottom-line is that someone who has not already gotten going full-swing as an indie is not likely to pay $100 for just tips and advice simply because they will not likely perceive that as being worth $100 (even though it is well worth it). They may secretly have doubts about making money as an indie, and since they haven't read the book yet (or visited dexterity.com) they may not realize what a good investment this book would be. But if they get a general impression that if they get this book, they'll get a jump-start on being an indie (because it comes with bonuses that will actually save them some time and work, or because some of the work is already done for them - like finding good download sites, desiging a good website, etc.), they're much more likely to perceive $100 as a fair price.

$100 is five game sales. I think I voted "probably" when this first came up. I'd switch it to "definitely" now.

I would definitely buy this, one thing (it woun't change my decision), if you lowered the price to somewhere in detween 50-70, I think a lot more people would buy it as opposed to just the indie community.

I agree. I would definitely buy it at $99, but I think alot more people would be likely to buy it at a about $59 or even $69. Most developers are used to paying $50-$70 for programming books and art books and probably wouldn't bat an eye at a $59 or $69 price tag.

_________________
Damon Du Bois
www.wizardslab.com

Your writings I have read rank up there with the like's of Jim Rohn and many others. I think your book would be excellent for small business owners of all types not just game developers. I would like to see it, 99.00 is a little high, but I am almost sure I would buy it.

If it could be marketed to other groups without losing the primary crowd that would give it wider appeal. But that seems hard to do?

Thanks

I'd like to here the opinions of the people that wouldn't buy it

I think I'd be much more likely to buy one (or two) $50 book(s) than one $99 book.

I agree with StAn - $99 is just too much for one book.

two $50 books or three $40 books would get my attention (that way I could buy the stuff I'm interested in - maybe purchase only two $40 books out of three)