The Indie Developer's Guide To Selling Games by Joseph Lieberman
Published January 2006
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Summary The Indie Developer's Guide to Selling Games is an in depth look at every facet of game development, from start to finish, and how it will all impact your bottom line: Sales. It is a crash course in opinion, theories, and facts about the industry specific to independent digital publishing
NOTE: this is a self-published book. Clicking on the Amazon links will not work. To purchase this book, visit the website
I enjoyed reading this book. Even though the specifics might get stale, as suggested in a different review, I think the principles will still be useful for anyone who reads it.
I found a few grammatical errors and typos in the physical book. I am sure such things will be easily fixed in the PDF version and future printings. Otherwise, I was happy with the content and the writing.
This review is actually going to review two things, since it's a bit unique. First off, I'm going to review the book. Then I'm going to review the book.
That is to say, first I'm going to review the book's content. Then I'm going to review the practicalities of the concept, as this is a self-published book that's being sold both as a physical product (via CafePress) and as an electronic PDF download.
The Indie Developer's Guide To Selling Games is an excellent little guide to the realities of selling games. It's not very big (150 pages), but I don't fault it for that. In its short length it covers its subject very well and with a minimum of padding. Much of the book consists of descriptions and links to various important game-related companies, from music producers to publishers to electronic fulfillment houses. Also included are things that I've rarely seen in other "Games for Indies" books, like examples of submission letters for publishers and some short guidelines for advertising your title.
It's basically everything you need to know about developing an independent game that exists outside the game itself. While there are some design tidbits here and there, most of it is along the lines of "how to come up with a marketable game idea" rather than "how to implement your design-document ideas".
Also included are some good "from the trenches" tips on how to market your games on the web, like link-exchanges, electronic newsletters, and the like. As someone who is himself selling games on the web (<plug>www.thecodezone.com</plug>), I can confirm that there's no good "one stop" information available for all the good avenues to selling your indie-products on the web. The Indie Developer's Guide To Selling Games isn't a comprehensive guide, but it's got more information than most books of its type. The author's an authentic indie game marketer and is active in the industry. In fact, I first met him in the Association of Shareware Professionals forums, where he's active.
My only worry about The Indie Developer's Guide To Selling Games is the same problem that happened with all of those thousand-page "Super Internet Yellow Page" books of years ago, and that's that the content grows stale. In a couple of years, it's likely that many of the companies mentioned and described in the book will either be gone, will be purchased by google/microsoft/adobe, or will be overshadowed by better examples or better technologies than those they represent. While it's an excellent concept, one thing I found myself thinking while reading the book is that this should be something that's updated yearly. Rather than a one-time purchase, I'd like to be able to purchase a yearly PDF update (hopefully at a discount price if I bought the original) with up-to-date information. Since it's not being distributed in bookstores, making a The Indie Developer's Guide To Selling Games: 2007 Edition wouldn't be as big a problem as it would be in a more traditional publishing setting.
But that's just me idly speculating about how to best use this new publishing model.
Speaking of untraditional publishing, The Indie Developer's Guide To Selling Games isn't being sold in traditional bookstores. The author's self-publishing and selling the book either via CafePress (for a physical paper version) or via an electronic fulfillment house for the PDF version.
I got the CafePress version, and it did answer a few of my questions about this new one-off-publishing thing that we're always being promised is going to eventually replace brick-n-mortar bookstores with micropublishers and "print a book while you wait" kiosks. The book itself is high quality with a shiny single-sided cardboard front and back cover. It's spiral bound, but it's bound very securely with a black plastic-coated double-spiral, so you don't have to worry about it coming unraveled or the wire getting snagged on anything. Spiral binding is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It's nice in that it lies perfectly flat and doesn't want to close or crease if you leave it open. It's a problem in that there's nothing to read on the spine if you have several in your bookcase.
All in all, I'm quite happy with the quality of the book itself. As for shipping, I've ordered from CafePress in the past and have always been happy with the shipping times.
All in all, I was initially worried about this book's lack of shelf-publisher credentials. Would I be getting a real book or some spiral-bound hundred-page rant that didn't have a publisher for obvious reasons?
And I have gotten a few of those in the past. They're far less entertaining than they sound.
The Indie Developer's Guide To Selling Games was a pleasant surprise, both in content and execution. Although given the choice, I'd probably go with the PDF version on the author's website. In addition to saving some shelf-space and a tree, it's searchable.
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