Thread by @ZealZaddy

You want to publish D&D supplements? This Tweet will tell you all I know, to help you avoid mistakes I made.

I’m Scott, 1/2 of ZealZaddy. I’m the Creative Director, Designer, and Biz Manager. My partner Cliff is the writer and creator of Vadashar, our urban setting for D&D5e.

Cliff wrote our 1st release “The Beggar King & the Kingdom of Beggars.” It was released Feb 9, 2022 to @DriveThruRPG. You can purchase it here: drivethrurpg.com/product/386107…

SCOPE & DIRECTION
Before we get into the details, let me explain our concept…

We decided on a drip-strategy of an urban setting. Weekly supplements (NPCs, lore, factions, culture & more) that build the Free City of Vadashar in minute detail. All usable in any setting. Why not a Kickstarter to create it all at once? Both strategies have merit.

We didn't believe we had a large enough audience to go for the Kickstarter and, TBH, we couldn’t see ourselves writing a huge book while we both worked full-time outside of ZealZaddy. Patreon and @DriveThruRPG became our delivery platforms by convenience. Here’s how this worked.

Here’s what it took to get our first release—The Beggar King & the Kingdom of Beggars—out.

STARTING THE BUSINESS
In 2019 we created a Limited Liability Company (LLC) called ZealZaddy, LLC in Florida. It cost $100. Each state is different in this regard, but none are expensive.

An LLC is what’s called a pass-through company, allowing profits to go directly to the owners—Cliff & I. You still must pay taxes on the income you receive. We’re not lawyers BTW, but we did it on our own. It’s not hard.

Start your business (by state)
usa.gov/state-business

To open the company we also had to get an EIN number (aka “Tax ID”), which is free, from the Department of the Treasury. You’ll need this number to open a bank account or start taking income from a platform or store.
Get a tax ID here: irs-ein-tax-id.com

You may not need a bank account, since most people can pay you via PayPal, which does NOT require a bank account. You will, though, need to supply your social security number as the taxable entity. There are many ways to get paid, more ways may be better for you.

GROWTH PLAN
I felt we should NOT begin publishing until we hit 2,000 followers on a social media platform. On December 12, 2021 we achieved that goal on Twitter. This is our current social following:
TW 2,429
IG 349
Twitch: 216
FB 198
YT 189
TikTok: 49
Pinterest: don’t know

Here are current social stats.

When starting, I saw Twitter as our best platform. The Twitter DnD/TTRPG community was most supportive of newcomers, was younger, and was a place where you could talk about the industry, products, and games most enjoyably—as long as…

…you’re authentic. If you just post about products, you’ll fail because that’s not social. TW was also friendliest, and allowed the maximum relevant, enjoyable, least effort (while being most genuine) communications—even simple, relevant text-only posts could get good reach.

What FB has going for it is Groups. They are great for chatting about D&D. But most do not allow advertising (and consider anything product-related to be such). That’s doubly true if the post has a link to a product page, Twitch stream, or YouTube video that you’ve created.

I’ve even had unsolicited (non-advertising) reviews of third-party products (that I purchased myself) blocked by over-zealous admins. Some groups charge money to post “ads” to the group. They then pin your post for a few days. Costs are $20-$100. A lot for our thin margins.

“Dungeon Master Resources” has 9,100 members. They require $100 in value. See link. How many are active? How many see the post? It would need to generate 48 sales on a $3 product (after DTRPG’s cut) to break even. I’ve not tested it. Anyone tried? 5thdnd.com/sponsoringdmr

Pinterest’s sharing and collecting features are second to none, so it was worth a try. I discover a lot of things that I use in my games there. We just started utilizing it and are seeing good results. Don’t dismiss the Pin!

TikTok is coming eventually.

INCOME PLATFORMS
We expect income to (eventually) come from:
• DriveThruRPG
• DMsGuild
• Patreon
• Shard Tabletop
• Kickstarter
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Amazon (Affiliate Links)
• A Merch-Store
• Partnerships/Collaborations/Affiliates – We’re affiliates with @CritsOnly

All our platforms needed to be set up. This is no small feat, and understanding every little widget can be maddening. Get started early and prepare the platforms well in advance of you trying to publish. You’ll minimally need the below information:

1. Entity info (LLC name and address, for example) or your personal name & address
2. Tax info (that EIN number)
3. How you want to receive funds (PayPal, Bank Account, check, etc.)

Note: on Twitch, changing your payment address AFTER your page is setup, means eliminating your…

…page and starting again. Or that’s how it reads to me. So, it still uses my old address even though I've moved. @TwitchSupport please fix this or tell me I’m wrong and it’s okay to change it!

In addition, we needed to setup our social platforms to be capable of ad support.

We planned on testing this a little (results were poor). That requires that your platforms are business pages and NOT personal pages. It also means setting up a credit card for ads at some point. On FB/IG, you will actually be creating a new platform page – your business backend.

That page is considerably more complicated to use, so be prepared for a steep learning curve with little help from the platform itself. Here’s its tools section.

Still with me? I promise, I'm getting to the publishing part.

A note on the @DriveThruRPG : The backend is somewhat complex when you start. You will benefit greatly from their private Discord channel for publishers (@DriveThruDiscord). Once set up, you will NOT be able to make your products live on the platform on your own initially.

Instead you’ll submit it for approval and their staff will check your files for compliance and quality. There is no timeframe given for this, but our first book took 4 days to be approved. Our second took 3 days.

After a few successful publishes, you can ask in the Discord channel for the restrictions to be lifted. To request verification you have to achieve 3 non-free products for sale in 30 days (PWYW counts toward this), and be manually approved. It’s likely the same on DMsGuild.

This had a negative effect on synching releases on DTRPG, Patreon, & social because we didn’t know when they would be approved. Scheduling was not an option. Oh, but that 🥰 when you see your first book on the @DriveThruRPG homepage! That’s a special, special moment. Savor it.

BTW, This is NOT a complaint. I think it’s an admirable system to ensure new publishers learn the system and build their documents well. Here’s what a publication setup looks like. I don’t know if this is a problem for DTRPG, but I will remove it if it is.

BTW, I did not like their suggested PDF profile, so I made my own that I think is easier and makes a slightly smaller, better quality file. If you’re interested in it, DM me and I’ll make it available.

PUBLISHING
Our urban setting, “The Free City of Vadashar,” was developed over decades (I’ve played in 2 campaigns). Cliff and I discussed an interesting starting point—and decided the poorest persons in the city would be cool—especially by giving them power and clout that…

…elevated their overall status and gave them mystique. The street urchins and the beggars, the spies and storytellers: “The Beggar King & the Kingdom of Beggars” launched. Cliff wrote it, I gave notes, he made revisions, until it was in draft form. This took a few weeks.

While Cliff wrote, I created an InDesign template for our products. I’m a professional creative director & designer. I purchased a slew of templates from DriveThruRPG to understand what was going to be needed. But as a professional, I was not going to use someone’s design.

So I set out to create my own—complete with paragraph and character styles, object styles, semi-automated stat blocks, Nested & GREP styles, master pages, layers, hyperlinks, automated TOC, a standardized “ZealZaddy” look that matched the brand I refined since our start.

Those two things—the writing and the design/art direction were our ONLY $0 cost expenses. In reality though, we both want to be paid for our work, so it’s unfair to declare us as working for free. It’s really us working for deferred payment from any profit. Ah, naivety!

There were still some needs and costs we were yet to incur. But they were coming upon us fast: an editor, someone to look over stat blocks, and art. I’ll go over those in that order.

THE EDITOR
I started a list of people on Twitter who called themselves #DnD or #TTRPG editors. I examined their products and checked their socials. I opened discussions with a few, and settled on Iam Pace @DubiousByName for his excellent products and knowledge of D&D5e.

Also, he often posts about real world places that would make interesting locations (or inspiration). To me, I knew he could read what we were creating from a perspective of someone with a strong grasp of history and culture. Simply put, he’s smart.

Iam stated his editing types:
• Proofing – spelling, grammar, punctuation.
• Copyediting – the above but focused on sentence clarity and aligning the document with a specific style (for example, @Wizards uses an in-house style guide with 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑔𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑒). …

• Line editing – all the above, plus addresses sentence and paragraph structure, balance, flow, tone & mood. This is the level the editor recommends restructuring elements and selecting words, helping to shape prose and making sure they are consistent with intent of the author.

• Developmental editing – the most in-depth level, can begin before the document is completed. Developmental editors assist with restructuring, reducing, and expanding sentences, paragraphs, and key aspects of the document. It addresses all elements, from plot to presentation.

Iam’s stated fees:
• Proofing: Doesn't offer proofing services
• Copyediting: 7.5% royalties, 3¢/word, or $7.50/page (250 words)
• Line editing: 10% royalties, 5¢/word, or $12.50/page
• Developmental editing: 15% royalties, 10¢/word, or $25.00/page.

We opted for copy editing at 3¢ per word. The total for the book was $175.20. that was all (actually, more than) we could afford. As a matter of fact, it hurt. A lot. BUT, it was amazing. Worth every penny. His editing and guidance was worth it & the book was better off for it.

We wanted our first product to be professional, so it was worth it to us, even if we lost money. We plan on hiring him again for future paid products (as opposed to Free/PWYW titles).

STAT BLOCKS
I have great rapport with @StarShinobi & appreciate her knowledge of mechanics.

So I asked her to build out stat blocks for the book, as I had no time. She did it for credit and a future fee (when she figures out what she wants to charge). I highly recommend hiring her (or someone you trust) to look over any mechanics in your product. But she is amazing.

CUSTOM ILLUSTRATION, or going for broke…
Here’s where it got complicated. The budget was already blown, and we had no art. We decided to get custom art anyway and supplement that with stock. Why? It’s our first piece and we wanted it to start off right.

—A note on Fiverr artists. I had terrible experiences. Artists show D&D work they DID NOT create. Many ask you to message BEFORE putting in a project. As soon as you initiate a communication every one of them asks what you’re looking for. Their responses disregard their…

stated prices and they instead give you much higher rates—even if you stay well within their parameters. You could potentially order it, and try to force them to stick to their price, but who wants to work with an artist that is angry at you? Be careful. Lots of deception there.

Back to the book: For the cover, we couldn’t afford a full cover piece, so we negotiated with the fantastic Humberto Santos @HumbertoSantos0 to illustrate the beggar King NPC for the cover. initially Humberto asked $150 for the cover illustration incl. use of it commercially.

(yes, there is an add’l fee on most custom art pieces if you want to use them for a profit-making venture). But, after some back and forth, he reduced his fee (one-time) to $120 because it was our first piece and we had a comfortable and friendly connection.

Please be nice to all artists, they work very hard for their fees. Humberto delivered an amazing original character in our “The Beggar King” that we 💛, and think you will, too.

We used stock by Henrik Karppinen (Lore Wise Games) for the cover background. We got it from DTRPG.

Yes, stock art is on @DriveThruRPG. Select “Publisher Resources” under Product Type, then “Stock Art.” The license did not allow modification of the art but did allow layering, so I used Photoshop to layer fog between the OC and the bkgd and sky behind, compositing the cover.

It got worse! We needed custom art for two magic items: The Crown and Ring of the Beggar King. We negotiated with Renato Leite @RenatoLeiteArt because every magic item I saw from him was fantastic. We wanted items that looked banged up and dingy. He had a piece with that feel.

His fee is $80 per magic item. We negotiated for a slightly fee for both items. And, as you can see, the pieces came out fantastic.

And we still needed more art. BTW, to continue following along, I suggest you go purchase a copy right now from here: drivethrurpg.com/product/386107…

STOCK ILLUSTRATION
Getting decent stock is no simple task. Why? Because rarely does any stock match what you’re looking for, and different artists’ styles rarely match each other. Those are things you’ll have to contend with if you aren’t getting all custom art or going artless.

The first piece that I found was by @DeanSpencerArt, a well-known illustrator. The elven street urchin piece cost $3.50. That is for use in ONE document. The piece is a great fit though. From there, nothing fit quite as well. But more on Dean Spencer later in this writeup.

The TOC and “Vadashar” page uses a city image by Jack Holliday Illustration. That image cost $4 for unlimited uses (one client). Great piece.

We used watercolor splashes by Nadi Spasibenko @nadispasibenko from our Envato Elements stock library. That library costs my design studio $198 annually. It has almost nothing useful in this niche. But her watercolor washes are really nice. Envato Elements has a complex license.

You have to download the image each time you use it for a different project. No extra cost, but it pulls another license. Weird. It’s not a good library for TTRPG stuff overall, but ZealZaddy is a client of my design studio onesmallstudio.com

Other stock we licensed for this book include:
Henrik Karppinen @LoreWiseGames – $10
Rowan Withnell (Pink Dice Bags) (2 pieces) – $4 & $3
Rick Hershey @FatGoblinGames – $6
Justin Hernandez @glowingraptor – $2 (B&W)
Vagelio Kaliva @vageliokal – $11

DEAN SPENCER
@DeanSpencerArt has a Patreon where you get credits toward stock on @DriveThruRPG. We became patrons at the $15 tier because we are putting out product 4x per month. We use 4-8 pieces per month. The cover for “Amric of Burgöthia” is his: drivethrurpg.com/product/389615…

I then rebought the street urchin image using Patreon points. Why? The Patreon license gives unlimited uses, instead of the single use you get from DriveThru. This Patreon is one of the best values I’ve seen, and the work is consistently excellent.
drivethrurpg.com/product/393901…

@FatGoblinGames has a subscription for fantasy characters. A one-time fee gets character art as it’s released over a year (100 pieces). The price fluctuates, it’s currently $75. A great deal. The license allows unlimited use and you can alter images—a boon for Photoshop users.

@GrimPressArt Similar to Fat Goblin Games subscription, but not just characters. The 2021 library of images is available for $200. We bought 2022 in February when it was $30, and it increases in price every month. Currently it’s $55. A Grim Press cover… drivethrurpg.com/product/394604…

@lpjdesign has an extensive library. They don’t have subscriptions but they have really useful, high-quality packs of art with 6-10 pieces for $6-12. Also has high-quality, large, single images for ~$10. Here’s an LPJ cover by @StornC
drivethrurpg.com/product/393172…

Other places we get stock includes:
• DMsGuild (check the license. They’ve said yes to use on DTRPG, but wanted higher fee for Patreon).
• Creative Marketplace
• iStockPhoto
• Shutterstock
•Dreamstime
• MegaPixl
• RPGStockArt
• FantasyStockArt

When selecting stock, make sure it meets minimum size for the medium. For print, 8.5x11 should have 300 (dots/pixels per inch), so a full page image with 1/8” bleed) would be 2,625x3375 pixels. For digital bare minimum is 630x846, but get higher and scale down. It looks sharper.

Get familiar with stock licenses. Things to especially pay attention to:
• Uses: Usually unlimited (1 client) or 1 use in 1 product per purchase
• Uses #2: Some limit your products to being sold ONLY on a platform they determine. This is especially true of stock on @DMSGuild.

That means you cannot sell it on DTRPG or Patreon without asking for them to allow it—and paying an add’l fee.
• Alterability: You can alter it (change colors or add a tail) or you can not. Most on @DriveThruRPG do NOT allow altering the work beyond scaling.

Size Usage: Some restrict the image to use up to a certain size (preventing an inset size image from being used for a cover)
Credits: You should credit artists even if not req’d IMHO. Sometimes it’s mandated. Some require a copyright line in addition to a credit line.

FONTS
Fonts are custom art. They have to be paid for. I hear you saying, go to DaFont.com. NO! In most cases, those fonts are not licensed to you for commercial use. As a design studio I own a lot of fonts, but for ZealZaddy products I wanted two specific ones…

for a unique look: “Teschke Scratch” – the messy handwritten font we use for our titles, and FTY Skorzhen, for our large type on the inner masthead and initial caps at the start of the main copy. FTY Skorzhen was $25. I had to negotiate a fee for Teschke Scratch with designer…

Tyler Teshke since it was not carried by a commercial font vendor. We agreed on $100 for commercial use. On covers I alter some characters in Illustrator so I don’t have any that are the same (if “r” is used twice, I will modify one to look different. It looks more handmade.

Our main headlines and body copy fonts are from the Zingha font family. Stat blocks and other sans serif fonts are from the Freight Sans Pro family and we use Mrs Eaves Small Caps in a couple of places. I’m a font nerd (did you know that was a thing?) 😂

BACK TO PUBLISHING
To publish you have to join the @DriveThruRPG Discord and request a name that IS your publisher name and a handle. they will then assign it to you (as long as it’s not offensive).

WHAT’S REALLY NEEDED TO DIGITALLY PUBLISH?
1. Final PDF in pages, not spreads (must be exported using the DTRPG PDF exporter or one that makes an equally good image and keeps the files reasonable in size). Use the DTRPG PDF profile unless you know what you’re doing.

2. Cover image (max 900 pixels tall or wide), plus 1-6 images that are less than 900 pixels wide
3. Copy blurb to go with the PDF

Here’s the interface…
Everything at the top down to the “audio product” check box matters. Then set categories.

I don’t add security, but that’s up to you. I also allow viewing the entire book in both flipbook and full-size preview. I assign a stock number to each release.

But, umm, where’s the upload for the actual PDF? The next screen. It’s just a drop area and a button. 👍

WAIT, THERE’S MORE
You need images & copy now for other platforms…
PATREON: We use Patreon, and give free downloads from DTRPG to Patrons. This way, when we update a product on DTRPG, they get informed. Learned this from the amazing @UOPublishing

This also gives us more accurate counting of downloads/purchases. We reuse our images and blurbs from DTRPG for our Patreon post.

WAIT, THERE’S STILL MORE
We have a website that we update. We reuse the copy blurb here. In addition we have a featured image on the blog post…

That image is 1920x1080 pixels and has a different kind of background from other images. That means more Photoshop work. “Beggar King” looks like this.

OH NO, WE’RE STILL NOT DONE: SOCIAL MEDIA!
I schedule a post for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in Sprout Social…

(our social media management program).* That requires reworking the copy blurb from the DTRPG page to better fit each platform—with Twitter being the most difficult. I made a social media template in InDesign that is a square format, which works well for TW, FB & IG. Indesign??

I can copy the cover and images from my layout and it looks almost the same as the original, but square. A simple export as a .png or .jpeg & they’re ready for posting. I try finding all contributors on all platforms, and give links to them. It’s a PITA, but important to me.

*Sprout Social costs my design studio $100/month, but I was grandfathered into that price as an early adopter. It’s much more expensive now, so I do NOT recommend it for most. I would recommend @hootsuite or @latermedia as less costly alternatives.
Comment with your favorite?

So how much time does this take after the design is ready?

1. PDF from InDesign: <5 minutes
2. Batch export of pages as .pngs or .jpegs: 10 minutes
I export as high-res (300 dpi) images, then open in photoshop & export each page at 900px wide, and the cover at 900px tall.

3. Copy images to Indesign social media template and export for posting: 5 minutes
4. Set up a new title in DTRPG: If you’ve never set one up, it will take you an hour+. If you re-use an old title as the template, it will take 15 minutes. Great feature by @DriveThruRPG!

4b. You will need to add the cover image and up to six 900 pixel wide preview images. After this step you will go to a new screen to add your product PDF. Then you can make it live or schedule it.

5. Sending complimentary copies to:
1. Patrons: <5 minutes
2. Reviewers: <5 minutes
6. Send past DTRPG customers email from DTRPG: I use the cover image (via the link), the product link, copy blurb, and a closing/thank you. Ask for star reviews. ~15 minutes

7. Patreon post: 5 minutes (reuse art & copy) with new TY closing
8. Pinterest post: 5 minutes
9. Social posts: 15-30 minutes (including links to contributors)
10. Website blog post: 15 minutes with new images

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes minimum.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Let’s say you release on Friday. Once released you need to get people to see it.
• #SelfPromoSaturday is helpful. #WIPWednesday is good too.
• Tag collaborators/artists. Most will share.
• Email links to your mailing list is powerful
cont’d…

• Get social friends to push it.
Important: Do the same for them, or you’re an asshole. Even better give star ratings and written reviews—those are REALLY important to visibility on DTRPG and DMsGuild. REALLY, REALLY, REALLY important. I cannot emphasize it enough.

Advertising: 😂 You can advertise. I don’t think it works well, and is costly, in a niche. If you do, you will likely do better on the platform you have the most followers on already. YMMV but remember, when starting out your margins are slim (or, more likely, negative).

Partner: Work with other creators and get shared marketing muscle. Always a good thing.

Giveaways: Short term boosts and not really practical in most cases. But a couple giveaways can work. I would recommend YOU not give them away, let partners give them away—boosted exposure.

LOSING MONEY
I knew going in that Beggar King was going to lose money. We were (and still are) unknown. February (release month): sold 9 copies for $13.46 gross, and we kept $9.42.

Costs:
$175.20 Editing
$240 Custom art
$43.50 stock art
Total: $458.70

A loss of $449.28.

How’d it do in later months? It grossed $59.73, net of $41.81 through June. It should cover sometime in 2027. Was I discouraged? Sure. I knew we would lose money on the first product, and possibly all products for a while.

Many creators release without art. Now you know why.

But this is not a cautionary note about hiring writers, artists, and editors. It is a sobering look at what it can take to get a quality product out in terms of time and cost. Beggar King may have been a worst-case scenario. Naivety on our part, yes…

I don’t think I’m alone in realizing measly returns on early products. We are still not profitable, but only one product has cost more (Zevoas: The Hyena-Men of Vadashar / drivethrurpg.com/product/397642…). I love both products and still believe they will eventually cover their costs.

There is an alternate method. If you recall, Iam Pace @DubiousByName offered upfront pay or royalties. With a royalty arrangement those collaborators are more invested in your product doing better and cost you less. They may put more marketing muscle behind the release.

The Beggar King MAY have sold better under that arrangement. Royalty arrangements are also a useful mitigating tool against financial risk. We’re considering this for an upcoming adventure, because we’d like to test this.

We’ve hired artists on other products—not PWYW titles.

Even those, just using stock, have lost money. But the prospects of them covering costs is likely within a few months, and some of those have had several hundred downloads, which has gained exposure. When we release our weekly DTRPG email, the number of recievers has increased.

We’ve had some really good reviews, but we’re not profitable. I wish success to all your publishing adventures. If you know some tricks, tips, or techniques you’d like to share, comment. Have questions, or want me to add something, ask.

Our products:
drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/210…

Also, these YouTube/Twitch shows/programs can teach you even more about the biz side of #DnD or #TTRPG publishing: @GinnyLoveday @lpjdesign @GamerMomLuna @DevinNash @TabletopMentor @helloMCDM

We’re giving away making your supplement for you. Check it out…

https://twitter.com/ZealZaddy/status/1541823557994520579