Robot Viking

Earlier this week I released my first product that included Hero Lab support: Book of Magic: Signature Spells 1. If you don’t know what Hero Lab is, it’s a character building program for many of the major game systems. Pathfinder, D&D (both 3.5 and 4E), Mutants and Masterminds 2E and 3E, nWoD, Savage World and [...]

As a one person publishing company, it is really easy to burn yourself out. On a typical day, any publishing company has to coordinate with contracted writers/editors/artists, keep an open eye for new talent, layout new products, promote upcoming and existing products, keep up-to-date on things like forums, blogs, competitors, and news in general, handle [...]

This week saw some incredible announcements in the gaming industry. Monday, Paizo and WizKids announced they were doing pre-painted plastic minis of random heroes and monsters. Then Tuesday, Fantasy Flight finally announced they got the Star Wars license as many of us had previously guessed.

Its that time of year again. Summer is nice and warm. Everyone is getting ready for a convention or two, and the Ennies Nominations are announced. This year there are some nominees that I am really excited for. Here are some of the highlights.

While you can never tell a book by its cover, you can definitely sell a book by its cover. It’s one of the earliest things that you need to share with game store owners when you’re trying to convince them to carry your book.

Most of my time lately has been spent getting ready for (and recovering from) PaizoCon. Without a doubt, I had more fun there than at any other con I’ve attended, and I was working the whole time. Attendees say it was even more fun for them. We played games, hung out with a lot of [...]

Earlier this week the Book of the River Nations: Complete Player’s Reference to Kingdom Building hit game store shelves. This past Friday, I ordered its first reprint. That’s right, I am reprinting the book before it hit store shelves. That is how fast this book is going. It was the largest print run I had [...]

Today I’m looking at what makes a license valuable. I’m not talking paid licenses for settings like The Walking Dead or the Marvel Universe of Superheroes (that is for a different day). Today I’m just looking at free system licenses. D&D 4E, Pathfinder, Traveller, and Savage Worlds just to name a few. What makes some [...]

This Friday is Jon Brazer Enterprises’ second anniversary. Two years ago we released our first product (a 16-page character sheet for the Traveller RPG). Now here we are, two years later and going strong. It’s times like this that I like to reflect and see where we’ve been and where we are going.

I’m currently in the final stages of getting the Book of the River Nations: Complete Player’s Reference for Kingdom Building ready to go to the printer. There is a lot of work involved in that. Getting all the edits in, making sure the artwork looks good on the page, arguing with my editor over one [...]

Good day everyone.  As a publisher the one thing I hear over and over again that customers want is print book, yet more and more PDF books come to market and never become a print book. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, this post is going to attempt to answer that for you.

As a publisher, I don’t have a lot of time. Much of my available time is taken up with writing new material. But I always make sure to take the time to read other material.

Greetings! This week, the GAMA Trade Show is going on in Las Vegas, Nevada so let’s start with a look at what a gaming trade show is like.

I’m happy to introduce a brand new regular column here at Robot Viking, the Brazer Bulletin by Jon Brazer Enterprises publisher Dale McCoy. He’ll be giving you an interesting look at life as an independent game publisher.