SigninG a Publishing Contract

If you are in the lucky position of having multiple offers on a game, comparing the percentage in the royalty rate is not necessarily the only information you need. 

• How many copies are they likely to sell? A company that offers a slightly lower royalty rate can turn out to be better for you, if they sell twice as many copies. Obviously, there is no way to guarantee that your game will sell as well as their other titles. But it is fair to ask publishers about their track record with other similar games. Asking what they would expect to order as a first print run might give you a sense of a minimum number of copies they would be able to sell your game. For example, Stonemaier Games has said that their minimum print run is 10,000 games. Many small publishers might expect to print far fewer than that, while Hasbro’s can be significantly higher.

• What distribution channels are they likely to use? Publishers can vary quite a bit on what proportion of their sales go through wholesale distribution (at a deep discount) and what proportion they sell through crowdfunding or direct sales (at full MSRP). This is another fair question to ask when you are negotiating over an offer, so that you can get closer to an apples-to-apples comparison.

• How are they to work with? Even once you understand how the financial rewards might play out, there are many non-financial things to consider about working with different publishers. Always talk to other designers who have worked with a publisher that you are considering.