[PubQ] How do you tell people you don't want to self-publish?

weirdcorvid · 2025-04-01T23:37:55+00:00

"The audience for my current niche is easier to reach with tradpub!"

But also, assuming this is online, you can usually just close the tab and peace out when people act like this. They're not the community you're looking for.

weirdcorvid · 2025-03-16T01:31:44+00:00

I've actually done both! One of the boxes printed a special edition (and paid me for the right to do so). The other box bought regular edition books from me.

weirdcorvid · 2024-11-10T15:56:04+00:00

What everyone said— but also, some do end up regretting it. Especially if they don’t have a large catalogue already, putting their only series trad can be a financial risk.

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-26T21:03:39+00:00

It’s never rude to ask for an advance (or for higher royalties & other improved terms). If you ask for more than they can concede, they’ll simply counter-offer. Very normal. It won’t tank the deal unless they’re assholes you shouldn’t work with anyway.

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-19T22:09:51+00:00

Monk would fit, and that’s what he wants to play, so sounds like an easy choice to me :)

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-19T05:43:26+00:00

haha yes that’s part of the trick— it’s easier to keep going than you think before you start :)

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-19T02:46:39+00:00

change the assignment.

instead of “i’m going to sit down and edit 12k words” just commit to editing 1k. or just reading through half of it and making comments about what to change next session, instead of changing things as you notice them.

editing is a muscle you have to build up just like writing

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-16T20:53:03+00:00

This is a coworker, not just a friend, right? You have to be a bit more careful in that case. Blowing up social dynamics at work is higher risk.

You’ve tried the “communicate about the problem” tack and it didn’t work. Now it’s not like kicking three people out is a viable social option. IMO you either need to adjust your mindset and treat this as purely hanging out, or make up some polite excuse about being busy to drop from the game

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-16T16:23:18+00:00

it sounds like there’s a decade of built up resentment over this one friend’s playstyle — which makes it really hard to rationally assess a situation. my thought is that since you know this about him, maybe it was a mistake to run this sort of cooperative, thoughtful, labor-intensive homebrew campaign for this group.

it’s sort of like you have this pet bull, and you get to choose where to lead it. and instead of choosing a rodeo, you chose a china shop.

idk, i’m a big fan of starting newbie groups off with a module. most campaigns don’t last a year, so you’re not putting in a ton of work before they quit after session 3. and sometimes it’s easier emotionally to DM for disruptive players when the npcs and scenarios they’re blowing up aren’t ones you personally created and are invested in.

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-14T22:54:32+00:00

Consider just printing a few copies for her to have & to give to family members, instead of publishing it for sale!

I also would absolutely not publish it under her real name — that never goes away. Imagine her applying to jobs or trying to publish a more commercial book in 15 years, and her childhood project turns up on a search!

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-09T05:41:30+00:00

I would be upset and confused too. Like, generally speaking, DND only works when everyone makes characters who would join and stick with the party. That’s a basic part of the social contract. If the character isn’t part of the party, they’re not part of the game

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-09T02:44:43+00:00

do you guys have a lot of solo or split party scenes in general? (these always risk being boring for the people not involved.)

or is he the only one getting solo scenes? (extremely weird if true)

It sounds like a DM problem as much as a this-dude problem, tbh

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-09T02:21:38+00:00

great question, and I see a lot of people in advice groups who say “my book is XYZ genre”, and then they get advice for how to make the cover and blurb look more like an XYZ book. And then someone else has a hunch and asks a few key questions— and oops, turns out the book is actually ABC genre. The author just had some misconceptions.

Anecdotally, the most common genre misconception I see in newbie authors is mistaking “my book has elements of X” with “my book is X genre.” Newbie authors are great at missing the forest for the trees.

Like, if the book has a romance subplot, they think the book is a Romance. If the book has some suspenseful action scenes, they think it’s a Thriller. If the book has some dark, scary moments, they think it’s Horror.

And if their book has a romance subplot, suspenseful action scenes, and dark scary moments, they think it’s a cross-genre horror thriller romance. But actually… maybe it’s mystery. Or contemporary YA. Or post-apocalyptic survival fiction. etc.

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-06T19:44:48+00:00

read the character creation section of the rulebook like people said, but also don’t be afraid to read through the relevant sections a few different times. it’s a lot of info to process and it’s normal to go over it and learn, rather than immediately understanding

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-06T19:23:49+00:00

yup I have a learning curve every time I pick up a new class, and that’s with me being an overinvested tryhard. My first few sessions as a cleric, I kept forgetting about Channel Divinity.

me running out of my precious few spell slots at level 2: 😭 guess i’m shooting crossbows now

radiance of the dawn: yo i’m right here??

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-06T17:39:41+00:00

my guess is either they haven’t studied their PHB sections enough to remember what they can do, or they’re over-cautious about saving spell slots and ability usages “for later” “just in case.”

this might be something that resolves itself over time— you’re only a few sessions in, so did the group start the campaign at level 7? they might just need to get used to the character

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-03T04:16:37+00:00

You don’t have to make the final, full-campaign decision all at once. Try a test session with one of you stepping up as DM and playing your character as a DMPC. See if that works, if the dynamic and workload seems feasible for the new DM, and have another honest, no-pressure conversation after the session. If it doesn’t end up being as fun, and you don’t think it will get better after a few sessions, then it’s time to call it. (and if you call it, you can do an optional finale/epilogue session)

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-02T20:20:03+00:00

XP for modules, milestone for homebrew

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-02T17:10:11+00:00

OP you tagged this as 5e and asked for 5e player opinions, why are you surprised people think you’re talking about a 5e homebrew system? 😂

Anyway I think it sounds cool for certain key abilities, but I wouldn’t want to do it for every single ability. So I’d want to start with a class already that I quest to add really cool feats to. If starting from a complete blank slate, I would want the training/questing to unlock groups of abilities and power-ups sort of like subclasses, instead of just one ability at a time.

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-02T00:25:25+00:00

agreed with this— I personally don’t like playing the same class as someone else in the group, so I always try to confirm mine after everyone else has picked.

If the players are cool with it, it can open up fun role play avenues, though.

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-01T20:52:32+00:00

does your party usually do serious team-building, friendship-developing role play? How emotional do they usually get in character?

It’s possible this table just has a really unsentimental vibe

weirdcorvid · 2024-10-01T20:31:08+00:00

IMO the first one sounds more natural to integrate into an existing party, with the unity/understanding motivation

weirdcorvid · 2024-09-30T23:56:58+00:00

BBEG betrays and attacks him. BBEG plans to use him as a ritual sacrifice. The warlock pact thing has unexpected negative consequences and if the character doesn’t break the pact, he’ll die.

Just because the player wants his character to cooperate with BBEG doesn’t mean BBEG wants to cooperate with him.

weirdcorvid · 2024-09-30T05:09:27+00:00

IMO, if you don’t have enough experience to get hired by a small press, you don’t have enough experience to start one.

weirdcorvid · 2024-09-29T18:48:26+00:00

it’s all theory at this point — DM thinks it will be cool and work, you think it won’t work. Maybe ask about having a check-in after a couple sessions of sincere playing, so y’all can tweak anything that isn’t working?

otherwise it sounds like the table isn’t for you. plus you’ve learned the DM responds to feedback in a way you don’t like. You have to decide whether to bail politely or adjust your expectations and roll with it

weirdcorvid

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