Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaot
I know Deadworld is coming from Seraphim Guard, what about the other titles? Rome, Interplanetary, Fractured Hopes, Mythic Island, Chaos & Catacombs, are they all to be published directly through Chaosium? Can Chaosium handle that publishing load?
Does anyone have any insight into this? Am I being overly worried?
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Out of everyone on the forum here, I may have the best insight into the situation, so I'll volunteer my opinions. (Though of course, I'm just a freelancer for Chaosium, and am not any sort of official representative.)
Deadworld is of course being handled by someone else, at little effort to anyone from Chaosium other than some contract stuff.
The other five books you mention are all to be published by Chaosium, true.
I'm not sure if
Mystic Island (or is it
Iceland?) is a monograph or an actual publication. If it's a mono, it's really only Chaosium's job to print and distribute it.
There are a few other works also in process, but haven't been announced.
Unfortunately, the reality of a freelancer-driven publication schedule is that it's a freelancer-driven publication schedule.
(No offense intended to any freelancers, by the way.)
That means that these books will only be published when they're turned in. Many times in this industry, books are begun and never finished. Freelancers don't always come through with books because of life issues, etc. Sometimes the effort of completing a huge manuscript is just too much. Sometimes manuscripts are abandoned, and depending on what the project is, they need to be passed over to another writer. Sometimes (like with BRP) they're late. Sometimes they're turned in and need massive revisions. Sometimes manuscripts arrive in an unpublishable format and the projects are just killed.
If and when a manuscript does arrive, and is publishable, there's another long process of editing and layout.
Then there's interior and cover art, which basically means that you've got all of the above problems, but with a new freelancer.
So having four or five, or even 10 projects "in development" at the same time doesn't really mean that all of them will create this huge bottleneck at once and overwhelm a smaller publisher.
The reality is that if everything goes according to ideal plans, these listed publications will be coming out over the next year to year and a half, giving plenty of time for production.
Having a slate of support products for BRP covering a variety of genres, with fan buzz, is frankly an ideal situation for Chaosium. It allows them to see what sourcebooks sink or swim, what the market is interested in, and allows the BRP line to grow and be seen as a viable force in the RPG market.