Well, 2012 is just around the corner folks. Today, I’d like to take the opportunity to review where we’ve been and what we’ve learned in 2011. It’s been an interesting year for Nevermet Press, to say the least. If you’d like to see the real numbers (in terms of sales), jump over to this other post.
Promises, Promises
First, more of an apology. Long time fans of Nevermet Press have seen the ups and downs first hand, and Nevermet Press Insider subscribers got even a closer look at our developments as we’ve plodded along here. In 2010 I had these crazy ambitious goals that we would publish three books in 2011 – all of them RPG gaming books. Looking back on a post from January, 2011 it reads like the insane ramblings of an editor trying to bite off way more than he can chew. Yeah, that’s me.
Among my plans was much touted Dead Queens of Morvena campaign setting was scheduled to be released last Spring using the Savage Worlds Roleplaying Game as the base system. I even had T-shirts made and pimped the “soon to be released” campaign setting quite a bit at SynDCon in April. In short, for a variety of reasons and much to my embarrassment, it never materialized. I no doubt pissed off a whole crew of artists who supported the project, and one very capable writer who worked hard on the project for several months as well: Charles Dickey. Our differences over the direction of the project eventually led to Charles leaving Nevermet Press, and eventually the laying to rest of the project.
So, to Charles, Matt, MrLich, J, and Rob – you have my most sincere apologies for totally fucking up that project and failing to deliver your hard work to our fans. To the fans of Nevermet Press, I want to thank you for sticking with us despite the troubles we ran into earlier in the year. I hope you’ll continue to stick around and share our creative works with your friends in 2012.
What 2011 Brought
Now, on the bright side, I think I did have at least one good idea: Stories in the Ether. In March it hit me like a ton of bricks. There I was reading and loving FANTASY and Lightspeed (now one journal) and thinking, “This rocks! I should totally do something like this for Nevermet Press!” You know what they say too — Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Now, Stories in the Ether is of course its own thing and we have a long way to go to get it where I want it. But, it is something that I’m cultivating with care, and so far I’ve been quite happy with the results. We’ve published over 40 (!) fantastic stories along with some incredible artwork. It’s a project I’m quite proud so far, and I’m really looking forward to it expanding in 2012.
As for gaming and RPGs, while we didn’t publish any gaming books per se, we have seen a steady flow of excellent gaming articles on our blog from nearly a dozen authors. I like to think that just as many of our fans today come here for RPG content as they do for the fiction and the editorials. One shout out I want to specifically make is to The Grumpy Celt who continues to write and produce innovative, serial content for 4E D&D. His series on Grave Sites was excellent, and we plan on developing it into a full-fledged RPG product in 2012, so stay tuned for that.
2011 also brought us a huge expansion to our Stock Art Catalog. That’s right. I know to many of our fans this may not be all that exciting, but for some small press publishers it’s been a great resource. We offer high quality, royalty free stock art at an affordable price through our partner DriveThruRPG.com. If you’re a publisher, or a game master looking for some cool illustrations, take a peek. We’re currently offering over 70 individual illustrations and in 2012 I expect that number to go up quite a bit.
Twitter, Site Traffic & Twitter
One thing I’ve worked very hard on is promoting (aka marketing) our website and blog. Trying to reach potential fans who have a shared interest in speculative fiction and roleplaying games is not as easy as it sounds. There are literally hundreds of RPG blogs out there in the interwebs, and as many small press publishers like us. So it’s an uphill battle. They say “Content is King” which is true, but without an audience the content can be awesomely alone too. So over the last year I’ve made a commitment to connect with many of you on Twitter and Facebook. Our Twitter following has exploded (tripled) as a result to ~1,600 followers. We’ve also seen a huge increase on Facebook as well. As for the website – some say RSS is dead, which I tend to agree with as our RSS subscriber base has only seen a 20-30% rise is number. People just don’t use feed readers like they used to in 2008/09; back in the “heyday of blogging” so to speak. Nonetheless, our website traffic has been very strong and is currently pulling in an audience of over 25,000 people per month—double what it was in 2010. For that, I’m grateful because I know it means our artists and authors are getting the exposure they deserve. It’s been hard work, but it’s been something I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.
Before I go off the deepend and start rambling, I’ll end with this…
Nevermet Press is a labor of love for me and for many of the people who contribute to this site. We have a fantastic group of creative and energetic people contributing to this blog each week, and fortunately I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
To the authors and artists who have contributed to Nevermet Press; to the fans and readers of our blogs and new books; to our followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook: Thank you and may you have a blessed and truly Happy New Year!
2011 Year in Review
Looking Back at 2011
Well, 2012 is just around the corner folks. Today, I’d like to take the opportunity to review where we’ve been and what we’ve learned in 2011. It’s been an interesting year for Nevermet Press, to say the least. If you’d like to see the real numbers (in terms of sales), jump over to this other post.
Promises, Promises
First, more of an apology. Long time fans of Nevermet Press have seen the ups and downs first hand, and Nevermet Press Insider subscribers got even a closer look at our developments as we’ve plodded along here. In 2010 I had these crazy ambitious goals that we would publish three books in 2011 – all of them RPG gaming books. Looking back on a post from January, 2011 it reads like the insane ramblings of an editor trying to bite off way more than he can chew. Yeah, that’s me.
Among my plans was much touted Dead Queens of Morvena campaign setting was scheduled to be released last Spring using the Savage Worlds Roleplaying Game as the base system. I even had T-shirts made and pimped the “soon to be released” campaign setting quite a bit at SynDCon in April. In short, for a variety of reasons and much to my embarrassment, it never materialized. I no doubt pissed off a whole crew of artists who supported the project, and one very capable writer who worked hard on the project for several months as well: Charles Dickey. Our differences over the direction of the project eventually led to Charles leaving Nevermet Press, and eventually the laying to rest of the project.
So, to Charles, Matt, MrLich, J, and Rob – you have my most sincere apologies for totally fucking up that project and failing to deliver your hard work to our fans. To the fans of Nevermet Press, I want to thank you for sticking with us despite the troubles we ran into earlier in the year. I hope you’ll continue to stick around and share our creative works with your friends in 2012.
What 2011 Brought
Now, on the bright side, I think I did have at least one good idea: Stories in the Ether. In March it hit me like a ton of bricks. There I was reading and loving FANTASY and Lightspeed (now one journal) and thinking, “This rocks! I should totally do something like this for Nevermet Press!” You know what they say too — Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Now, Stories in the Ether is of course its own thing and we have a long way to go to get it where I want it. But, it is something that I’m cultivating with care, and so far I’ve been quite happy with the results. We’ve published over 40 (!) fantastic stories along with some incredible artwork. It’s a project I’m quite proud so far, and I’m really looking forward to it expanding in 2012.
As for gaming and RPGs, while we didn’t publish any gaming books per se, we have seen a steady flow of excellent gaming articles on our blog from nearly a dozen authors. I like to think that just as many of our fans today come here for RPG content as they do for the fiction and the editorials. One shout out I want to specifically make is to The Grumpy Celt who continues to write and produce innovative, serial content for 4E D&D. His series on Grave Sites was excellent, and we plan on developing it into a full-fledged RPG product in 2012, so stay tuned for that.
2011 also brought us a huge expansion to our Stock Art Catalog. That’s right. I know to many of our fans this may not be all that exciting, but for some small press publishers it’s been a great resource. We offer high quality, royalty free stock art at an affordable price through our partner DriveThruRPG.com. If you’re a publisher, or a game master looking for some cool illustrations, take a peek. We’re currently offering over 70 individual illustrations and in 2012 I expect that number to go up quite a bit.
Twitter, Site Traffic & Twitter
One thing I’ve worked very hard on is promoting (aka marketing) our website and blog. Trying to reach potential fans who have a shared interest in speculative fiction and roleplaying games is not as easy as it sounds. There are literally hundreds of RPG blogs out there in the interwebs, and as many small press publishers like us. So it’s an uphill battle. They say “Content is King” which is true, but without an audience the content can be awesomely alone too. So over the last year I’ve made a commitment to connect with many of you on Twitter and Facebook. Our Twitter following has exploded (tripled) as a result to ~1,600 followers. We’ve also seen a huge increase on Facebook as well. As for the website – some say RSS is dead, which I tend to agree with as our RSS subscriber base has only seen a 20-30% rise is number. People just don’t use feed readers like they used to in 2008/09; back in the “heyday of blogging” so to speak. Nonetheless, our website traffic has been very strong and is currently pulling in an audience of over 25,000 people per month—double what it was in 2010. For that, I’m grateful because I know it means our artists and authors are getting the exposure they deserve. It’s been hard work, but it’s been something I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.
Before I go off the deepend and start rambling, I’ll end with this…
Nevermet Press is a labor of love for me and for many of the people who contribute to this site. We have a fantastic group of creative and energetic people contributing to this blog each week, and fortunately I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
To the authors and artists who have contributed to Nevermet Press; to the fans and readers of our blogs and new books; to our followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook: Thank you and may you have a blessed and truly Happy New Year!
Related stories on Nevermet Press:
About Jonathan Jacobs
Jonathan is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Nevermet Press. You can catch up with Jonathan on Twitter (@nevermetpress), Facebook, and LinkedIn.com; or email him directly at editor@nevermetpress.com.