I was thinking about creating a few DMs Guild Products, but would like for them to be able to sell so that I can generate money for art in later products. Does anyone know (or at least have some anecdotal observations) on how much more likely a good-quality, decently-priced DMs Guild product is to sell well based on the amount of art it has and its quality? I'm just wondering. I am aware that there is free creator art that I will probably end up using for the first few products that I may make, but would like some opinions on the likelihood of success when selling a product with little to no art in it.
Thanks in advance and I hope to get some responses soon.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Use of art isn't Wild West. WotC actually provides stock art resources and has rules about recycling art from other WotC products. The lines are clear:
As far as impact of original art on a GMGuild project's sales. Hard to say on a cursory glance but the cool thing about DMsGuild is that it's customers have space to review the products and also dialogue with the creators. What I'd do if I was thinking about making a foray into GMGuild and I really wanted "sales", I'd research GMGuild's current top sellers, and see what the reviewers say about them. If "gorgeous art" is a common factor, there you go. Personally, I do pay attention to graphics when I check out the preview at GMGuild but writing quality is more important.
Art would also be an additional design hurdle with DMsGuild's specs on Pdf and adaptability between computer, phone and other mobile screens.
All that said, it seems designers with in house art resources as well as the next level design skills involved in integrating original artwork with text tend to just go the independent studio route.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
This may not be of popular opinion except when I see something with art I am more inclined to at least try looking at the description, which may or may not make me eventually buy it. It looks a bit more professional. This is only for cover art though. Art inside the book is nice but not needed. The cover is what really catches the eye. So I'd suggest getting an artist to make art for the cover but nothing else.
This may not be of popular opinion except when I see something with art I am more inclined to at least try looking at the description, which may or may not make me eventually buy it. It looks a bit more professional. This is only for cover art though. Art inside the book is nice but not needed. The cover is what really catches the eye. So I'd suggest getting an artist to make art for the cover but nothing else.
I don't think popularity of the opinion really matters. What you're stating is a publishing truism. Art is literally eye catching, so may give a product more attention whether it merits it or not. DMsGuild provides a listing of its best sellers. A desire to do market research can review those and see what sort of cover art they have, and from there it's not hard to determine whether original of guild stock art is being used.
That said, given that DMsGuild is a community, and I've always found the discussions where a works writer engages comments, I'd think reviews and positive ratings are as much if not more of a factor in DMsGuild marketplace.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
i think on the cover page its crucial as, like midnight and Thalai say, it catches the eye. Compared to a cover that's just bold text, it says more time and effort was put in the document (even if not actually true). Inside the document itself though is a different story, imo. There's a couple high-popularity products out there with a ton of art, that might be nice, but is really just in there to increase page count to lower their cost per page metric (armorer handbook...cough). IMO, interior art should be largely restricted to a layout tool to fill white-space and maybe a few occasions where it directly adds to the story.
But even being important on the cover, i don't think you need to pay for it. Some of that free art on DMSGuild is really high quality, and there's absolutely mountains of free art online either Public Domain (either released with a CC0 license or aged out of copyright laws), CC-BY (By: you have to give credit to the author), or CC-ND (No Derivatives: you can't make any changes to the art-you have to drop it in as-is) that you can use. Unless you absolutely insist on having a full-page color sketch of a firbolg giving a goblin a piggy-back ride while slaying a troll, you can find free art that works for your publication.
...and if you did pay an artist, agree to a cut of proceeds, not a flat fee - that way you're both in the same boat.
I agree about the cover art being the most important, since it is all that you can see in the thumbnail shown on the DMs Guild pages.
Another source of public domain art, which I myself used, is the National Gallery of Art Image collection: images.nga.gov
"More than 53,000 open access digital images up to 4000 pixels on the long dimension are available free of charge for download and use."
For my DMs Guild product (a conversion of the 1977 Zenopus dungeon to 5E), I used an image of a painting from the NGA for the cover, plus one area map that I drew myself by hand.
Another powerful feature is that you can revise your DMs Guild product later if you want to add more art to it, and all purchasers can get the revised item without further charge.
Covid hit a few months after my project was out, so I went back and added a separate Roll20-optimized png file so it could more easily be run on a VTT.
And I took some of the money from the product and used it commission a further piece of art, which I just added recently to the pdf, along with printer-friendly dungeon map.
Zenopus Archives blog: Exploring the Underworld of Holmes Basic D&D.
The Ruined Tower of Zenopus, a 5e conversion of the 1977 dungeon, is available on DMs Guild & includes notes for adapting it as the adventure site in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. For character levels 1-2. Includes a dungeon map file optimized for use with Roll20/VTT.
What sort of product are you looking at making? I think this makes a big difference. For things like encounter tables, sub classes, spells, alternate rule sets, I don't really care if there's any art or not. However if I'm looking for something like cool new monsters, I want pictures so that I can show them to my players. Similarly I'm awful at making maps, so if I'm looking at an adventure, I want to know their are maps in there for me.
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I was thinking about creating a few DMs Guild Products, but would like for them to be able to sell so that I can generate money for art in later products. Does anyone know (or at least have some anecdotal observations) on how much more likely a good-quality, decently-priced DMs Guild product is to sell well based on the amount of art it has and its quality? I'm just wondering. I am aware that there is free creator art that I will probably end up using for the first few products that I may make, but would like some opinions on the likelihood of success when selling a product with little to no art in it.
Thanks in advance and I hope to get some responses soon.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
No idea, but I would be really, really surprised if it "pays of" to hire a professional artist to do the artwork.
Ludo ergo sum!
Use of art isn't Wild West. WotC actually provides stock art resources and has rules about recycling art from other WotC products. The lines are clear:
https://support.dmsguild.com/hc/en-us/articles/217029188-Logo-and-Artwork-Questions
As far as impact of original art on a GMGuild project's sales. Hard to say on a cursory glance but the cool thing about DMsGuild is that it's customers have space to review the products and also dialogue with the creators. What I'd do if I was thinking about making a foray into GMGuild and I really wanted "sales", I'd research GMGuild's current top sellers, and see what the reviewers say about them. If "gorgeous art" is a common factor, there you go. Personally, I do pay attention to graphics when I check out the preview at GMGuild but writing quality is more important.
Art would also be an additional design hurdle with DMsGuild's specs on Pdf and adaptability between computer, phone and other mobile screens.
All that said, it seems designers with in house art resources as well as the next level design skills involved in integrating original artwork with text tend to just go the independent studio route.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
This may not be of popular opinion except when I see something with art I am more inclined to at least try looking at the description, which may or may not make me eventually buy it. It looks a bit more professional. This is only for cover art though. Art inside the book is nice but not needed. The cover is what really catches the eye. So I'd suggest getting an artist to make art for the cover but nothing else.
When players get creative.
I don't think popularity of the opinion really matters. What you're stating is a publishing truism. Art is literally eye catching, so may give a product more attention whether it merits it or not. DMsGuild provides a listing of its best sellers. A desire to do market research can review those and see what sort of cover art they have, and from there it's not hard to determine whether original of guild stock art is being used.
That said, given that DMsGuild is a community, and I've always found the discussions where a works writer engages comments, I'd think reviews and positive ratings are as much if not more of a factor in DMsGuild marketplace.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
i think on the cover page its crucial as, like midnight and Thalai say, it catches the eye. Compared to a cover that's just bold text, it says more time and effort was put in the document (even if not actually true). Inside the document itself though is a different story, imo. There's a couple high-popularity products out there with a ton of art, that might be nice, but is really just in there to increase page count to lower their cost per page metric (armorer handbook...cough). IMO, interior art should be largely restricted to a layout tool to fill white-space and maybe a few occasions where it directly adds to the story.
But even being important on the cover, i don't think you need to pay for it. Some of that free art on DMSGuild is really high quality, and there's absolutely mountains of free art online either Public Domain (either released with a CC0 license or aged out of copyright laws), CC-BY (By: you have to give credit to the author), or CC-ND (No Derivatives: you can't make any changes to the art-you have to drop it in as-is) that you can use. Unless you absolutely insist on having a full-page color sketch of a firbolg giving a goblin a piggy-back ride while slaying a troll, you can find free art that works for your publication.
...and if you did pay an artist, agree to a cut of proceeds, not a flat fee - that way you're both in the same boat.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
I agree about the cover art being the most important, since it is all that you can see in the thumbnail shown on the DMs Guild pages.
Another source of public domain art, which I myself used, is the National Gallery of Art Image collection: images.nga.gov
"More than 53,000 open access digital images up to 4000 pixels on the long dimension are available free of charge for download and use."
For my DMs Guild product (a conversion of the 1977 Zenopus dungeon to 5E), I used an image of a painting from the NGA for the cover, plus one area map that I drew myself by hand.
Another powerful feature is that you can revise your DMs Guild product later if you want to add more art to it, and all purchasers can get the revised item without further charge.
Covid hit a few months after my project was out, so I went back and added a separate Roll20-optimized png file so it could more easily be run on a VTT.
And I took some of the money from the product and used it commission a further piece of art, which I just added recently to the pdf, along with printer-friendly dungeon map.
Zenopus Archives blog: Exploring the Underworld of Holmes Basic D&D.
The Ruined Tower of Zenopus, a 5e conversion of the 1977 dungeon, is available on DMs Guild & includes notes for adapting it as the adventure site in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. For character levels 1-2. Includes a dungeon map file optimized for use with Roll20/VTT.
What sort of product are you looking at making? I think this makes a big difference. For things like encounter tables, sub classes, spells, alternate rule sets, I don't really care if there's any art or not. However if I'm looking for something like cool new monsters, I want pictures so that I can show them to my players. Similarly I'm awful at making maps, so if I'm looking at an adventure, I want to know their are maps in there for me.