Submitting your VNs to Desura

[jack_norton]

For online games initially (the so called casual games) was 65-70% females. Portals like Big Fish are surely more female, even more than 60-70% Now with Steam and other non-casual portals the situation is probably back to more males, though I don't know (would be interesting to see a statistic about that considering all major online distributors).

[Calissa Leigh]

I'm hoping by including the DSE and a drag and drop element to the game we're working on, that portals like Big Fish and Shockwave would be interested. I play a lot of those games and there's room for good stories. The more otome-type vns would fit in I think if they want to give it a shot.

Camille, I bet Big Fish and Shockwave would be interested, too. And Jack, I think with something like Flower Shop, it would work out. That extra game element would make it appealing.

[jack_norton]

Nope, casual gamers don't want to read (I think I already posted about this a while ago). I submitted Heileen and that's exactly the reply I got "there's too much texts to read". I tried again later with Flower Shop and Spirited Heart but was ignored, so I just moved on. Now I know they are seeking RPGs, but the low-pricing combined with poor royalties it's really not much appealing to me.

[Calissa Leigh]

Oh well. Was a thought. I know they go for mass appeal. Maybe when the market improves as more people learn about vns, that will change a little.

[Anarchy]

How about marketing VNs as enhanced ebooks to online publishers?

[Calissa Leigh]

It might be interesting to someone like Samhain or Ellora's Cave. Since they are a smaller market, and they cater to the ebook market, they might look at the concept. But then again, they may not know what to do with it since they deal so heavily with ebooks rather than something like this.

Your cut would end up being 40% with the work they put into it. The average earn out for those markets are around $3000 per book, and higher end being around $14000. You'd have to show them something pretty good. The novels that I shop around to publishers required a lot of work. They will be particular about the story itself. The benefit being you'd be under a brand name with a team of editors and a marketing team.

It depends on how far the virtual novel might grow here in the states. It might be more in line to market these to comic book publishers/graphic novel publishers working in a virtual market.

[Calissa Leigh]

But I guess I could shoot an email to a couple of publishers and agents. I'm friends with a couple of them. I hadn't thought about it but they might at least have some insight.

[Anarchy]

Nice! Let us know what they say about it :3

[llplldll]

Its good to know Desura is actively seeking visual novels, feels like the market is opening up! Can't wait to see where this goes in the long run.

[Calissa Leigh]

One editor got back with me already. She said they looked interesting but she'd have to talk with her publisher about them. They don't deal with things like this right now obviously but it's really about the type of thing it is. They are obviously not prepared for something like it. But she's going to show it to the publisher and see if she can't get feedback on if it might ever be a consideration.

I personally think it'd fit right in with the ebook market. The interactive childrens' books already on the market are kind of similar to these.

[Lumen_Astrum]

That seems very interesting! O: I did saw RA in desura when I read about it in twitter, lol.
I guess we can say that VNs are capturing more interest now

Now to make high-quality VNs that are worth sharing

[jack_norton]

After 1 month I can definitely confirm my initial thoughts: it's a 99% male oriented portal. It's the only place where Bionic Heart outsells Always Remember Me it's not a bad news though if you're NOT making a otome game. I think BxG VN/Dating sim or RPG can find interested people (although those users seem a bit too on the "cheap side" for my tastes).