For reference valve is getting absolutely fuckin' roasted for steam taking a 30% royalty cut for everything sold on the storefront and they put a policy in place that explicitly favors larger selling titles. Plus steam doesn't get exclusive publishing rights. In no world should dmsguilds be taking 50%.

@BainesMkII

3 жыл бұрын

Valve received criticism for a while only because Epic publicly challenged the industry standard 30% cut, a standard originally set by Apple. But that has mostly died down, with minimal changes. (Microsoft dropped its PC store cut to 12%, Valve made changes that only benefited the biggest publishers, etc.) The DMsGuild case is a bit more complicated in that it effectively comes with a WotC license, something that could likely add significant cost otherwise, if you were even allowed to get a license at all.

@wylantern

3 жыл бұрын

@@BainesMkII WotC doesn't have the legal authority to issue that licence.

The main problem with the DMs Guild, Is that it has a good reputation, If they were known as being harsh nobody would bother using their service.

I totally agree that people need to be careful weighing profit potential against creative control. Personally I think that a 50% cut is bad, but tolerable. However the loss of ownership of my own work is unacceptable to me.

@nicolaezenoaga9756

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! You should own the thing that you made. Laws and rules should reinforce this, not the opposite.

@LibertyMonk

3 жыл бұрын

the ONLY way that loosing ownership makes any sense at all is if their copyright is integrated into your work, and even then only because it gets a little complicated for WotC to deal with individual cases at scale. It's pretty brutal that you the only way to use the platform is accepting loss of ownership and a 50% cut, regardless of who's IP and copyright is being used.

@ttrev007

Жыл бұрын

I think the 50% is tolerable but i am not sure about the lack of control over were you publish is.

Great video! It’s a shame to see content creators getting shafted like this by the biggest site for D&D content creation, especially as someone who has been considering putting up some of their own work. As a follow up to this, I think it would be great to make a video or videos breaking down all of the different avenues of content creation for 5e (Fan Content Policy, OGL, DMs Guild, etc).

@twilightgardenspresentatio6384

Жыл бұрын

Yes please

I didn’t know too much about the Skeevy side of DMSGUILD, this was informative, thanks!

I once watched a video who was giving advice to authors of fantasy/Sci-fi books and there recommendation is to go onto social media and develop a fallowing. Publishers will look at you more seriously if you already have a built in audience. You no longer can be just a writer you have to play many roles if you want to do what you love.

In regard to the Kickstarter stuff. Take a look at the Dungeon Dudes - Drakkenheim kickstarter

I have ideas for classes and subclasses I would love to fold into a larger campaign world I'm working on, and I was thinking of putting some of them up on the DMG for a little spending money while I work on bigger things. Key word: Was. Now...Well, like you said, maybe just to build up a following.

You present many great arguments and pros and cons, but I think I'll still be uploading onto DMs Guild. Why? Honestly, I don't have the time, resources and manpower to publish something hardback or promote in any sort of massive way.

Some problems with publishing content is the requirements and what is clearly laid out to actually know what part of publishing the content you’re doing. Minor things even like you must have a cover image tile, but they don’t have a simple use default image option

Wow 50% and loss of ownership, I feel so bad for those who published here.

Thank you for this video! I've been trying to explain to friends for a while now why I don't necessarily want to post on DMSGuild, and this really helps sum it up/explain why. Great stuff as usual man! I'm hoping the best for Josh's future career on Kickstarter and beyond!

Fortunately James found a better place at MCDM!

I don't think it's unreasonable to recommend Kickstarter, it's just that building some reputation is the first step. Rather than 3rd party companies, think of people like Griffon's Saddlebag or KibblesTasty. Sure, they had a following when they went to Kickstarter, but just ones they gathered online. I do think the 50% is a little ridiculous, but I can also not think of any other store front that gives complete use of IP in the same way. I just think DMsGuild is for a much more limited selection of things than tend to go on it. Something like Exploring Eberron is what DMsGuild feels like it was made for, and couldn't exist without it. Keith Baker probably made a lot of money off that - probably more than he would have if WotC had just hired him as a writer to contribute to an Eberron book, honestly. That's where the 50% cut makes some sense, when you are completely integrated with their IP. It's just that it's ridiculous for things like character options where you are at most referencing spells or mechanics that should have been in the SRD in the first place.

@cryofpaine

3 жыл бұрын

DMG is training wheels. You need the help with marketing, you rely heavily on references to official works, and you're just dangling your toes in the water to get a feel for it. KS is where you go when you have a big project, when you're comfortable with marketing, and you're serious about committimg to the project to make it successful.

I gave this video a cursory glance a couple weeks ago after I published my first book on DMsguild and I came back to look at it today a few days after I released my second book to give the video a proper look. Only now do I realise that at 8:49 you can see my book in the ‘Newest Titles’ section lol.

I'm just going to make typos in my DMG publishings so when I go to move that content elsewhere, they won't be the same product, because those typos will be corrected.

Another thing: you don't have too stay on the dms guild. You can just make a Kickstarter and gain just the same amount of publicity then from the dms guild. Without that huge cut/loss of rights.

@Indestructoboy

3 жыл бұрын

Sure, but that’s unreasonable for a new creator to do.

@Indestructoboy

3 жыл бұрын

@@foo3234 that doesn't make it right.

So I have a guide for a new race for 5e that is about to be finished (end stages of revising the final draft and layout with a couple editors) and was encouraged to put it out on DMsGuild…. This is my first piece of 5e content I’ve ever published. Would it be more worthwhile to go elsewhere with it? The money isn’t really a concern for me, but having at least a little control over what happens with the pdf once its out there is.

@Indestructoboy

3 жыл бұрын

There's zero reason for you to publish this on the DMsGuild at the moment unless you want to make money with it.

if i use spells from the players handbook in the spell list or class features does that count as using the license? edit: also it needs to be considered a federal crime for a company to claim 100% of the rights to a creators work in any situation. the creator should at minimum have 90% of the rights.

I personally decided when I started looking at making content that DMG was a no go because of this. Wizards basically tries to put in their Licenses that if you give them access to something you loose the rights to it. If I make something for a company like Wizards I expect a check for a one time purchase of the work, a job offer, or my own publication for sale. I will not allow a lawyer to turn me into free money for Wizards.

Totally with this. I decided to quit the DMG after they blacklisted a page of mine that had maps for one of their adventures. They said I can't have a product that is just maps. Should have seen the winds blowing then.

I don't think people would mind the 50% if you could keep the rights to your own book, I think that's the true kicker that you can't do whatever you want with your own material.

@Indester Is there anyway to delete a DMsGuild account?

I don't like the art bundles force everyone (except Adepts) to use -- this makes no sense because WotC owns all of the past editions' artwork so why won't they allow us to use them?

I totally agree with your pov on this. Creators need to have a fair platform. Btw - I want to turn this video into a drinking game. Everyone takes a drink whenever you say "right?". ;-)

Thanks. Even if it was 10% I still think they could make enough money to pay everybody. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The Algorithm

The community should have been complaining about this years ago, but they didn't. Now that louder voices have been able to mobilise the community about the OGL we see what could have been done, but because DMGuild is for smaller publishers they said and did nothing.

Al-go-rithm

So dmsguild takes 50% than PayPal takes 10% last I know than if you make anything from there the government takes their cut. How do you make anything even close to a profit at that point?

Here's the disconnect. You say that a creator deserves more than 50%. But you don't think that the creators of the work you are using from WotC is worthy of 50%. Imagine if you are a creator and you put in your time and made Ravenloft. And now some guy on DMsGuild wants to use your work to make money. Which creator gets 50%? Because math says you can only have 100% and if a creator gets more than 50% another creator will get less than 50%. And your argument is that one creator should get more, but another creator should get less. The solution is that you get 100% if you do it yourself, so either follow the OGL to be compatible or create your own system.

@godminnette2

2 жыл бұрын

This is silly. If someone references work I made in their work, I'm not looking to get a cut, and I'd probably feel bad if I got one. If anything, they're advertising the product I helped create, driving more people to purchase it. If I helped create the Artificer class, and someone else creates a subclass for it, they just used my work as a springboard for their own. Unless they're reprinting the artificer class itself in their book, I wouldn't expect to get any money. Instead, someone who buys that book and likes that artificer subclass might decide to buy Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to look at the artificer base class that they would need to play the subclass. I don't need to be paid for their work.

50% to WotC, then if you somehow manage to make it into a job, lose another 30+% to taxes.

@einCAA

2 жыл бұрын

It isn't 50% to WotC. It's 30% for OneBookShelf (including whatever VAT applies) +20% for WotC +- Whatever special deal WotC made with OneBookShelf.

It it didn’t include total loss of publishing rights, id be fine with the 50% fee

15:10 what you mean "possible" so you aren't sure? So they can ban you at any moment and take your rights to publish to your work, for an unclear rule? You are under selling how bad this deal is

@Indestructoboy

3 жыл бұрын

We haven't seen anyone test this just yet, but as far as we've been able to interpret the guidelines, that seems to be the case.

WotC are really quite greedy imo

@happygoluka9367

3 жыл бұрын

I mean aren't they owned by Hasbro

A fanmade homebrew platform could do so much better

@toufexisk

3 жыл бұрын

This would be a good idea. If some of the major creators that dont want to work with the DMs guild came together and created their own platform.

Other languages should be shown in separate page. I think the website is not being optimized. I don't think the site is being cared for

I hear your points but I know how much many IP holders let you keep no mater how much you work - zero. If you go the dmGuild route then you should go into it with eyes wide open. They are saying if you want to use WotC’s IP stuff this is how you do it. The reason are clear as to why they are doing it and greed is not one of them. I cut out about at 9min in but I get it. Just be clear eyed about what your cost-benefit is to being on the DMGuild. There is a reason that so many kick starters are 5e compatible. But be clear, 50% of 100 dollars in sales is 50 bucks but 💯 of $10 dollars in sales is $10. So make sure you look at it in the most realistic way possible.