How to find the right publishers

Just as a point of reference, the link you have found is perhaps the best resource we have.

From here, you should spend time visiting each Publisher and comparing the games that they publish. If they publish War Games and yours is not, it's not a good fit. If the publish Party Games and yours is not, again not a good fit.

Right now - the resources that you see on BGDF demonstrates which publisher accept (or not) submissions.

As the maintainer of this list, I have contacted all those Publishers myself (on behalf of BGDF) to see what their status is.

The Admins of the board would like to make this a public Wiki where people can contribute links and then I would simply need to validate the entries submitted. It would be a lot quicker and we could have an even larger moderated list of Publishers.

My recommendation is this: Start with the Publishers you see on the BGDF list. See if any of those match your game's criteria (Game Type). From there maybe visit James Mathe list and see from those which might be fit. We have a lot of links - because there are a lot of Publishers.

Getting a game published is a lengthy process too... It's not like pick one and it's a done deal. It might take months of dealing (e-mails) before you get a final answer (which may be negative). So my second piece of advice is: start looking now! Don't wait, start contacting publishers with a "Sell Sheet" about your game.

Cheers and good luck!

I can't agree with QuestCCG more. Seeking a publisher is not far off from job searching. You are probably going to reach out to 50 potential employers to schedule about 5 interviews.

The more effort you put into personalizing your introduction/offer/pitch to a particular company, the better chance you have of getting noticed. What this boils down to, though, is time. If you put more time into it, your chances of success increase.

Another option is to draft up a template email and copy/paste that into your emails to publishers, then just change any specific information before sending that email out (such as publisher names, dates, game titles, etc).

When contacting publishers, Keep It Simple, Stupid! Publishers won't spend time reading through a long, drawn out email about your background or why you created your board game. Give them a brief elevator pitch of your game and tell them why they should meet with you.

There is a lot of useful information out there, and I agree it's overwhelming to sift through. In case it helps, here is my page of resources for game designers:
https://level1gamedesigner.wordpress.com/designer-resources/

Best of luck!

I can't even comprehend hiring an agent for a game. It makes sense when shopping around a novel, because there is a much higher ceiling for royalties, rights, and advances. Even after the agent's cut, you should end up with more than you would have gotten otherwise.

With a game though, there's barely any money to be made to begin with. Considering that there are only two entries on the list requiring this, and one is a subsidiary of Hasbro that I happen to know for a fact accepts unsolicited material if you have the right credentials, I doubt that agents are a big thing, and any claims otherwise are to reduce their slush pile.

The key things to keep in mind are that no real agent charges you money up front -- no reading fees, signing fees, editing costs, etc. They only profit when you do, and you can tell them to screw off if they get back to you with a 2% royalty from My Cousin's Basement Games. I would also want to see a list of what any game agent has actually sold, and they had better include recognizable titles sold to high volume companies, like Hasbro or Mayfair. In any field involving writing, art, and design, there are a fair number of people who profit by selling the dream, charging hacks for services that will lead nowhere. That is by far more profitable than designing games.

I sold a pitch to a publisher on that list, first try and no hassle with a month turn around to receive a contract. The problem was that I still had to write it, and the birth of my medically fragile daughter shot that out of the water. I had a preexisting relationship with the publisher, which definitely influenced things. But also, and this has served me well with the fiction market and articles, it was important to be intimately familiar with the publisher's offerings, have a product compatible with their existing line, but also have a distinct voice of my own.

Know the name of the individual you'll be dealing with, and if possible research them. "Dear sir" gets you nowhere. "Dear Mr. Leibowitz" is a great start. Even better is if you have some personal details that demonstrate your due diligence. Better, better is if those details resonate with your game. For example, "I noticed that you blog about brothels and I have enjoyed your company's games about biscuits. My game, 'Brothels and Biscuits,' is a fusion of these two subjects that combines familiar mechanics with an innovative style of play. Players of your 'Biscuit Wars' line will feel the oven baked goodness the moment that they open the box."

Make sure to read the publisher's guidelines. They may have a design philosophy or tenets posted. More importantly, what makes the company unique? Work that into your pitch. "I am submitting my game to you because I admire your company's passionate approach to game design on a small scale and your unique marketing approach. I was blown away by your teams enthusiasm at GenCon, so I know that you will maximize the success of my game. Thank you again for the shirt." Something like that is a welcome relief from the sheer vanity of most submissions that publishers receive.

Confidence tempered with meekness. You are selling the product and only yourself to the extent that you are applicable to the product, which is to say, "My game is about the zeppelins that I pilot in real life" = good, "I'm a first time game designer and here's a dream journal about my very boring life . . ." = bad. Avoid passive language. Cover letters are the written version of a firm handshake and good eye contact, so good manners and invite a reply. I always end submissions with "Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you."

Maybe something there will be handy. I don't have game designer cred, but outside of that I have a respectable acceptance rate, so I know I'm doing something right.

Courtesy goes a long way, no matter what the business situation happens to be. It's good to see reminders like this.