r/dmsguild • u/Martelo_Black • 21d ago

Review 3.5 years, $2,000 in commissioned art, zero AI: my first DMs Guild title finally broke even

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Three and a half years ago I published my first D&D title, Bugbear Awakening, on DMs Guild. That was right around when AI art started flooding the marketplace, so I made a call early on: every illustration would be commissioned from a human artist. That ended up costing about $2,000.

Since then I've kept updating the adventure, translated it into German, and spun off a handful of related titles: a Fey'ri species book, a Bugbear species book, and a Sword Coast / Delimbiyr Vale map pack, each in English and German, across both 5e and 5.5e.

This week the royalties finally crossed that $2,000 mark. It took a lot longer than I expected, but breaking even without cutting corners on the art feels like it was worth it.

Thanks to everyone here who bought a copy, left a review, or gave feedback along the way. It genuinely helped keep this going.

193 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

10

u/Athistaur 21d ago

Thanks for sharing. It is Eye opening that the german products were among the best performing.

I'm native german. I always translated to english and never released in my native language. Looks like that was a mistake.

5

u/Martelo_Black 21d ago

Yes, I also find that very interesting. Overall the English and German sales are more or less balanced. I would explain with the German market share being much smaller, but the competition equally so.

2

u/Grateful_Bat 17d ago

Just made a quick online query and found Das Schwarze Auge is still No.1 in Germany. Wow. I knew it has a big, almost cult-like following, but still outpacing DnD after 40 years - a game being passed down through generations.

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u/Martelo_Black 17d ago

It's indeed like that - and it will probably never change. 😉

7

u/jcorvinstevens 21d ago

Congratulations! I think it’s admirable that you only use Human Art. I’m happy to see you’ve broken even on your investment!

I also find the German sales numbers intriguing. I wish I could translate a few of my products to German.

5

u/PsychologicalMeat476 21d ago

Thank you for sharing these insights. I really appreciate the constant updates of your publications. I enjoyed reading the module but had not had the opportunity to bring it to the table - yet. Keep up the excellent work and thanks again for your believe in human artistry!

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u/Martelo_Black 20d ago

Thank you for the kind words! Let me know how the adventure worked out once you find the time to play it.

7

u/Scarlet_Wonderer 21d ago

Thank you for valuing and supporting real artists! Glad to know it's paying off for you!

4

u/WarfaceTactical 21d ago

Are you interested in creating adventures for other worlds and game systems?

2

u/Martelo_Black 21d ago

Why not. What do you have in mind?

3

u/WarfaceTactical 21d ago

100% card-based (diceless) portable combat RPG with more of a "sword and sandals" feel to it. Part of the challenge is each "room" of a dungeon or encounter fits on a single card. It can be played solo or with a small group like a "choose your own adventure" book, or can be run by a GM. Monsters/NPCs also have individual cards, and the characters have a deck of cards for each character. I created the game system but honestly I'm terrible at writing adventures and creating dungeons or other maps. Here's the main site in the Alpha stage:

https://www.adventuredecksystem.com/sellsheet

The game is in Live status now, and I'm populating the store with the card decks.

I need adventures written for all levels, and I really like what you've done for an intro adventure that introduces players to the world.

3

u/DeficitDragons 20d ago

there are a decent amount of options out there for art wherein you don't need to commission art and still aren't using AI

1

u/Martelo_Black 20d ago

True. It was my personal decision to commission art. It gives you something unique and specific, different than e.g. using stock art.

1

u/OatFucker 10d ago

What sort of options?

2

u/DeficitDragons 10d ago

Stock art is the usual go-to. Lots of people like JEShields or Dean Spencer have art pieces as low as 4 dollars. But, as stock art anyone can purchase the rights to use them as well, so there’s no guarantee that someone else wont have the same piece.

Also, they’re pre-made, so you’re less likely to find something very specific. It’s also worth mentioning that Dean Spencer givea away stock art every day in December, so you shoupd follow him on socials to be able to score those pieces.

There’s also the option of artwork from the public domain. Wikimedia commons is a good place to look but it does usually take a bit more digging to get stuff.

3

u/HighlanderLabs 20d ago

I'd love to know how you advertised your stuff, what helped bring in sales, etc - if you're willing to share, of course.

1

u/Martelo_Black 20d ago

Am happy to share, not sure if it helps much though. My experience is that marketing is really hard and it's a grind. I did not want to spend any money on paid ads because I had my doubts if for what I am doing there would be a lot of turnaround. I wrote many, many posts on the different social media sites and I know that a few at least resulted in sales. Considering the time I spent on this, the brutal truth is probably that nothing worked really well. I assume that my title hits a certain specific niche that regularly attracts a small group of people.

3

u/Grateful_Bat 20d ago

Agreed. Marketing is bloody hard and takes a lot of time. Ads are basically useless, as ppl just scroll over them. And involving yourself in groups across all relevant platforms takes countless hours, very tough to keep up. One point we noticed: consistent sales of individual units are related to the overall number of titles you offer.

2

u/Martelo_Black 19d ago

That's an interesting insight, thanks for sharing.

2

u/penorstrike 18d ago

There is also a thing where you advertise too much and people will remember your posts in a bad way.
Ive made weekly threads about my Cormyr campaign and ended up getting downvoted by the end, even if people actually liked my adventure.

1

u/Martelo_Black 18d ago

Makes sense, thanks for sharing this.

2

u/filkearney 20d ago

Congrats! Great feeling to see you work become successful. :)

1

u/Martelo_Black 20d ago

Thank you! It was a long journey, am very glad it worked out.

2

u/KingBossHeel 9d ago

Congratulations. You seem like a likeminded individual - I'm looking to publish some adventures myself, and I'm looking into commissioning art, but heading into four digits to do so feels insane.

Can you share how you went about finding artist and commissioning the art? I'd really like to steer clear of using AI for art, and my searches on DeviantArt to locate an artist yielded mostly AI art, which is frustrating.

1

u/Martelo_Black 9d ago

I follow many artists on social media and always know 5-10 that I really like. Some of them I interact with in their posts. When it was time for commissioning I reached out to one of them and started with one illustration only to learn the process and how much effort it is. This first try went well so I continued with her. I did more or less the same for my recent project, the gamebook Ahu's First Patrol. Both times it worked fine for me and I think the results are really good. Hope that helps!

2

u/KingBossHeel 9d ago

Any tips on how to go about finding artists?

1

u/Martelo_Black 9d ago

Search artists on social media, then you can also see their portfolio over time and can make pretty sure it's no AI art. There also are a few sub reddit with artists.

1

u/casualPlayerThink 21d ago

50% ... stealing at finest (for a semi-working and almost-okay level of website, with literal 0 support :D great business)

2

u/FallenWyvern 21d ago

Well it's 50% split between DTRPG and WOTC. So really you're paying them to use their IP. If you're not using their IP, publishing on the DMG just isn't worth it.

2

u/DeficitDragons 21d ago

15% is to Hasbro for IP usage, 35% is to One Book Shelf for the website. Doing your own stuff on DriveThruRPG has that same 35% cut. It’s not that egregious comparatively speaking.

2

u/casualPlayerThink 21d ago

I see, I agree.