8th December 2004
Dragonmeet is a small UK convention, which is a day long, in London. This was Hogshead’s second time at this convention and it is always profitable. Firstly, it’s just up the road from us and secondly quite a lot of people go.
We’ve started to recognize a lot of these people at conventions now, which is making it more fun. The UK market is quite small and we are meeting “regulars” who buy all our books. Of course we’re also getting plenty of feedback on the products and that makes us feel good.
It was Tracey’s birthday on the same day, which must have put her in a good mood, for no apparent reason, Tracey put in a storming performance to break all sales records in any given day. That evening a load of French waiters sang Happy Birthday to her so let’s hope she thought it was all worthwhile.
8th November 2004
It’s starting to look like Gen Con is the right convention for Hogshead. Having made a splash in Indianapolis just a few months earlier it was time to try out the UK.
Gen Con UK was a peculiar affair: first off it was in Minehead which is a long way from anywhere, secondly it was in Butlins which is a weird holiday resort which generally (in at least one of our opinions) sits at the lower, well bottom, of the quality scale regarding UK holidays; thirdly it was in a tent. Yes, a tent, in winter, in the UK, by the sea.
The first two days were significantly different from the second and noticeably so. On the third day the heating worked so we weren’t cold. Some of the holes in the tent were fixed so the indoor raining attraction was turned off. Which, given the cold, had not impressed the way it could. The first two days consisted of a lot of shivering, replacing rain and damp damaged books and catching drips. But we sold a lot of books; in fact, we sold a load of books.
But look at the downside. The downside, (in this case, being the bottom of the incline on which the tent stood) had it’s own array of torrential rain, waterfalls and indoor rivers (OK streams). Needless to say there was some shuffling of stands leaving us all huddled in the center. It brought our friends closer. We were lucky we had tried to get near the doors and opposite the bar but we ended up in a central location where we only had to catch the drips. As it happens there was no bar - it had disappeared. We don’t know why – perhaps it suffered the same fate as the stand partitions and never turned up. But who needs a bar? That would have meant we needed toilets and they’d become unavailable by day two.
Those, who moved from the edges, were also a little but unhappy with the ambiance of their stands. Evidently, the water attractions were slightly less visible in darkness. For some reason only the center of the tent had been lit. This was soon a moot point as on Friday all lights went out probably under the burden of combining light fittings with water displays.
Like the lights, on day three, most things were fixed. We had heat, which was good because we also had colds. But we sold books – lots of them. And this was to be the redeeming feature of the con. We just kept selling books.
We released two books Fright Night: Haunted School and Fright Night: Asylum and we met plenty of fans and made a whole load of new ones. For us we had a great time. Despite the resolute English weather which hardly ever let up - neither did we. Out thanks to everyone who kept our hearts warm if not our feet.
24th August 2004
It is true, we're sell-outs of every title new title we brought to GenCon! But the good news is that everything is now available in our on line store.
What a rush - in every sense of the word. Frantic activity to prepare Crime Scene: Feds and Crime Scene: Yakuza and Fright Night: What Went Down in time for GenCon. A frenetic burst of activity to repair our broken e-mail (just don't ask). Speedy proofing, printing and ... well everything you have to do to get a publication out. And then all we take to GenCon fly off the tables.
It has been great. A longer GenCon report will following, but we're off to catch our breath and have a nice cup of tea ... or something.
24th April 2004
The only other convention Hogshead had been to in the UK was Dragonmeet back in December 2003 and we hadn’t planned much more beyond that. At Dragonmeet we did exceptionally well covering our total costs over ten times. So you can imagine that when we had a call from Pro-Fantasy offering us a table for free (because they had to duck out) at Salute we jumped at the opportunity.
Salute however was to be a very different experience. We found ourselves downstairs at a very large wargaming convention amongst the wargamers. We rallied at the end of the convention, which turned our performance from miserable to just poor. We made enough to cover our total costs if we’d had to pay for the stand, with a bit left over. We had a great time at a very well organized event. So we weren’t too despondent.
On the plusside we managed to expose Hoshead to a whole new audience and, if everybody who told us they’d buy a book latter (but, for now, wanted to buy wargames stuff) do buy a book- we’ll be rich!
Look out for Hogshead at both GenCon UK (dates) and GenCon in Indianapolis in August this year.
30th April 2004
Where has all the Warhammer on Hogshead gone? Read on, dear friend…
BI Publishing announces launch of new roleplaying imprint.
BI Publishing, Games Workshop PLC's highly successful publishing division, is proud to announce its new roleplaying games imprint, Black Industries. Black Industries' first release will be a new edition of the classic Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, while other games based on Games Workshop properties, as well as major licensed products, are also in development.
Developed in close conjunction with Green Ronin Publishing, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is expected to ship in the first half of 2005. "I am delighted to announce this new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay," says Simon Butler, head of Black Industries, "and in Green Ronin we have a developer who shares both our passion for the world of Warhammer, and our commitment to producing innovative and immensely enjoyable roleplaying games of the very highest quality."
Originally launched in 1986, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay marked a revolution in the roleplaying arena, combining startlingly original game design with the dark and brooding background of the Warhammer world. The new edition will capture all of the depth and enjoyment of the original, with a revised and updated rules system. "We are creating a game that captures perfectly the essence of the Warhammer world, with elegant game mechanics that will be instantly recognisable to the many fans of the original," adds Butler.
Games Workshop, Warhammer, and Warhammer 40,000 are trademarks of Games Workshop Ltd registered in the UK and elsewhere in the world.
15th – 19th March 2004
The Gaming and Manufacturers association or “GAMA” trade show is the definitive show on the Hogshead agenda. It allows us to talk to retailers, distributors and other publishers about the state of the industry and how we fare, out there, in the market place. At Hogshead we were very eager to promote the new team and all the new products. With us, we brought an array of posters and imagery of the eleven books that are currently written and in the pipeline.
There was very much a British contingent at GAMA and we also saw Myriador and Crimson Empire making a hit in the market place. The heady atmosphere of Las Vegas had clearly drawn a significant contingent from across the pond.
You could see Hogshead crime scene tape wrapped around the stand from the other side of the hall. We’re proud to say; that from very early on, it was obvious we were going to be a big hit at the convention. The level of interest however proved to be astonishing and we left the convention feeling very confident about the future. We had a queue of people from start to finish – mostly retailers eager to see when the next books are coming out.
We found out that the market place has shrunk in the last year or so and that there is an atmosphere of caution within some publishers. Fewer new titles were being released so, with our new products, we got a bigger share of the pie than we would ordinarily. Similarly, we’ve been pleased with our sales and thought we were doing pretty well. But sales in the industry are down and it turned out we’re doing very well, hitting the top ten and getting great product placement in the stores.
As a result we’ll be pushing the new titles this year to get them out as soon as possible. Look out on this website and in the trade press for a whole bunch of titles that we hope will do as well.