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[Thaumaturge]

I have two questions regarding the pitching of a game to indie publishers, if I may:

1) After sending out a pitch, how long should one wait before considering querying?

I've thus far been applying my experiences with online fiction magazines, and thus taking a guess at thirty days. But that does somewhat presume similarity between the two fields, which of course may not be accurate.

2) Should one pitch to multiple publishers simultaneously, or one at a time in sequence?

Again, I've thus far been drawing on my experiences with online fiction magazines, many of whom, it seems, reject simultaneous submissions. However, drawing on that experience is again based on a presumption, one that may be incorrect. And furthermore, pitching could take absolute ages if approached one publisher at a time!

So, in both of these uncertainties I'm now asking rather than presuming: What is the accepted practice when so pitching?

(Presume for the sake of discussion that the pitch itself is fine, ready to be emailed out.)

[Yannic]

I recently pitched a bunch, so I've got some wisdom to share!

1: Two weeks is pretty much fine. Generally I've heard that unless you heard back within a week, they're unlikely to be interested. Publishers get loads of emails every day and they don't have time to reply to each one. After a month they'll have long forgotten about your email.

2: All of them at once is fine, really. Nobody bats an eye at that. Negotiating publishing deals often takes months, during which there's plenty of opportunities to notify the publisher that your in talks with other people as well. When I spoke to a recruiter, he just asked me if I'd contacted anyone else, and recommended that I do in order to increase me chances of getting a publishing deal.

Overall, pitching to indie publishers is a lot less formal than you'd imagine. They're all there to do business, of course, but everything is pretty friendly and laid back in general.

[Thaumaturge]

Thank you for your reply. ^_^

To the first point, as I recall I sent a query at about the month-mark to the publisher to which I pitched first. And the response that I got there was that the game was in the queue, and that testing it could take between four and eight weeks. So--for that publisher, at least--it does seem that more than a week is called for!

To the second point, that's good to read. ^_^

I did have contradictory advice on another forum, however, so I'd like to hear more experiences, ideally!

Still, if things don't work out with this first publisher, I may parallelise subsequent pitches, indeed...

[Thaumaturge]

A quick update to this:

I've subsequently had further input, and in particular input from employees of an indie publisher.

And they quite resoundingly encouraged simultaneous submissions. Not only indicating that it's expected, but that it's strongly advised, I believe.

Their argument, as I recall it, was essentially that the more potential offers one has, the better placed one is to choose a well-matched publisher, and furthermore that it provides a stronger position from which to negotiate contracts.