I recently consolidated my thoughts on getting a board game published into written form, in response to people asking "what's the secret?" If your goal is to get published, you need to be strategic. There is no X factor. Here's what worked for me... 1/?

Make smaller games. My first game was 20 cards, then 26, then 100 (getting bigger!) There are many more publishers looking for small games than big games. Play the numbers to get your foot in the door. 2/?

Connect with people in the board game industry. In some ways it's easier right now - lots of people are playtesting digitally, posting more on social media. People want to work with people they like, and they tend to like people they know. 3/?

Ask the right questions when playtesting. "Would you play this game again, right now? Would you buy this game? Would you be excited to teach it to a friend?" You need at least one superfan who isn't yourself if you want to sell your game. 4/?

Speaking of playtesting, if you're getting feedback that your game is *good,* without other qualifiers, that's bad. The worst feedback I ever receive is "Yeah, it's fun..." [crickets] The best playtests I see involve a lot of stronger emotions. Excitement, frustration, etc. 5/?

Tough question: do you love your game? Would you play it ten times in a row? A hundred times? I've done this at cons, & I still love my games. It's hard to get other people to love them if you don't. Sure, you might need to take a break sometimes, but the love should remain. 6/?

If your game doesn't pass all of these tests, CHANGE YOUR GAME. Listen to feedback. Make radical changes that you hate. Throw the whole game away and start from scratch. There's no magic sauce. Just banging your head against theme & mechanics until something weird pops out. 7/?

Landing a publisher is sales. Selling your product, selling your vision, selling yourself. I've been in sales my whole adult life, so luckily I didn't have to learn that from scratch. If that's not you, watch some videos and read some books about sales and marketing. 8/?

There's never been a better time to self-publish board games digitally to get the ball rolling. Throw something up on Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia or Itch or Gumroad or wherever. Hit publish and share it with the world. No one responds? You've got more work to do. 9/?

A publisher will ultimately be selling a product to the world, not just a game. These are the questions they'll ask. Who will get excited by this? Who will spend money on this? What's the unique selling proposition? Why should this exist over other cool things we could make? 10/?

Obviously, that's not all there is to it. There's some amount of luck and chance and being in the right place with the right game at the right time. Also, this is specifically what worked for me - your mileage may vary. In any case, hope it helps! 11/11