How do indie creators reach global audiences while staying true to their values? In this second conversation, Anna Featherstone continues her chat with Vee Hendro and Hayley Gordon about distribution, community, and marketing in the world of literary-inspired role-playing games. From Kickstarter to conventions and creative commons licensing, they share smart strategies for connecting stories with players worldwide.
Listen to the Podcast: How Literary RPGs Find Their Audience
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About the Host
Anna Featherstone is ALLi’s nonfiction adviser and an author advocate and mentor. A judge of The Australian Business Book Awards and Australian Society of Travel Writers awards, she’s also the founder of Bold Authors and presents author marketing and self-publishing workshops for organizations, including Byron Writers Festival. Anna has authored books including how-to and memoirs and her book Look-It’s Your Book! about writing, publishing, marketing, and leveraging nonfiction is on the Australian Society of Authors recommended reading list. When she’s not being bookish, Anna’s into bees, beings, and the big issues of our time.
About the Guests
Vee Hendro and Hayley Gordon are the award-winning designers and married duo behind Storybrewers Roleplaying, an Australian studio known for emotionally rich, character-driven tabletop role-playing games that explore history, literature, and queer narratives. Their work has earned multiple honors, including two ARPIA Game of the Year awards, Best Tabletop Game at SXSW Sydney, and back-to-back wins at the PAX Aus Indie Showcase. Based on Gadigal land in Sydney’s inner west, they live with their dog Holiday and a rotating crew of foster cats. More at linktr.ee/storybrewers.
Podcast Summary by Kayleigh Brindley
Have you ever wondered how indie creators can build global audiences without big budgets? This episode provides a deep dive into audience building and distribution, packed with practical insights for all authors, particularly those writing fiction.
This is the second part of Anna Featherstone’s conversation with StoryBrewers Roleplaying’s Vee Hendro and Hayley Gordon, two indie creators producing tabletop role-playing games.
(Part 1 can be found here: How Role-Playing Games Blend Literature, Ethics, and Imagination with Anna Featherstone, Vee Hendro, and Hayley Gordon.)
RPGs, Reader Experience, and Expanding Your Creative World
As someone who enjoys RPGs (when not working with ALLi, I can often be found running games for friends), I found these episodes especially fun to listen to. But even if you know nothing about role playing games, there’s still so much here for indie authors:
- how to build a reader experience
- how to expand the world of your books
- how to use Kickstarter strategically
- how to offer interactive or companion products, like the letter-writing journaling game My Late Father’s Correspondence, which feels almost like an interactive reading experience
Direct Sales, Fulfilment, and Distribution Lessons
What struck me most as an indie author is how closely Vee and Hayley’s business mirrors the self-publishing journey.
Their approach to direct sales, Kickstarter as a pre-order tool, global fulfilment, and community-first marketing feels familiar and incredibly encouraging.
They break down how they keep creative control while still reaching players and readers worldwide, using a mix of warehouse fulfilment partners, WooCommerce integrations, convention appearances, and word of mouth.
Along the way, they share the biggest distribution mistakes they made early on and how indie creators can avoid them (hint: do your research when searching for fulfilment partners and pay close attention to warehousing fees!).
The thing that really stood out was how their breakout Kickstarter for The Good Society (which drew 2,677 backers) completely changed their workflow, introducing them to fulfilment partners and improving their processes.
Now, Kickstarter acts as their pre-launch platform, market research tool, product development sounding board, and early marketing test run.
They also stress the importance of good design and a clear strategy when building a Kickstarter, and say they’ve learned (and earned) more from crowdfunding and in-person events than from any paid advertising.
Community-Building and the Power of Niche Audiences
There’s so much in this episode for indie authors who dream of expanding their books into interactive formats, and Vee and Hayley show how niche creativity can thrive when you embrace your “small but mighty” audience and lean into what you genuinely love.
I found their insights on fostering community, especially their Discord presence, live packaging/Q&A streams, and support for fan-created adaptations (like encouraging your readers to write their own fanfiction and share it on your channels) refreshing, and ideas that could be easily adapted by indie authors.
They’ve also found success connecting with groups, like book clubs, and through conventions that align with their niche, a great reminder that crossover audiences within your genre can be incredibly powerful.
But what I loved most was their philosophy of balancing creative joy with business realities.
They prioritise the themes and research they love, follow the marketing approaches that feel good to them, and note how the market has become more diverse, allowing niche creators like them to succeed in self-publishing.
Advice for Indie Authors Exploring New Formats
For indie authors curious about Kickstarter, direct sales and fulfilment, or branching out into other formats, Vee and Hayley offer simple, practical advice:
- find your niche
- stay authentic to your books and readers
- approach the RPG medium with curiosity
- play games, run games, and explore the community
After hearing them talk about their beautiful letter-writing game… well, I’m off to write a few letters myself.
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If you’d like a transcript of this podcast episode, please reach out to [email protected]
