Slashdot Mirror
Finding the Right Software Publisher?
Ace905 asks: "I am a software developer looking to market my product, and after weeks of research and rejections I've come to a few conclusions that I hope are wrong; Software Publishers are looking almost exclusively for Game Software,
To get big you have to already be big,
and nobody comes to you even when you have a great product! I'm wondering if any other developers have similar experiences marketing their life's work? Are there any publishing companies that actively persue new developers? Where does a developer go to sell their cross-platform utility software? Your feedback is much appreciated!"
If your work is any good whatsoever, talk to Ambrosia Software (www.ambrosiaSW.com).
In addition to Mac Software they also publish Windows products now. The only catch is they have a reputation for great quality work, so if yours isnt. I don't see them being interested.
When my business partner and I faced this issue ten years ago, the conclusion we came to was that we would need to publish ourselves. This was after I worked both in retail software and for a software publisher, and discovered how hosed you can get by having an unscrupulous publisher.
If you want any advice about self-publishing, or what to watch out for in publishers, I'd be happy to chat with you. E-mail me.
-- There is no truth. There is only Perception. To Percieve is to Exist.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm a developer gone marketing minion, so let me offer some semi-informed advice. From what I've read, it sounds like you've gone at this a bit backwards. Product marketing starts before you build software, not after. It's part of the process for developing your requirements -- finding out about your users. (Yes, I know. Here on slashdot marketing == advertising. Not so.)
I've read in one of your comments that you tried selling to larger software companies, which is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, companies don't tend to want to buy products unless they have an established market already -- basically, unless they've proven themselves. It's risk mitigation. Even if they're building it themselves, they won't invest in you unless you can prove that your solution has an established market. I'm dealing with the exact same situation for one of the product lines at my company -- trying to make money by aiming to sell the technology is a very risky strategy. When it works out, it's great, but don't count on it.
What you need to do -- and maybe you've done some of this -- is research your market. Are you selling to home users or businesses? Both is not a good answer -- yes, both could use it, but you don't have the resources to market to both, and both have different needs that you have to account for. What's the level of technical expertise in your market? Where do they learn about new software? Do they download shareware? From where? Did they ever pay for it and why? Do they even perceive spam as a problem? Enough of a problem to spend money on? Have they used tools to help with spam, what are they and what do they like/dislike about them? Are they capable and willing to configure the filters themselves, or do they need something that will do it for them?
The toughest part of this is finding the right people to talk to. And I mean talk. Preferably in person, or on the phone. You want to give your potential end-user the ability to mention things to you that you may not of thought of, or may have assumed differently about them. Doing this will require some creativity. Without knowing more about who you're aiming at, it's hard to give suggestions as to how to do this. The more people you can talk with, the better. One person is a market, but not a very profitable one.
Don't try to be everything to everyone. It's expensive to develop that way, and nearly impossible to market that way. You may have a small technological niche, but you should also have a very targeted set of end-users as well.
Once you have the answers to these, you can start figuring out how to take your product to market. If you're aiming at slashdotters, then perhaps open-sourcing the product makes sense. (Nothing against open source, but I don't think that's your best option.) If your aiming a specific set of home users, where do they get their software from? Perhaps you can uncover particular publishers that way, or improve your listing on sites like tucows or cnet, or wherever. Perhaps you'll find that your target end-users don't even see spam as a problem -- so you'll either have to dump the product, find a different market and re-tune, or start making them more aware of the issue.
Developers, myself included, tend to ignore the sales side of business. Good technology seems like it should sell itself. But it doesn't.
Best of luck.
I can spell. I just can't type.