The sell sheet vs the campaign page: what moves, what stays.
A sell sheet and a crowdfunding campaign page are written from the same facts about the same game, and designers who have one often paste it into the other. It does not work in either direction, because the two readers are asking different questions. A publisher is asking can I sell this. A backer is asking do I want this, and will it arrive. Here is what carries over, what has to change, and what has to be written new.
What stays the same
- The facts. Player count, age, time, components with counts, the prototype version and the playtest count as logged. The same numbers on both, or someone will notice.
- The hook. “Keep the light burning. Bring every ship home.” works across a convention table and under a campaign video. If the line only works in one place, it is not the hook yet.
- What a turn is. The one paragraph that says what the game is, what a turn is, how it ends and who wins. A backer and a publisher both read it first and both skim everything else until they have found it.
- The rule about other games. Neither page names another game as a comparison. On a sell sheet it closes the folder; on a campaign page it starts a comment thread you do not want.
What moves
- Length. The sell sheet is one page and stops. The campaign page is long by design — the opener, the story, how it plays, the components, the tiers, the FAQ, the risks — because the backer scrolls until they have run out of doubts, and each section answers one.
- The three selling points become four beats. On the sheet: the decision, the difference, the teach-and-run time, each a line. On the page: the setup, the decision, the scoring, the end, each a short paragraph with an image, because the backer has not played it and cannot be told “one decision a turn” without being shown the decision.
- Status becomes risks. “Prototype v6, 31 blind playtests, art placeholder” is a status line for a publisher, who will finish the game. For a backer it becomes the risks-and-challenges section: what is done, what is not, which line could move the date, how they will hear. Same facts, four paragraphs, a different reader.
- The components strip becomes a list with pictures. A publisher prices 64 tiles from the count. A backer wants to see the tiles.
- Contact becomes the FAQ. The publisher wants your email. The backer wants to know about shipping, delivery, the art, how to try it, and whether this is your first campaign.
What is written new for the campaign page
- The pledge tiers, in your words and amounts. There is nothing on a sell sheet to turn into them; a publisher sets the price, a backer is being offered one.
- The story. Where the game came from, in a few paragraphs. A publisher does not want it on a sell sheet; a backer who is about to give you money a year before delivery does.
- The opener: the first two paragraphs under the video, which have to do the whole sheet’s job in the time a backer gives a page they arrived at from an ad.
- Stretch goals, only if you have costed them. A sell sheet never has them; a campaign page should say they are not decided rather than guess.
What is written new for the sell sheet
Almost nothing, if the campaign page exists. The sell sheet is the campaign page with everything cut that a publisher does not need: no story, no tiers, no stretch goals, no FAQ, and the risks folded back into one status line. The one thing a sheet has that a page does not is the “open to the publisher’s art direction” line, and whether you want to say it.
Which to write first
The sell sheet, if you are pitching publishers at all, because it forces the one paragraph and the three lines that the campaign page is built out of. If the sheet does not work in ten seconds, the page will not work in forty. If you are going straight to crowdfunding, the campaign page — and then cut a sheet from it anyway, because a publisher who sees the campaign and asks for one wants it that afternoon. We write the sheet here; the page is written by Campaign Page Copy, from the same facts, and the two match.
Three questions.
Can I use my campaign page’s opener as the sell sheet’s overview?
Usually with one cut. The opener is written to a backer who has not decided to keep reading, so it leads with the pull. The overview is written to a publisher who has already decided to give you twenty seconds, so it leads with what a turn is. Take the opener, move the turn to the first sentence, and it is close.
My game is already on a crowdfunding page. Do I still need a sell sheet?
If a publisher, distributor or localisation partner might ask: yes, and it should be ready before they do. The campaign page is forty screens long; the person who asks wants one. It is also what you hand across a convention table after the campaign ends.
Do the playtest counts have to match?
Yes. Both are printed as you logged them, with the date, so a sheet written in March and a page written in June can legitimately differ — say “31 blind playtests as of March” on one and “44 as of June” on the other. What cannot differ is the same month saying two numbers.
Get the sample sheet first
The invented Lantern Tide sell sheet as a PDF, and our one-page list of the nine things a publisher looks for on a sell sheet and the four that get it closed.
One publisher-ready page from your own facts, laid out with your own art, the next day, $39 / £32 / A$59 / C$55. The campaign page text is a separate service, Campaign Page Copy, from the same facts.