Manuscript Tycoon
Build your publishing empire from the ground up in this retro business simulation! Start with $10,000 and a dream, then discover talented authors, negotiate book contracts, and make crucial publishing decisions that will determine your success.
GETTING STARTED
UNDERSTANDING THE INTERFACE
Main Tabs
- HOME: Monthly reports, market conditions, and time advancement
- AGENCY INFO: Company statistics and office management
- AVAILABLE SCRIPTS: Browse and negotiate with new authors
- OWNED SCRIPTS: Manage your published and unpublished books
- ACHIEVEMENTS: Track your progress and unlock rewards
Key Statistics
- Money: Your available cash for advances, printing, and marketing
- Reputation: Industry standing that affects author quality and office upgrades
- Office Level: Determines warehouse capacity and maximum reputation
FINDING AND SIGNING AUTHORS
Author Evaluation
When browsing available scripts, consider these factors:
Manuscript Quality
- Quality Rating: 1-10 scale, directly impacts sales potential
- Length: Affects printing costs and pricing options
- Genre: Market conditions vary by genre
- Max Sales Potential: Total lifetime sales estimate
- Author fanbase: Existing readers (higher = better initial sales)
Negotiation Strategy
Understanding Market Value
Each author has a "fair market value" for their advance and royalty rate:
- High-quality books (8.0+): Worth premium advances and royalties
- Mid-tier books (5.0-7.9): Standard market rates
- Low-quality books (<5.0): Minimal investment recommended
Negotiation Tips
- Start Conservative: Offer slightly below asking price to test patience
- Watch Patience Bar: Don't push too hard or authors will walk away
- Quality Investment: High-quality authors justify higher payments
- Contract Length: Choose based on book potential:
- 6 months: Quick turnaround for uncertain projects
- 12 months: Standard contract length
- 24-36 months: Lock in great books longer
PUBLISHING STRATEGY
Print Quality Options
BUDGET PRINT (60% of standard cost)
- Best For: Low-quality books, oversaturated markets, price-sensitive genres
- Pros: Lower printing costs, competitive in saturated markets
- Cons: -15% sales appeal, hurts reputation if used on high-quality books
- Genres: Works okay for Romance, Young Adult, Horror
STANDARD PRINT (100% of standard cost)
- Best For: Most books, safe middle-ground choice
- Pros: No penalties, balanced cost-to-benefit ratio
- Cons: No special bonuses
- Genres: Good for all genres
PREMIUM PRINT (180% of standard cost)
- Best For: High-quality Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, collector genres
- Pros: +25% sales appeal when justified, reputation bonus, holiday gift bonus
- Cons: Much higher costs, penalties for inappropriate use
- WARNING: Only use on 8.0+ quality books in suitable genres!
Pricing Strategy
Price Optimization
The game calculates optimal pricing based on:
- Book quality: Higher quality justifies higher prices
- Genre: Some genres are more price-sensitive than others
- Print quality: Premium printing allows higher prices
Genre Price Sensitivity
- Most Sensitive: Romance, Young Adult (price carefully)
- Moderately Sensitive: Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
- Least Sensitive: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction (readers pay for quality)
Pricing Guidelines
- Underpricing: Can increase sales but hurts reputation and revenue
- Optimal Pricing: Follow the game's recommendations
- Overpricing: May limit sales, especially in price-sensitive genres
Marketing Investment
Marketing Effectiveness Tiers
Books are classified as SMALL, MID-TIER, MAJOR, or BLOCKBUSTER based on sales potential:
- Small Books (under 15K potential): Need $200-$5,000 for effect
- Mid-Tier Books (15K-50K potential): Need $500-$12,000 for effect
- Major Books (50K-100K potential): Need $1,000-$30,000 for effect
- Blockbuster Books (100K+ potential): Need $2,000-$60,000 for effect
Launch vs. Monthly Marketing
- Launch Marketing: One-time investment for publication month
- Monthly Marketing: Ongoing investment that continues until changed
- Synergy Bonus: Books with both launch and monthly marketing perform better
Marketing ROI
- No Marketing: Books will significantly underperform
- Appropriate Marketing: Can increase sales by 200-400%
- Over-Marketing: Diminishing returns after 4x multiplier
MANAGING YOUR BOOKS
After Publication
Inventory Management
- Monitor Stock: Keep track of copies in inventory
- Reprint Timing: Order reprints before running out of popular books
- Warehouse Limits: Upgrade office to increase storage capacity
Contract Expiration
- Warning System: Game warns when contracts have 2 months remaining
- Automatic Expiry: Books are removed when contracts end
- Remaining Inventory: Unsold copies are destroyed at expiry
MONTHLY OPERATIONS
Monthly Cycle
- Sales Calculation: Each published book sells based on quality, marketing, and market conditions
- Cost Deduction: Rent, overhead, marketing, and operating costs are deducted
- Market Updates: Genre saturation changes, random market events may occur
- Awards: Books may win awards that boost sales
- Contract Updates: Expiring contracts are processed
Operating Costs
As you grow, monthly costs increase:
Fixed Costs
- Office Rent: Based on office level
- Monthly Overhead: $300 per office level
Variable Costs (scale with business size)
- Staff Costs: Based on number of active books
- Storage Costs: Based on inventory levels
- Author Relations: Based on number of unique authors
- Technology Costs: Based on books published
- Reputation Maintenance: Higher reputation costs more to maintain
Market Conditions
- Saturation: Genres become oversaturated when too many books are published
- Recovery: Markets slowly recover each month
- Random Events: Major publishers or bestselling authors can affect markets
GROWTH AND EXPANSION
Office Upgrades
Level 1 → 2 ($10,000)
- Warehouse: 1,000 → 5,000 copies
- Max Reputation: 20 → 40
- Monthly Rent: $200 → $400
Level 2 → 3 ($20,000)
- Warehouse: 5,000 → 10,000 copies
- Max Reputation: 40 → 60
- Monthly Rent: $400 → $800
Level 3 → 4 ($40,000)
- Warehouse: 10,000 → 100,000 copies
- Max Reputation: 60 → 80
- Monthly Rent: $800 → $1,600
Level 4 → 5 ($80,000)
- Warehouse: 100,000 → 500,000 copies
- Max Reputation: 80 → 100
- Monthly Rent: $1,600 → $3,200
Reputation Building
- Publishing Strategy: Premium printing on quality books helps
- Sales Success: Monthly revenue over $8,000 provides reputation
- Award Winners: Books that win awards boost reputation
Business Scale
- Start Small: Focus on 1-3 quality books initially
- Gradual Growth: Add new titles as cash flow improves
- Infrastructure: Upgrade office before hitting warehouse limits
- Diversification: Publish across multiple genres for stability
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Early Game (Months 1-12)
- Start Conservative: Sign 1-2 mid-quality authors initially
- Learn Negotiation: Practice on lower-stakes deals
- Moderate Marketing: Invest less than 2,000 in marketing per book
Mid Game (Year 2-3)
- Quality Focus: Target 7.0+ quality authors
- Strategic Marketing: Match marketing levels to book potential
- Diversify Genres: Publish across 3-4 different genres
- Office Upgrades: Reach Level 3-4 office for better capacity
- Award Hunting: Publish premium Literary Fiction for prestige
Late Game (Year 3+)
- Market Leadership: Build 50+ reputation for top-tier authors
- Efficient Operations: Optimize marketing and printing strategies
- Portfolio Balance: Maintain 8-12 active titles simultaneously
Development log
- Update 1.2Jul 01, 2025
- Update 1.1Jun 29, 2025
Comments
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This is a delightful gem. I did find it wildly difficult to get much beyond a year until I started to figure out how it worked. (No 'long-tail' to speak of, at least for most early books, and quite scary escalations in cost to sign most authors, required print runs to break even, and seemingly knife-edge timing required on signing new authors to keep the ravenous maw of overhead fed.
Once I managed to get saving working (it's pretty wonky, I think this is mostly due to the misery of mobile development though) being able to experiment with different approaches became really useful.
Some suggestions below. Take them with a grain of salt; some of them may be terrible ideas that needlessly complicate the game. What you have now is a quite nice simple gem and I'd hate for that to be ruined.
My thoughts.
- Difficulty levels would be nice. - A Hints tab might be a nice touch too. Could just incorporate much of what's written in the discussion thread on itch.
- more save slots. Nice for more experimentation, and, ok, scum-saving too!
- As VentDev suggested on Reddit, would be interesting to consider incorporating editing, legal, art, etc., forcing you to have more of a book pipeline which is a major challenge in publishing anything -- books, games, etc. Perhaps that would be 'hard' difficulty level. Could get flavour events here such as a legal challenge to the title, (delay, cost, change title making author unhappy) or threat of a defamation lawsuit. While on the surface these would mostly be negative outcomes, it's possible the Streisand Effect could end up in a net plus for book publicity to offset things like legal fees.
- No idea if its there, but relationship with authors in addition to quality reputation. (e.g. I made back my advance in one month and started earning; you printed my book in a beautiful high quality edition and it sold superbly; you dumped my book at midnight in a Walmart bargain bin classic, printed on paper so acidic the EPA had to be called in.
- more depth to marketing? Maybe just more flavour, e.g. you fund an author's tour and can get events happening, how you respond determines sales modifiers. Difficulty level can indicate whether net responses are beneficial statistically (easy/medium), neutral (hard), slightly negative (very hard). Note that randomness with occasional negatives already makes the game a little more difficult for many players.
- Ability to print different types of print runs for the same book would be really nice, and perhaps more variety of editions. If I lock a book up for 24+ months, it would be nice to be able to issue expensive [e]ARC, then hardcover, then trade paperback, then paperback, then maybe even an expensive leatherbound edition if the sales/fanbase/type warrant it. Again, perhaps these other options get introduced over time or via difficulty level.
- Your negotiations are reminiscent of salary negotiations in Motorsport manager (this is a good thing; I love that game!), but unlike that game, duration seems to have almost no value to the author. Odd? Ancillary rights, and right to do different editions (e.g. ARC, Hardback, Trade, paperback...) would increase the value of duration, likely necessitating a revision to that code.
- ancillary rights? e.g., if you're putting in a lot of effort on editing, or author is unknown, you should be able to more easily lock up graphic novel and movie rights. (Note that graphic novel publication appears, in our enlightened age, to make a movie much more likely; it might even be strategically advantageous to pump out a break-even or even slightly losing graphic novel to increase likelihood of movie sales rights if you have a piece of the action. Or, similarly, spend somewhat more on marketing than you would otherwise.)
Anyway, just some thoughts. I like it as is, but it would be interesting to see more of the book and cash-flow 'pipeline', as well as more options for strategic depth.
Thanks for this lovely little game.
Thanks for the suggestions and I am glad you enjoyed the game :)
I am taking a little summer break with game dev right now but yes, when I get back into it those are all valid points I could add.
My ADD brain also started thinking about other game ideas that I want to start working on so who knows! :)
Excited for your upcoming tycoon/management games
Completed the game and enjoyed it.
Made over $50 Million haha
very cool :) I am glad you enjoyed the game.
After publishing 1st book we make max around 8-9k profit and after that it becomes very hard to progress
So at the beginning you should try to find authors with a good fanbase (around 100/200) that do not ask for too much money upfront. you can usually convince them to accept a pretty low advance (around 1000) if you offer a high royalty rate like 20%. print about half of the total expected sales at first and do not do any marketing. books that work well with premium print are also easier to make profitable at first.
Save not working
Weird, what browser are you using and do you have any blockers on it or anything like that?
brave browser and yeah it has ad blockers
uhm...I just tried and it works for me. Are you clicking on save game to disk? I'll have to look a bit deeper into it, not sure why it is working but it could be the add blocker maybe
Excellent game