Publisher Atlas: find publishers to pitch (beta)

The Publisher Atlas is a directory of board game publishers: where they are, what they publish, whether they take outside designs and how to pitch them. It helps you build a shortlist before you start pitching, and tells you which publishers fit a game you already have in Boardssey.

What this page helps you do

• Find publishers by name, city, game, region, pitch policy, status and category.
• Read a publisher's pitch policy, catalog and contact details in one place.
• Score every publisher against one of your games and sort by best match.
• Claim your company's profile if you work at a publisher, and keep it up to date.

You'll start from the sidebar, under Resources > Publisher Atlas.

Before you start

• Beta, rolling out to teams. The atlas is switched on team by team. If you do not see Publisher Atlas under Resources, your team is not in the rollout yet, and its pages answer "not found".
• The atlas is not tied to a plan.
• The catalogs come from BoardGameGeek and refresh on their own. Pitch policies are read from each publisher's own site, or written by the publisher once it claims its profile.

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Browse publishers

The page shows a globe with a pin for every publisher and the list of publishers beside it. On a phone, switch between them with List and Globe.

Helpful details

• Key areas: the search box (Search publishers, cities, games), and the filters beside it: pitch policy, world region, status and Categories (pick as many as you like). The count under them reads "12 of 480 publishers" while a filter is on; Clear filters resets them. Sort by orders the list by Name or Catalog size.
• What you can do: drag the globe to turn it, pinch or use the zoom buttons at the top right to zoom, and click a pin or a row to open that publisher.
• Good to know: the pitch policy filter has four values: Open to pitches, Case by case, Not accepting and No policy published. Status tells you whether the company is Active, Acquired, Inactive or Closed.

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Read a publisher's profile

Opening a publisher shows its profile in a side panel.

Helpful details

• Key areas: About, What they look for, How to pitch (submission page or email, methods, window, response time, fee, what to send, pitch tips), the Catalog from BoardGameGeek, the Company profile chart, Company highlights, Conventions they attend, and Contact and Links.
• What you can do: open their website or their BoardGameGeek page, open any game in the catalog on BoardGameGeek, and use Copy link to share the profile with a teammate.
• Good to know: the Company profile shows what the catalog plays like (strategy, conflict, luck, cooperation, theme and so on) as a share of their games. Maintained by the publisher means the publisher claimed the profile and edits it. When a site publishes no policy, the profile says so instead of guessing.

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Match publishers to your game

The panel above the list, Find a match for my game, gives every publisher a match score.

1. Click Pick a game.
2. Choose one of your team's games under My games, or fill in Describe a game (players, play time, complexity from 1 light to 5 heavy, minimum age, genre) and click Score publishers.
3. Every publisher now shows a percentage, and Sort by gains Best match.

Helpful details

• Key areas: the score weighs play style, complexity, player count, play time, age and categories against the publisher's catalog, plus its pitch policy. Open a publisher and its Match for section lists the reasons in plain words.
• What you can do: Change picks another game; the cross clears the match.
• Good to know: each score says how much it rests on: Solid basis, Fair basis or Thin basis. A publisher whose catalog is not on BoardGameGeek yet is scored on its pitch policy and categories alone, and one that publishes no policy scores lower.
• On atlas.boardssey.com: sign in with the email of your Boardssey account and Pick a game lists your games, as it does in the app. Without a sign-in, or with no games yet, it shows an example match and a link to start a free trial.
• Missing a publisher? The note at the bottom of atlas.boardssey.com emails us a publisher to add, or your own company. Close it with the cross and it stays hidden.

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Claim your publisher's profile

If you work at a publisher, you can maintain its profile yourself.

1. Open the publisher and click Claim this publisher profile.
2. Fill in your name, your role, your work email, a page that shows your role (a team page or LinkedIn) and anything else we should know, then click Send claim.
3. A Boardssey admin reviews the claim and emails you when it is approved. Until then the profile shows Claim under review.
4. Once approved, open the publisher and click Edit profile. Saved changes go live on the atlas right away.

Helpful details

• Key areas: the editor has sections for identity, location, pitching, what you look for, catalog and presence, and contact and links.
• What you can do: type a city and pick it from the suggestions to fill the state and country (the pin follows the city); choose conventions from a searchable list; set whether you accept pitches and how.
• Good to know: a work email at the publisher's domain speeds up the review. You can have up to five claims under review at once. If a convention you attend is missing from the list, write to support@boardssey.com. If city suggestions pause after a lot of searching, type the city name: it is kept as written. Its pin may then take a few minutes to appear on the globe.

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Tips & common questions

I cannot find Publisher Atlas in my sidebar. Your team is not in the beta rollout yet. The atlas is switched on team by team.

A publisher's details are wrong or out of date. If you work there, claim the profile and fix it. Otherwise tell us through the chat bubble, with the publisher's name and what changed.

Does the atlas send my pitch? No. It tells you how each publisher wants to be pitched. Log the pitch on the game's Outreach tab to keep track of it.

Related articles

• Track outreach on a game
• Sell sheets
• Contacts overview
• For publishers: viewing a Boardssey catalog