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• U.S. publisher Mayfair Games has signed two exclusive distribution agreements, but they're not with one of the usual suspects: Alliance Game Distributors or ACD Distribution. Instead one such agreement is with The Next Step Trading for distribution in South Africa, while the other agreement is with Esdevium Games for distribution in the United Kingdom hobby retail network. From the press release announcing one of the agreements: "Management at Mayfair Games foresees a future bright with opportunities for national campaigns with coordinated outreach and events. With the advent of streamlined, focused distribution to the hobby trade, Mayfair anticipates continued direct support of the hobby retail channel through the MAR program and other means."
• In a reversal of his July 2012 announcement of exclusive distribution through his own website, Amazon.com and Game Salute, Michael Mindes from Tasty Minstrel Games has announced that TMG will once again be available through traditional distributors. From the announcement: "All TMG products will be available through regular distribution channels if those distributors will have us. And I hope that they will. Distributors will be able to obtain our games through our long-term and wonderful partner PSI, who has been here for me through every dumb thing I have done. I am glad to be out of the business of worrying about how to improve the hobby board game ecosystem."
• In his latest monthly interview, Dennis at Bellwether Games interviews Paul Owen, designer of the 2011 release Trains, Planes & Automobiles from BlueSquare Games, and he offers this advice for prospective designers:
In my case, the relationship was face-to-face, but in today's fast-moving and far-reaching blogosphere/twitterverse, designers can establish relationships and at least some notional name-recognition among publishers virtually. I'm beginning to see that an amateur designer with a quality blog or other social media platform can establish a presence even before he or she is ready to approach a publisher with a project – and in fact, it's a good way to distinguish oneself so that a prospective publisher might be more willing to look at something if they recognize the name behind the design.