The process of publishing a game

#1 It depends if you are going to talk to distributors yourself, GarageGames, BigFish and whatnot, or if you want to go through a company that will publish the games, handle all the distribution and whatnot.

Usually going directly with a distributor will give you more profit, but it requires a lot more work from you, DRM, QA, etc.

#2 Garage Games and Stardock wouldn't set you up with filthy DRM, but either might help with
online authentication..I'd like to know more about that sort of thing myself.

#3 So here's what I had to go through. Everyone is a little different, so I can only tell you what I know.

First off, I sold it myself on my own site. I created a bunch of code to handle license keys. I sold through Plimus, which handles all the sales for me, and doles out the license keys as they are purchased. A little bit of a pain to set up the first time, but overall it worked well. There are other e-commerce providers you can go through, and they'll probably cost you somewhere around 10% - 15%. So for a $20 game, with Plimus, I get $18.

Secondly, I also sold through some other portals (including GG). Each one had a few extra requirements and some TLC I had work into my game (code / wrappers / whatever). I also had to provide screenshots, information, & other promotional materials to help them sell my game. And sign contracts & so forth. Overall, each was less work than setting up my own site, but since they were non-exclusive deals, there was no problem with pursuing all options. I should add that to date, I've sold more copies of my game through my own site than through any single portal, though not as many as all portals combined. The royalty rates for portals vary, and the success of your game on the different portals is HIGHLY dependent upon how suited your game is for the portal's target market. (And how well they promote it, etc.). Royalty rates from non-exclusive portals tend to range anywhere from 25% to about 60%.

I did discuss deals with actual exclusive publishing partners. I opted against going that way, but it's a viable option. For example, if you have a game with a strategy or military simulation focus, you might want to look at Matrix Games or Shrapnel Games. They primarily publish online, but they also occasionally do box (retail) deals for their best-sellers. I can't speak on the royalty rates from these publishers, but since the online sales channel has a lower risk and overhead, and since there are so many other non-exclusive options available, they tend to offer deals comparable to that of the portals. The big difference is that they tend to put more emphasis on pushing your title, giving you less burden. The deals can go all across the board.

If you work out a box deal with an actual brick-and-mortar publisher / distributor, it's a whole 'nother deal, and there are some other folks here who can tell you more information on that. Royalty rates tend to be much lower, due to the higher risk of manufacturing and distribution that the publisher must take.

Affiliate deals are also an option. They tend to range anywhere from 20% to 50% to the affiliate (meaning 50% to 80% royalty to you). Most affiliates don't sell much, but they can be helpful. Maybe only five of your affiliates actually sell more than a single copy, but if four of them are averaging maybe 8 copies a month, for a $20 game you are making $20 - $2 e-commerce fee - $7 (35% affiliate fee) = $11 profit per game, or $350 / month just from your affiliates alone. That's not going to set you on the road from rags to riches very quickly, but at least it'll cover the car payment to take you there.

But if you are looking for more suggestions and trying to think outside the box, here are some more options:

20 Ways To Make Money Making Indie Games

Good luck!

#4 Thank you, Jay Barnson.
It's very useful information and good to read.

#5 We have a ton of info on our updated publishing pages and FAQ, take a look:

http://www.garagegames.com/solutions/publishing/