DMs Guild Pay What You Want on the DMs Guild - An Analysis and Explanation

delericho · Feb 25, 2016

Giant2005 said:
I find that PWYW has the opposite effect.
To get exposure on DM's Guild you need to climb the ranks enough to get your product advertised. Free downloads contribute nothing to your ascension through the ranks so giving people the opportunity to get it for free stifles how much DM's Guild are willing to advertise your product.

Ah, now that's a hugely important point. If that's the case, the PWYW should probably be avoided by anyone who wants to get something out of DMguild work - you'll get more exposure from the "charge a low price" route.

(Obviously, if you publish something just because you want to publish something, and genuinely don't care about gaining money, or exposure, or anything else, then that's another thing.)

TonyP · Feb 25, 2016

I've got three products out - the first a PWYW preview of the second. The second is at $1.00 and to my amazement and great pleasure has been in the top five most popular for a couple weeks. The third I just put out for $2.99 and its cracked the top 15 this morning.

One thing that surprises me is that the average contribution for my pwyw is $1.82...

Anyway - I think the $1.00 price point has gotten me ample attention but my pwyw downloads numbers are nearly identical to the product its promoting. I would love to know if those are the same people but that promotional move definitely worked. Here's my current numbers (pardon the ugly formatting, don't have time to pretty it up, gotta get to the day job)

Publisher Title Units Sold Gross Sales Royalty Rate Your Royalties
Dungeon Masters Guild Dragons! Volume 1 - Chromatic Dragons 22 $62.79 50.00% $31.40
Dungeon Masters Guild Journey Through the Center of the Underdark 268 $267.00 50.00% $133.50
Dungeon Masters Guild The Gift of Graz'zt 271 $25.45 50.00% $12.73

I'm thrilled by my success - gotta be beginners luck (and my uh, ample, sharing on facebook

) but what thrills me the most is reading the positive comments... I've been entertaining half a dozen folk for years as a dm... its great to entertain a wider audience.

Jimbro · Feb 25, 2016

TonyP said:
I've got three products out - the first a PWYW preview of the second. The second is at $1.00 and to my amazement and great pleasure has been in the top five most popular for a couple weeks. The third I just put out for $2.99 and its cracked the top 15 this morning.

One thing that surprises me is that the average contribution for my pwyw is $1.82...

Anyway - I think the $1.00 price point has gotten me ample attention but my pwyw downloads numbers are nearly identical to the product its promoting. I would love to know if those are the same people but that promotional move definitely worked. Here's my current numbers (pardon the ugly formatting, don't have time to pretty it up, gotta get to the day job)

Publisher Title Units Sold Gross Sales Royalty Rate Your Royalties
Dungeon Masters Guild Dragons! Volume 1 - Chromatic Dragons 22 $62.79 50.00% $31.40
Dungeon Masters Guild Journey Through the Center of the Underdark 268 $267.00 50.00% $133.50
Dungeon Masters Guild The Gift of Graz'zt 271 $25.45 50.00% $12.73

I'm thrilled by my success - gotta be beginners luck (and my uh, ample, sharing on facebook ) but what thrills me the most is reading the positive comments... I've been entertaining half a dozen folk for years as a dm... its great to entertain a wider audience.

It's also a pretty smart plan. Offer part of something as PWYW, then release the full product, then go bigger with your next. Great idea and congrats! Not just beginner's luck. Hard work and a good plan pay off.

Gilladian · Feb 25, 2016

I've downloaded a good handful of PWYW for free and reviewed several. One I used in a game and that one I went back and threw in a dollar for. I'll be looking for more by the author now that I know it both read and played well.

Jimbro · Feb 25, 2016

Gilladian said:
I've downloaded a good handful of PWYW for free and reviewed several. One I used in a game and that one I went back and threw in a dollar for. I'll be looking for more by the author now that I know it both read and played well.

You're the kind of guy we all hope downloads our PWYW stuff.

Sunseeker · Feb 25, 2016

Giant2005 said:
I'm not comparing my product to anyone else's, I am comparing the product to itself just at different price points.
The notion that has been put forth is that a product with a higher price point is to be more demanded because it is a sign of confidence in your work. Therefore that same product at a lower price point is to be less demanded due to less confidence in your work signifying a less desirable product.
That is literally the opposite of the laws of supply and demand - as the price increases, the demand decreases but you are trying to convince people to turn the laws of economics on its side and increase their demand as the price increases.

That's actually not what I said at all. AT ALL. At all at all. I said lower-priced products are less respected, not less demanded. There was plenty of demand for my wife while her artwork prices were lower. But there was a substantially higher ratio of people who treated her poorly and expected more for even less. People will always want it better, faster and cheaper. The first two tend to raise the price, not lower it. So as the old adage goes: You have have it fast, cheap or good, but only two of these.

So since I make sure my work is good, it either won't be fast, or it won't be cheap.

Sunseeker · Feb 25, 2016

delericho said:
There's a difference between a publisher approaching a would-be writer with an offer to "pay with exposure" (which I agree is bogus), versus a writer deciding for himself to do the same (which is his/her prerogative).

The difference is small but both are a problem. Because people doing the latter makes people doing the former think what they're doing is okay because at some point Joe didn't charge for his services. So outside of charity events, it's better for you, the market and everyone else if you charge.

delericho · Feb 25, 2016

shidaku said:
The difference is small but both are a problem.

I don't agree that the difference is small.

Jester David · Feb 25, 2016

CapnZapp said:
However, plenty of people really only open their wallets to official dead tree publications by WotC, thinking that's the only kind of product quality tested enough. The only way you'll ever get their money is to hand them impressive stuff for free first.

If they only open their wallets to WotC then there's no real way to ever earn their money, as WotC only really has three designers on staff and doesn't show any interest in hiring more. Even if Crawford retires tomorrow there might not be a position.

The best one can do in this business is freelance for a 3rd Party company producing a licenced product for WotC... but most of those opportunities are going to former staff from the past ten years.
But, for some people, it doesn't matter if a product is being written and published by Kobold Press, who includes some designers in the game industry since 2e. It's still not WotC and thus ineffably less valuable.

I'm not going to just work for free so people who don't think my work is worthwhile because it's not a brand name product stay happy. I shouldn't be expected to work for exposure.

Morrus · Feb 25, 2016

Jester Canuck said:
If they only open their wallets to WotC then there's no real way to ever earn their money, as WotC only really has three designers on staff and doesn't show any interest in hiring more. Even if Crawford retires tomorrow there might not be a position.

The best one can do in this business is freelance for a 3rd Party company producing a licenced product for WotC... but most of those opportunities are going to former staff from the past ten years.
But, for some people, it doesn't matter if a product is being written and published by Kobold Press, who includes some designers in the game industry since 2e. It's still not WotC and thus ineffably less valuable.

I'm not going to just work for free so people who don't think my work is worthwhile because it's not a brand name product stay happy. I shouldn't be expected to work for exposure.

You're right. That section of people (and it's a big one) is one you can do nothing about. Just concentrate on the demographic you *can* reach.

DMs Guild Pay What You Want on the DMs Guild - An Analysis and Explanation

delericho

Legend

TonyP

Explorer

Jimbro

Explorer

Gilladian

Adventurer

Jimbro

Explorer

Sunseeker

Guest

Sunseeker

Guest

delericho

Legend

Jester David

Hero

Morrus

Well, that was fun

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