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another rpg industry doomsday article (merged: all 3 "Mishler Rant" threads)
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<blockquote data-quote="kenmarable" data-source="post: 4866277" data-attributes="member: 40359"><p>Very good point. For example, I wonder how many people bought all of the "War of the Burning Sky" books, but won't by a massive, compiled tome. Or who buy every issue of Pathfinder, but think the Shackled City hardcover is too expensive.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This (along with the "kids these days" nonsense) is definitely the weakest point in his entire post. He takes 1 data point - the low price of PFRPG PDF - and extrapolates an entire trend in PDF pricing. One single data point. I can list many reasons why that's an outlier, but it's actually easier to point to all of the publishers that offer PDFs priced at or near the physical book price and I can draw just as unfounded a conclusion as he does.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Considering the edition wars started LOOOOOONG before most companies "picked sides", this armchair psychology is clearly wrong.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Exactly! Makes you really wonder where he gets some of the assumptions his argument relies on from. I hear you can get those sorts of rates in main stream magazine article writing. Sitting down with Google for 2 minutes shows that 5 cents a word is a good pay rate in the SF&F fiction market. As one website labels 5 cents and up <a href="http://sffmarkets.orbitalsunrise.net/" target="_blank">"markets to drool over"</a>. (That's just one site, but spend some time with Google and it's clear it's a consensus across many.) </p><p></p><p>Maybe he's considering the "even poor fiction" earning $1.00 per word market to be the Oprah's Book Club market. I'd consider that style of 'misery fiction pretending to be deep and thoughtful' market that pays very well for poor fiction. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p></p><p>In general, the best that post says is that "business as usual won't work for small press anymore". That's true, but considering how many small publishers folded over the past several years, it's not that surprising of an observation. Currently, however, publishers big and small are innovating. DDI is the clearest and largest example of this. But also the shift towards utilities rather than books is another major one. Also, I expect to see something better than PDFs coming around that make electronic products at least as valuable as physical books.</p><p></p><p>So publishers need to innovate (and actually are) and get out of the business as usual mindset. Yes, if you want to be a small publisher, you can't expect to just hire some freelancers, print a couple thousand books at a traditional printer, get them in stores everywhere, and then watch the money come in. But that hasn't been true for 4-5 years, I'd say. Calling that business model unprofitable in 2009 is beating a long dead horse.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kenmarable, post: 4866277, member: 40359"] Very good point. For example, I wonder how many people bought all of the "War of the Burning Sky" books, but won't by a massive, compiled tome. Or who buy every issue of Pathfinder, but think the Shackled City hardcover is too expensive. This (along with the "kids these days" nonsense) is definitely the weakest point in his entire post. He takes 1 data point - the low price of PFRPG PDF - and extrapolates an entire trend in PDF pricing. One single data point. I can list many reasons why that's an outlier, but it's actually easier to point to all of the publishers that offer PDFs priced at or near the physical book price and I can draw just as unfounded a conclusion as he does. Considering the edition wars started LOOOOOONG before most companies "picked sides", this armchair psychology is clearly wrong. Exactly! Makes you really wonder where he gets some of the assumptions his argument relies on from. I hear you can get those sorts of rates in main stream magazine article writing. Sitting down with Google for 2 minutes shows that 5 cents a word is a good pay rate in the SF&F fiction market. As one website labels 5 cents and up [url=http://sffmarkets.orbitalsunrise.net/]"markets to drool over"[/url]. (That's just one site, but spend some time with Google and it's clear it's a consensus across many.) Maybe he's considering the "even poor fiction" earning $1.00 per word market to be the Oprah's Book Club market. I'd consider that style of 'misery fiction pretending to be deep and thoughtful' market that pays very well for poor fiction. ;) In general, the best that post says is that "business as usual won't work for small press anymore". That's true, but considering how many small publishers folded over the past several years, it's not that surprising of an observation. Currently, however, publishers big and small are innovating. DDI is the clearest and largest example of this. But also the shift towards utilities rather than books is another major one. Also, I expect to see something better than PDFs coming around that make electronic products at least as valuable as physical books. So publishers need to innovate (and actually are) and get out of the business as usual mindset. Yes, if you want to be a small publisher, you can't expect to just hire some freelancers, print a couple thousand books at a traditional printer, get them in stores everywhere, and then watch the money come in. But that hasn't been true for 4-5 years, I'd say. Calling that business model unprofitable in 2009 is beating a long dead horse. [/QUOTE]
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