What kind of Sales can you expect from PDF?

[Pharaun]

It is I, Kent, again, from Khan's Press. I was just wondering, what can I expect in sales for a PDF book? Are we talking hundreds of copies, thousands?

Also, I would like to announce, assuming everything goes as planned, our first book should be out Friday, November 22nd. It is titled Tremon:Kingdom of Sorcery. You can find a small preview at our website http://www.khanspress.tk In it, you can find one new race, a new prestige class, and a new monster. Take a look and enjoy.

You can direct any questions or comments to myself at khanspresskc@yahoo.com

Thank you,
Kent Cramer
Co-Founder of Khan's Press

 

[Morrus]

Varies immensely. Most sell under 100 copies. The top few on RPGNow's bestsellers list have sold 600+. If anyone has sold over 1,000, then it's only Monte Cook (and I have no idea how many he sells, but he sells a lot!)

 

[Alzrius]

I just feel like pointing that that, in my opinion, most PDFs don't sell too widely is because its immensely easy for people to get them free from friends.

I know this is frowned on by the entire community, but it does happen, since no one asks other people if they got their PDFs this way (and its easy to lie even then). One guy buys a PDF, and is happy to email it to a friend, etc. and it goes on from there. The amount of people using a PDF product probably far exceeds the amount of people who actually purchase it. Thats another reason why print products are better.

Please don't shoot the messenger on this one folks.

 

[Bagpuss]

Well since about of my gaming friends have never bought a gaming product outside the core rules (and some not even them).

I doubt the friends factor actually effects sales that much.

I think it is much more likely that people prefer a paper product, plus you have a very limited audience. Not only can you only sell to gamers, you can only sell to gamers,
who buy RPG products
who buy RPG products by small D20 companies
who are online
who shop online
who don't mind a PDF product
who like you product

Thats a very small group of people.

 

[philreed]

PDF Sales

It is I, Kent, again, from Khan's Press. I was just wondering, what can I expect in sales for a PDF book? Are we talking hundreds of copies, thousands?

I don't have as much experience in this area as <I>many</I> others who visit this forum. But I have comments.

Each PDF I've released was designed around a break-even point of approximately 80 sales. I'm only spending about $200 on each one (split between time working on the project and any money I pay for a cover). I'm fairly confident that any D20 product I release can sell 80 copies in about one month.

After this point I consider the product profitable. 80 units sold means that I've made as much money working on the PDF as I would have working at my day job. The bonus is that I own what I complete.

To date I've sold almost 170 copies of 101 Spellbooks and almost 140 copies of 101 Mundane Treasures. I have no idea if these are typical of other PDF sales.

NOTE: I have been releasing $3.00 PDFs. I'm certain this has affected sales but I have no idea how much the price has affected the numbers.

I hope some of this rambling helps you.

 

[MEG Hal]

We only have one pdf at the moment but have plans for more in the future. Interludes: BetB sold well before we announced it was going to print now we have a handful every month. I would say that 200 in 60-90 days is considered good in most pdf companies and except for Monte 600+ is very hard to accomplish.
Good luck. I have not seen any of Phil Reed's stuff but it has had some excellent reviews so take his opinions seriously, with 3 products out he is getting some good numbers.

Good Luck.

 

[jmucchiello]

As a no-name press, I've reached 125 with my first (and only "for sale") PDF. And, at the risk of being immodest, it gets excellent reviews. If you go to the news part of my website you can see how long it took the first 50 and 100 to sell since I celebrated them.

Last Tuesday I release a 2 page PDF for free on my website and it has been downloaded 1100 times as of today.

And Alzrius, I don't really care about sharing friend to friend since I expect that if a player buys my book and wants to use it in a game, he's going to have to share it with the DM. I only get annoyed with P2P sharing with no prior friendship. Getting a PDF off of Kazaa or Gnutella (or whatever is popular these days) is far worse, to me.

Joe Mucchiello
Throwing Dice Games
http://www.throwingdice.com

 

[Mark]

Well since about of my gaming friends have never bought a gaming product outside the core rules (and some not even them).

I doubt the friends factor actually effects sales that much.

I think it is much more likely that people prefer a paper product, plus you have a very limited audience. Not only can you only sell to gamers, you can only sell to gamers,
who buy RPG products
who buy RPG products by small D20 companies
who are online
who shop online
who don't mind a PDF product
who like you product

Thats a very small group of people.

Russell, Phil, Hal and Joe all make good points, and I'll add a couple more factors to the Iconic Plushy's list, though my points are regarding the utility of any given product. To whit, the usability by "DM's only" and the "Level Range" will also limit the amount of sales you will see. So a setting product will be limited in appeal (and an adventure even moreso.)

Unlike print products which publishers gauge as having a three month window for initial sales, I think the conventional wisdom is that the first few weeks will be your main selling window for most PDFs. Any good reviews will give you a small boost in sales provided they come fairly early (and most "staff reviewers" will ignore PDFs from most d20 pubs given that there are dozens of print products that are also released monthly.)

Don't be discouraged. The work you put in on your early PDFs is probably best thought of as a learning period. Taking a concept through the process, from start to finish, is a eye-opener and well worth it. Keep remembering that even the main print publishers generally also have day jobs and you're doing this because you love your hobby.

As always,
Mark Clover
www.CreativeMountainGames.com

 

[Henry]

I doubt the friends factor actually effects sales that much.

Two words: Kazaa, and Morpheus.

 

[jmucchiello]

Two words: Kazaa, and Morpheus.

Neither of which involve friends. The friends factor is irrelevant. If you buy my book, I assume only you among your circle of gamers is really going to pay for the PDF. That's almost a given. In fact, how else can you use the PDF without first printing off a few pages and giving them to the DM saying, I want to do this.

Kazaa and Morpheus do not involve friends. You don't put my PDF on those to send to your friend. You put them up there because you're an a**hole. (My apologies to Eric's gramma.)