Drizzt's Handbook: Fighting Styles (5e Official)

[TheLe]

Using "Drizzt" in the title is totally within the limits of the DM's Guild license, at least so far as I understand it.

That is correct. Usage of Drizzt is specifically mentioned in the WOTC Licensing faq: https://www.dmsguild.com/whatisdmsguild.php

Still feels sketchy to me, as the content has really very little to do with Drizzt, it's just a name drop for marketing purposes. Will this choice work out for Le Games? "Fighting Styles" is currently at #34,

Fighting Styles was a bit of a name drop, I admit. It was originally destined for Rpgnow under a different title, but Weapons of War did very well so I re-branded it. I consulted some customers on Facebook about this and they all told me that "don't sell on DMG unless it is Forgotten Realms based". So there you go. I find it very odd that customers would buy a product simply on the name. For example, if I made a magic item called "Tiamat's Amulet" and sold it on DMG and an identical item called "Blessed Amulet" -- the DMG customers told me they would buy the Tiamat version, even if it's more expensive and does the exact same thing. Truth is stranger than fiction.

and their previous "Drizzt" title, "Weapons of War" is at #13. So far so good!]

Thanks. That book's actually very Forgotten Realms heavy -- contains items such as Drizzt's weapons, IcingDeath, Quiver of Anariel, Quiver Anariel, and more. IcingDeath was the hard one to write -- I got on Facebook and consulted a few Drizzt fans to get that sword just right.

That being said, the original series continues on Rpgnow under the title "Enchanted Armory" which I did copyright.

When I was brainstorming my own ideas for the DM's Guild, I was debating using series names that originated in TSR and/or WotC products like "Creature Catalog" or "Monstrous Compendium" . . . and it didn't feel quite right, although not really wrong either . . . .

You could do that, buy in my opinion you should try and create your own brand so you can take it with you if you sell on Rpgnow or elsewhere. I can never sell a future "Drizzt's Armory" on Rpgnow, but I *can* sell "Enchanted Armory", which I've already done:

(continued below)

AVailable now at Rpgnow


Sales on DMG is about equivalent to Rpgnow as far as I can tell. But unlike Rpgnow, DMG doesn't have much in the marketing department, so once your book falls off the top 20 it's kinda gone forever from the customer's minds.

Not to mention, DMG takes 50% compared to Rpgnow's 35%. Rpgnow definitely has better tools, like complimentary copies, a coupon creation system, email to customers, and more. I have to do more work to sell on rpgnow, but it leads to higher sales. DMG does well enough for a "fire and forget" retail site. But I could double or triple sales if DMG offered the same tools as rpgnow.

My point? You should consider selling on both Rpgnow and DMG.

 

[Morrus]

Usage of the name is perfectly OK on DMs Guild. I'm not sure I agree with its usage in a more general sense; just sticking Drizzt's name on the cover of a generic book feels a bit deceptive to me.

You could do that, buy in my opinion you should try and create your own brand so you can take it with you if you sell on Rpgnow or elsewhere. I can never sell a future "Drizzt's Armory" on Rpgnow, but I *can* sell "Enchanted Armory", which I've already done:

That's the same book with a different name?

 

[Dire Bare]

Fighting Styles was a bit of a name drop, I admit. It was originally destined for Rpgnow under a different title, but Weapons of War did very well so I re-branded it. I consulted some customers on Facebook about this and they all told me that "don't sell on DMG unless it is Forgotten Realms based". So there you go. I find it very odd that customers would buy a product simply on the name. For example, if I made a magic item called "Tiamat's Amulet" and sold it on DMG and an identical item called "Blessed Amulet" -- the DMG customers told me they would buy the Tiamat version, even if it's more expensive and does the exact same thing. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Strange indeed! Behold the power of BRAND!

My point? You should consider selling on both Rpgnow and DMG.

Thanks for the analysis and advice! Interesting stuff!

 

[TheLe]

That's the same book with a different name?

No sir, it is not the "same book with the different name". Enchanted Armory is totally different content than Drizzt's Armory (it is a completely different book). The DMSGuild guideline frowns upon selling the same book in two different places,

The official publishers FAQ, not released to the public, touched on this:

Can I release the same products on both DMs Guild and on DriveThruRPG?

Any content created for the DMs Guild, which is completely separate from your other publishing efforts, must remain exclusive to DMs Guild. It cannot be listed anywhere else — not even on DriveThruRPG.com — and will not be considered part of your publisher account (though it will be part of your “My Content” on the new site).
You won’t be able to cross-list other 5E content (i.e., your other published OGL products) on the DMs Guild site as they are not created for the DMs Guild program.

It's clear that the same title cannot be sold on both places, but it's a little fuzzy whether or not you can "rebrand" a book to sell both places... I personally didn't want to take that chance so I made a new, separate book to sell on both sites. That being said, I used a similar name for branding purpuses, not to mention I can copyright "Enchanted Armory" when publishing on Rpgnow, but can't copyright "Drizzt's Armory".

 

[Morrus]

No sir, it is not the "same book with the different name". Enchanted Armory is totally different content than Drizzt's Armory (it is a completely different book). The DMSGuild guideline frowns upon selling the same book in two different places,

I'm aware of that; that's is why I asked. From what you said above, it sounded like it was a rebranded version of the same product.

 

[TheLe]

"Fighting Styles" is currently at #34, and their previous "Drizzt" title, "Weapons of War" is at #13. So far so good!
.

That is correct. For a better idea of what that means,
Drizzt's Armory: Weapons of War: 58 copies sold
Drizzt's Handbook: Fighting Styles 10 copies sold

Each book sells for $2.00 msrp and dmg takes 50%. So I make $1 net off of each sale.

Weapons of War peeked at #9. Sales are best in the first week then drops off. Again, I suspect sales are going to be flat one it drops off the front page (top 20) completely.

I also did heavy advertising for these book on Facebook, giving away about 20 copies of each.

Now let's compare it to Enchanted Armory: Orbs of Oblivion, which is also a $2 book.
36 copies sold $63.34 gross, $41.17 net.

I had sent out a 2-day coupon to buy orbs for $1.25, which is why the net isn't what you expect. But once it expired, each sales nets $1.30 per book rather than $1.00 per book from DMG (3 copies of Orbs sold just this week at the full $2 msrp). That being said, Orbs was released before Drizzt's Amory, yet Orbs has lower overall sales. I suspect this will change overtime -- again, once Drizzt falls off the front page it'll be harder to sell and market.

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