What would you pay for a book?

[Odysseus]

You’d expect to pay the same for a hard copy as for a pdf? I am mightily confused

I rarely buy hard cover without the pdf. So thats the price of just the hard cover. If i'm getting pdf and hard cover add them together.

 

[TheSword]

I rarely buy hard cover without the pdf. So thats the price of just the hard cover. If i'm getting pdf and hard cover add them together.

Okay. But if you pay £30 for the hardcover and £60 for the pdf + hardcover you’re paying the same for the pdf with minimal printing cost and logistics as you would for a hardcover with large printing costs and logistics.

I mean if you’re happy to pay it, power to you.

 

[Odysseus]

Okay. But if you pay £30 for the hardcover and £60 for the pdf + hardcover you’re paying the same for the pdf with minimal printing cost and logistics as you would for a hardcover with large printing costs and logistics.

I mean if you’re happy to pay it, power to you.

Thats how I would value it. What ever the printing or logistical costs would be.

 

[billd91]

Okay. But if you pay £30 for the hardcover and £60 for the pdf + hardcover you’re paying the same for the pdf with minimal printing cost and logistics as you would for a hardcover with large printing costs and logistics.

I mean if you’re happy to pay it, power to you.

Think of it this way - he’s willing to pay for the content of the work.
I think a lot of people‘s approach to paying for PDFs would be very disheartening if I were a content producer. I mean here’s a format that they can produce where they can actually make decent money on it rather than have most of that potential sucked away by manufacture, distributors, and retailers (if they can sell directly enough)… and everyone wants a lowballed price.

 

[CharlesWallace]

a) $25
b) $60
c) $80
d) $15, $40, $40

I don't know if these are logical numbers. I just don't like PDFs that much. It might be because I'm old, but I prefer physical media.

 

[aco175]

I think it’s a given we’d all rather pay as little as possible. That’s why I asked what you would pay rather than what you would like to pay (because I’d like all my stuff to be free!)

$50 seems reasonable here, but also depends on whether or not the interior is in color. For example: The DCC core rulebook hardcover is over 500 pages, mostly black and white inside, and costs $40. That's a really great value, and a high bar for other publishers to meet. A lot depends on shipping costs and where I can buy the book, too. If I can buy the book at my FLGS (even if I need to place a special-order for it), I'm happier to pay more both to support the store and because I don't have to add shipping to the price.

I was referencing the $20 is what I think is a good price, but $15 is something I think can be done and still make a good module. It could be a 64 page module which is a good size for a level 1-5 adventure. It could be made with less color pictures and cheaper paper to keep costs down. See what @Ath-kethin had for an example. I would tend to write in the module notes and such, so something cheaper could work.

I have been using PDF adventures for a while now and find that I print out parts that I need for each week and find myself already assembling the stat blocks for each encounter. I did like the 4e adventures where they had this already. Not sure if a 64 page adventure would become 100 pages when including the stat blocks, but that could be worth more to me.

 

[el-remmen]

a) $20 to $25
b) $35
c) $60
d) .99 cents

 

[Retreater]

I think a lot of people‘s approach to paying for PDFs would be very disheartening if I were a content producer. I mean here’s a format that they can produce where they can actually make decent money on it rather than have most of that potential sucked away by manufacture, distributors, and retailers (if they can sell directly enough)… and everyone wants a lowballed price.

To be fair, my numbers for PDFs were a little simplified. If PDF is the only format available (such as if the print copy was OOP or if the product was only made available electronically), I'd be willing to pay more. Typically I purchase a PDF as a "preview" of a print book, and will go on to purchase a print copy later if I enjoy the product.
Also I tend to not want to spend as much on a print copy if it's also not available electronically, because I get different levels of use from the PDF copy in this era of VTT gaming.

 

[Morrus]

d) .99 cents

Out of curiosity, what's your thinking behind that being .00 cents and not $0? Just that you're not interested in PDFs, or that you feel .99 cents is the value of the content?

 

[el-remmen]

Out of curiosity, what's your thinking behind that being .00 cents and not $0? Just that you're not interested in PDFs, or that you feel .99 cents is the value of the content?

For me any almost any PDF is going to be a supplement to a print product and don't want to essentially pay twice. I guess I would pay more for a PDF (not much more - never more than like $9.99) it it was a something special I could get no other way.