Basic Fantasy 4th Ed Sales across various platforms

[Lalato]

I found this post on Facebook by Chris Gonnerman, one of the authors of the OSR Basic Fantasy rules interesting.

Chris Gonnerman:
So here are some statistics, if anyone is curious.

All of our books are available on Amazon.com and Lulu.com, and most are on DriveThruRPG.com at this time. In October, 34 of our books were purchased on Lulu.com; that number includes 13 copies of the Core Rules. Lulu is the only company that offers coilbound, which accounts for 2 of those rulebooks.

Again for October on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow/OneBookShelf we sold 45 books, of which 6 were Core Rules copies. And on Amazon.com? 744 total books, of which 189 were copies of the Core Rules.

Not that any of that matters, but I sometimes have people tell me how important one or another of these printing solutions are. The numbers tell the real story.

For the math challenged, that means that 90% of our books are purchased through Amazon, with DTRPG just over 5% and Lulu just under 5%.

I asked the following for clarification... and I would love it if others could chime in on their general experience with these platforms.

1. Is Amazon carrying pre-printed books or is it entirely print-on-demand as-is Lulu and DtRPG
2. What percentage of sales are for digital vs physical product by platform?
3. How much of a cut does each platform take? If you don't want to give out exact numbers, can you share the relative difference between them? (Amazon takes the most/least, the next one takes the next most/least, etc).
4. On your website, Amazon is the first listed option for all books, followed by Lulu after scrolling down... and followed by DtRPG after scrolling even further. Do you think this has impacted how much Amazon is used?

 

[darjr]

Oh! Time to get some things!

 

[Brendan Byrd]

"Is Amazon carrying pre-printed books or is it entirely print-on-demand as-is Lulu and DtRPG"

My copy of the Core Rules from Amazon was print-on-demand. In the end papers is the date and location where it was printed.
ETA: Third Edition printing. I missed the 4th ed. in the thread title.

 

[Lalato]

"Is Amazon carrying pre-printed books or is it entirely print-on-demand as-is Lulu and DtRPG"

My copy of the Core Rules from Amazon was print-on-demand. In the end papers is the date and location where it was printed.

How quick is Amazon’s Print on Demand? Was it printed and delivered in 2 days or is it similar to others where it takes a bit longer?

 

[darjr]

How quick is Amazon’s Print on Demand? Was it printed and delivered in 2 days or is it similar to others where it takes a bit longer?

It’s not that fast but it faster than all the rest. Shipping packaging is atrociously bad. Quality is better from drive thru and that other place I can’t remember now.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

How quick is Amazon’s Print on Demand? Was it printed and delivered in 2 days or is it similar to others where it takes a bit longer?

I always opt for free shipping, since I'm in no hurry about Amazon purchases, and I'm stingy.
This means for me that the delivery time can vary.
My most recent POD order (non-RPG) arrived in four days with the free shipping, which was a bit longer than usual.

 

[Lalato]

Must be an economy of scale situation. Amazon certainly has the scale to get things printed and delivered quickly.

Lulu is the other print on demand option that I’m aware of. They have some print options that others don’t have.

I wonder how the quality of the print is across the vendors?

 

[Lalato]

One of the reasons this topic interests me is that I've been keeping a list of 3rd party 5e Campaign Settings and Adventure Paths.

I've been hesitant to link to Amazon when there are other options (DtRPG, Lulu, Itch.io, or direct to publisher). But there are a couple of small publishers/creators who seem to only have Amazon as an option for their stuff. So I've always wondered if that is better or worse from the publisher's perspective. Like I would rather link to the creator's website than to Amazon... even if on their website they just link back to Amazon.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The sales across platforms is definitely interesting and, yeah, really underscores that, at the end of the day, even for incredibly inexpensive titles like the Basic Fantasy books, people will go to Amazon and save a little more.

I wonder how much OSE sells in a month, as they're probably Basic Fantasy's closest competitor and are, I believe, more expensive across the board.

 

[Jahydin]

I bought all my Basic Fantasy books from Amazon. Saving money was never a factor, it's 100% a matter of convenience since I'm already setup and ready to go.

Also, despite the high occurrence of shipping damage (I hate dinged up corners on hardbacks), their customer service is quick to refund and replace.