mroberon1972
First Post
After much in the way of discussion, both here and elsewhere, It has occured to me the following:
1. As a new publisher, I cannot charge what a product is really worth. This is due to my lack of 'publisher cred'. No one can really know what my product is going to be like, and reviews only do so much to offset this. Even a demo of the product cannot offset this, since it still does not allow them to know if the rest of the book will be better, worse, or the same as what I represented.
2. It seems that $5.00 is the most loved price of PDF documents. Some of this may be due to the price and payment guides set down by RPGNOW, but I think it also has to do with how the customer sees his money. $6.59 is seen as an amount paid for a new paperback book, and therefor makes PDFs seem expensive, since the customer feels he must still print it out. $5.00 is more the cost of a fast food meal, and therefore the more permanent PDF looks better for the money.
3. PDF is still a young market, and many customers still feel apathy toward the medium due to the complexities of its effective use. Every RPGer knows how to use a book, but not every RPGer knows how to use a computer. Even less know how to use the Acrobat software.
4. Most RPGers just love books. No matter how good a PDF is, it's not a book.
All of these perceptions color the way people see the value of a PDF release. Generally, raising the cost past $5.00, no matter the value of the book, reduces the number of customers who will buy your book by possibly massive numbers.
Sadly, this also seems to create a self-fulfilling prophesy: People see PDFs as low quality. Publishers fail to make enough money from thier products. Publishers reduce things such as art to keep production costs down to make a profit.
This is why I am now lowering the price of 'The Valley of Frozen Tears' to $5.00. I will be letting you all know how this works out later...
I've gotta get back to work now, but I'll continue naming my observations as I see them. While I feel some of the things I've said have been said before, I hope that my way of saying them will allow others to understand better what is involved with RPG publishing for the small publisher...
Later,
John Bowden
The Fool
Mr. Oberon
1. As a new publisher, I cannot charge what a product is really worth. This is due to my lack of 'publisher cred'. No one can really know what my product is going to be like, and reviews only do so much to offset this. Even a demo of the product cannot offset this, since it still does not allow them to know if the rest of the book will be better, worse, or the same as what I represented.
2. It seems that $5.00 is the most loved price of PDF documents. Some of this may be due to the price and payment guides set down by RPGNOW, but I think it also has to do with how the customer sees his money. $6.59 is seen as an amount paid for a new paperback book, and therefor makes PDFs seem expensive, since the customer feels he must still print it out. $5.00 is more the cost of a fast food meal, and therefore the more permanent PDF looks better for the money.
3. PDF is still a young market, and many customers still feel apathy toward the medium due to the complexities of its effective use. Every RPGer knows how to use a book, but not every RPGer knows how to use a computer. Even less know how to use the Acrobat software.
4. Most RPGers just love books. No matter how good a PDF is, it's not a book.
All of these perceptions color the way people see the value of a PDF release. Generally, raising the cost past $5.00, no matter the value of the book, reduces the number of customers who will buy your book by possibly massive numbers.
Sadly, this also seems to create a self-fulfilling prophesy: People see PDFs as low quality. Publishers fail to make enough money from thier products. Publishers reduce things such as art to keep production costs down to make a profit.
This is why I am now lowering the price of 'The Valley of Frozen Tears' to $5.00. I will be letting you all know how this works out later...
I've gotta get back to work now, but I'll continue naming my observations as I see them. While I feel some of the things I've said have been said before, I hope that my way of saying them will allow others to understand better what is involved with RPG publishing for the small publisher...
Later,
John Bowden
The Fool
Mr. Oberon
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