Buying books by the chapter

[philreed]

The big problem with short PDF's is that you can't get enough preview of them to judge thier overall quality without seeing basically the whole thing. I don't have a good solution for this, even though I love the idea of being able to buy content in small affordable packets - if only because I'm not a very wealthy fellow (and I've got a pair of twins on the way!)

This is a problem I have yet to find a solution for. I mean, one way is to just release the PDFs for free and hope that people that enjoy and use it will donate a buck to you but that model isn't very likely to succeed.

These days I find myself forced to rely more on my name and most recent releases than demos. It makes it more difficult to attract new gamers, though.

 

[Ketjak]

This is a problem I have yet to find a solution for. I mean, one way is to just release the PDFs for free and hope that people that enjoy and use it will donate a buck to you but that model isn't very likely to succeed.

These days I find myself forced to rely more on my name and most recent releases than demos. It makes it more difficult to attract new gamers, though.

What about releasing a product outline, or even a mind map?

 

[jmucchiello]

I once saw a short PDF whose demo was a very low resolution version of the product. (Print as image to remove the ascii form of the text and then turn the images into a 50 dpi PDF.) Thus it was nearly impossible to read but you could make out the headings and see how the book was layed out. I wonder if that worked for them.

 

[EricNoah]

If someone wrote a book where the crunch chapters didn't interconnect (the new monsters using some of the new feats, the NPC spellcasters using some of the new spells and magic items, etc.) I would be disappointed in that product. So I kind of hope the writing of the future doesn't go this way.

 

[Li Shenron]

Something I would like:

Being able to buy chapters of books, like buying individual songs from albums. That way, I could skip the feats and prestige class chapters and just get the game advice and campaign ideas chapters.

I could get all I want from the five Complete * books in just one book. There are many books out now that I don't buy because they are half to two-thirds feats & prestige classes.

I'd like to buy 200 pages for $30, if all 200 pages would be useful to me. What with the PDF and print-on-demand technology, is this something we may see in the near future?

Quasqueton

Your hope is definitely a grand idea which has good chances to happen in the future. I don't know if it will happen for RPG publications, but in the past recent years this sort of "modular microsales" have grown from zero to interesting numbers in several categories of entertainment products: music is being sold by song instead of by album, movies and sport events are being sold with pay-per-view instead of a monthly fee to the whole tv station.

Clearly, a large part of the western economy is unfortunately based on waste, and that's possibly why most producers (I mean, music and tv) are strongly against the trend of selling products in this new way. But in the case of products that can be sold without a physical support (as is with music, videos and "information" in general), it may become a winning trend in the next years.

So it's possible that one day we'll buy RPG material in a more custom form... Personally I hate PDFs, but I would definitely spend twice or more for a RPG printed book if I were to choose what content there would be, such as mixing chapters from existing books. There are obviously huge increases in costs that most consumers would not tolerate, but I hope that in time our culture can move from a "I want more" perspective to a "I want better" perspective...

 

[yennico]

If someone wrote a book where the crunch chapters didn't interconnect (the new monsters using some of the new feats, the NPC spellcasters using some of the new spells and magic items, etc.) I would be disappointed in that product. So I kind of hope the writing of the future doesn't go this way.

I dislike buying another book of new prcs or new feats but I agree with Eric.
If I only want good ideas for settings, adventures or npcs I can raid the ideas from novels, movies etc.