Ghostwind
First Post
Responsibility
What does this mean to the publisher? Let's say Wulf (just to pick on him) printed 1500 copies of Grim Tales (great book by the way) and his initial preorders and 30 day sales totaled between 500 and 750 copies (which is pretty much what a lot of the 3rd party publishers are seeing). This means he now has approximately 1/2 to 3/4 of that initial run taking up warehouse space while backlist orders of the title after the 30 days drop to 100 or so per month (and even less as time progresses). So if the retailer isn't aware that he is out of stock of Grim Tales or has chosen not to reorder it (because he wants to use his budget for 'new' releases), then Wulf isn't making any more money from that title which leads to smaller revenue returns and less money to invest in his highly awaited next project, Heroes of High Favor Anthology. Less money means he has to use more of his personal finances from his saving account to pay for the development of the book, which puts him farther into the red when that book is released and does the same or poorer in terms of overall revenue. See the nasty cycle we have going here?
What can be done about it? Obviously, game store owners cannot stock one of everything unless they are willing to throw their money away. The smarter ones are already making changes, but not necessarily in the right direction completely. We've already heard (and I've even said) that some of these owners are only ordering from specific publishers for stock and special ordering the rest. Why are they ordering only certain publishers? Because those are the ones that sell in the store and may not always represent the cream of the crop in d20 publishing. Some of them are producing 'shovelware', but if it sells then the store owner will keep supporting that publisher. Want to see something from a different publisher carried by your FLGS, such as Wulf's or Joe's books? Then it is up to you, the educated gamer, to make an effective attempt at educating the store owner as to why he should stock this book. It is an uphill (and often losing) battle in most circumstances, but it may make a difference, especially if you have support by getting five of your friends to special order that book from him.
Ah, but the keyword here is "responsible". Distributors, quite frankly, cannot be relied upon to be responsible as far as turning away the crap product. They will sell it into the retail chain just as readily as a Wotc product because they are going to make their money off of it regardless. This leaves the reatiler to act as the 'shovelware' filter. As Wulf has already said (which I agree with soundly), game shop owners tend to fall into three camps: the hobbyist, the business professional, and the one who can properly balance both and make money. Of the three, only the last has the tools necessary to make informed decisions regarding which products to stock and which to avoid. Unfortunately, 90%+ of game shop owners are the hobbyist type who bought heavily into the initial 3.0 launch and still have those same books collecting dust because they won't accept any sale of less than full retail price for them. So when Mr. Hobbyist Gamer gets his Games Quarterly and starts making out his order sheet, he sees all of the new d20 stuff there from new and established publishers and orders Wotc plus one or two others because that is all he can afford that week in his games budget after ordering Heroclix and Magic, which sell.RyanD said:
Long shelf life but not long sales life. Another legitimate issue that has affected the success of publishers is backlist (or older title) sales. How many times have you gone into your FLGS to buy a book, been told that only one was ordered and it sold and never see a reorder of that title again? As of right now, the average sell through or shelf life sales cycle of a d20 product is down to 30 days. This means that a publisher will see 90% of his orders in the first 30 days. After that point, the numbers drop drastically and sometimes stop completely. This is because of two simple reasons, either the retailer has the product and it isn't selling or he has sold the product and not ordered another.die_kluge said:
What does this mean to the publisher? Let's say Wulf (just to pick on him) printed 1500 copies of Grim Tales (great book by the way) and his initial preorders and 30 day sales totaled between 500 and 750 copies (which is pretty much what a lot of the 3rd party publishers are seeing). This means he now has approximately 1/2 to 3/4 of that initial run taking up warehouse space while backlist orders of the title after the 30 days drop to 100 or so per month (and even less as time progresses). So if the retailer isn't aware that he is out of stock of Grim Tales or has chosen not to reorder it (because he wants to use his budget for 'new' releases), then Wulf isn't making any more money from that title which leads to smaller revenue returns and less money to invest in his highly awaited next project, Heroes of High Favor Anthology. Less money means he has to use more of his personal finances from his saving account to pay for the development of the book, which puts him farther into the red when that book is released and does the same or poorer in terms of overall revenue. See the nasty cycle we have going here?
What can be done about it? Obviously, game store owners cannot stock one of everything unless they are willing to throw their money away. The smarter ones are already making changes, but not necessarily in the right direction completely. We've already heard (and I've even said) that some of these owners are only ordering from specific publishers for stock and special ordering the rest. Why are they ordering only certain publishers? Because those are the ones that sell in the store and may not always represent the cream of the crop in d20 publishing. Some of them are producing 'shovelware', but if it sells then the store owner will keep supporting that publisher. Want to see something from a different publisher carried by your FLGS, such as Wulf's or Joe's books? Then it is up to you, the educated gamer, to make an effective attempt at educating the store owner as to why he should stock this book. It is an uphill (and often losing) battle in most circumstances, but it may make a difference, especially if you have support by getting five of your friends to special order that book from him.
