D20 Fantasy slow down...?

[malladin]

I have recently been corresponding with a print publisher who says that the D20 fantasy market is slowing down at the mo. Personally I've not noticed this in the pdf market, so...

I just wanted to ask any other print publishers if they'd noticed any reduction in sales of fantasy D20 recently, and what plans they have for responding to the trend.

Cheerio,

Ben, Malladin's Gate

 

[Strutinan]

Drop in sales? Can't say as I have. Every book I sell does around 100 copies in two months, then peters off as most people who want it have it. That's the problem with specializing in a niche market

I guess that's also the benefit. "Mr. Suitcase" doesn't have as much cash as he used to for game books, he buys less game books. Niche fans find a publisher they like, and stick with it.

Still though, I've got plans to diversify into other niches and even general-application books. I figure I got plenty of ideas, so why not use them?

In the end I think it comes down to a combination of factors. Slowly declining economy. Lack of any broadly-appealing quality products recently. Maybe even a few others, who knows.

 

[malladin]

Drop in sales? Can't say as I have.

I've not either. I don't think the PDF market seems to be suffering from this problem. I was just wondering what print publishers thoughts were...

cheerio,

Ben

 

[Krug]

I noticed that there seems to be less new d20 publishers coming to the market, particularly for fantasy. Maybe it's a sign of the market maturing...

 

[Cergorach]

Maybe it's a sign of the market maturing...

I bloody well hope so!

I also hope that we don't get a v.3.5 glut of v.3.0 converted material. Also the maturation of some established publishers would be nice...

 

[d20books]

From a retailer

I'm not showing any slow-down of sales.

I'm getting more questions about products as people try to spend their money more wisely.

While some customers have cut back from $200 orders to $70 orders, I'm getting a bunch more people looking for non-WotC products to spend their money on. I have new customers that are making up for the loss of the "whales".

Maybe the situation is that the people that tally up the sales are talking to big publishers and distributors instead of the small publishers. I can see how the big publishers might be seeing a slowdown but I'm selling more and more small publisher books.

 

[Nellisir]

I'm not showing any slow-down of sales.

I'm getting more questions about products as people try to spend their money more wisely.

Speaking for myself, I've switched to a FLGS that gives a 30% discount on preordered, prepaid books -- it's a big incentive to careful budgetting and planning...so yes, I'm doing less impulse buying and trying to spending my money wisely.

Cheers
Nell.