Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Does it pay to publish?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Arnix" data-source="post: 1688747" data-attributes="member: 5521"><p>I won't get into specific numbers, but I haven't quit my dayjob selling pdf's. </p><p></p><p>I would be suprised to see more than a handfull of pdf sellers make 35k profit per year. I have seen the prices on pdf sales, I have checked on costs for art, layout, writers, RPGNow's cut, etc and it would take a LOT of pdf sales to bring that number in.</p><p></p><p>Assume $5 pdf. That is 7000 pdf's before any expenses. Figure $300 for art (that isn't much) which adds another 60 copies. Figure $200 for a writer, also cheap for a decent sized book, which is another 40 copies. Add 25% to the number sold because most vendors that I know are gold members. So, 7100 * 1.25 = 8875 copies. We still haven't figured the cost of layout or any expenses for equipment or software.</p><p></p><p>When you start looking at $2 pdfs, the writer costs go away since the author is usually the publisher, and the art is usually minimal so it is negligible. Lets look at $35,000 @ $2 per copy that comes to 17,500 copies * 1.25 for RPGNow's cut and we are looking at 21,875 copies. Still no cost in there for hardware/software, incusrance, etc.</p><p></p><p>Either of those number would probably put you at the #1 spot for products sold.</p><p></p><p>As I said, I still have my day job.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arnix, post: 1688747, member: 5521"] I won't get into specific numbers, but I haven't quit my dayjob selling pdf's. I would be suprised to see more than a handfull of pdf sellers make 35k profit per year. I have seen the prices on pdf sales, I have checked on costs for art, layout, writers, RPGNow's cut, etc and it would take a LOT of pdf sales to bring that number in. Assume $5 pdf. That is 7000 pdf's before any expenses. Figure $300 for art (that isn't much) which adds another 60 copies. Figure $200 for a writer, also cheap for a decent sized book, which is another 40 copies. Add 25% to the number sold because most vendors that I know are gold members. So, 7100 * 1.25 = 8875 copies. We still haven't figured the cost of layout or any expenses for equipment or software. When you start looking at $2 pdfs, the writer costs go away since the author is usually the publisher, and the art is usually minimal so it is negligible. Lets look at $35,000 @ $2 per copy that comes to 17,500 copies * 1.25 for RPGNow's cut and we are looking at 21,875 copies. Still no cost in there for hardware/software, incusrance, etc. Either of those number would probably put you at the #1 spot for products sold. As I said, I still have my day job. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Does it pay to publish?
Top