Dragon Roots Pricing

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

So I found a link to http://www.dragonroots.net/index.htm in the sigs of an author contributing to issue 0 and I found some pricing confusion.

SHIPPING COSTS AND ORDERING INFO
The magazine is $7.95 an issue or a 4 issue subscription, including the Premiere issue as the first issue, for $25 plus shipping for each issue.

As best as I can tell, the magazine costs $7.95 for 1 issue, but customers have the option to buy a 4-issue subscription for the same price, $7.95. Shipping however, is $25 an issue. Math is not my forte, but it seems to break down as follows:

1 issue: $7.95 + $25 = $32.95
4 issues: $7.95 + ($25)x4 = $107.95

Honestly, neither sounds like a great deal to me.

Yes, I know I'm being a smart-alec, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only ENWorlder to whom editing is important, and I personally feel like, with writings about D&D it is particularly important to attend to making simple mathematical formulae clear. If this is what their website looks like, I'm not feeling encouraged to buy at any price, much less at $26.99 an issue.

 

[Arkhandus]

Hm, I didn't get a first impression that it meant 25 per issue, though it is a bit poorly worded. $25 for the subscription, plus whatever shipping costs, is how I read it first, and I'm sure that's what they meant.......right?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

speaking of misunderstandings: I thought this thread would be rather different in tone and content. But that's cos I'm Australian.

 

[lrsach01]

Here is the notice I recieved:
SHIPPING COSTS AND ORDERING INFO
The magazine is $7.95 an issue or a 4 issue subscription, including the Premiere issue as the first
issue, for $25 plus shipping for each issue.
Shipping to:
USA standard envelope $4.00
USA Padded envelope (much sturdier envelope)$5.00
Canada & Mexico Padded envelope (much sturdier envelope)$6.50
Anywhere else in the world $11.00
Note: if you are paying for a 4 issue subscription multiply shipping costs by 4.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
There are two methods of payment available as of now:
1) You can log into your PayPal account and send a payment to dragonroots@comcast.net. Please
be sure to be very clear on which method of shipping you prefer and if it is for a single issue or a 4
issue subscription. Also, please be sure to include your full name and shipping address.
2) You can send a check (made out to Christopher Rocco)or money order to: Dragon Roots c/o
Rocco, 311 Winifred Street East, St. Paul, MN 55107. Again, please be very clear as to which
method of shipping you prefer and if it is for a single issue or a 4 issue subscription. Also, please
be sure to include your full name and shipping address.
ADD A PDF VERSION FOR A SMALL FEE
If you would like a copy of the magazine in pdf format, you can purchase a copy for download for $2 with the purchase of a magazine. If you purchase a 4 issue subscription you can purchase a downloadable pdf of each issue for a total of $5 for all 4 issues. You can purchase a downloadable copy of the issue in pdf format, without buying the magazine, for $8. Add $3 for a hard copy of the magazine in pdf format to be mailed with your order.

The $25 is the total for a 4 issue subscription THEN you get the shipping added on top. The shipping for each issue is $4-$5 (depending on the type of envelope). Final tally?
$6.25 per issue + $4.00 shipping (cheapest option) = $10.25
That compares to $11.95 for individual issues.

The really sad part is the $8 for a pdf. It costs MORE for the pdf! Yeah, at this price point, I'll keep up with my Kobold Quarterly and put a wait and see on Dragonroot.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Yeah, my biggest problem here is not the price, whatever it may be, but that there is a question at all about such a small thing. I don't want to malign the magazine, its content, authors, or publishers. We know that the hobby needs growth where it can get it, but, um, I find it disheartening that such a simple thing as pricing should be an issue in a gaming magazine.

 

[tenkar]

Yeah, my biggest problem here is not the price, whatever it may be, but that there is a question at all about such a small thing. I don't want to malign the magazine, its content, authors, or publishers. We know that the hobby needs growth where it can get it, but, um, I find it disheartening that such a simple thing as pricing should be an issue in a gaming magazine.

Pricing is important if you have a limited spending budget... for many in our hobby their gaming budget is already allocated and possibly even stretched as is. $10.25 for an issue of a magazine is no small thing.

Could I afford it? Definitely. Can I justify the price sight unseen without knowing the page count? No. Do I need another gaming magazine at this moment. Probably not, but that hasn't stopped me in the past.

If the PDF price was in the $4 to $5 dollar range I'd been signed up already. It isn't, so I will wait and see.

 

[DM-Rocco]

So I found a link to http://www.dragonroots.net/index.htm in the sigs of an author contributing to issue 0 and I found some pricing confusion.As best as I can tell, the magazine costs $7.95 for 1 issue, but customers have the option to buy a 4-issue subscription for the same price, $7.95. Shipping however, is $25 an issue. Math is not my forte, but it seems to break down as follows:

1 issue: $7.95 + $25 = $32.95
4 issues: $7.95 + ($25)x4 = $107.95

Honestly, neither sounds like a great deal to me.

Yes, I know I'm being a smart-alec, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only ENWorlder to whom editing is important, and I personally feel like, with writings about D&D it is particularly important to attend to making simple mathematical formulae clear. If this is what their website looks like, I'm not feeling encouraged to buy at any price, much less at $26.99 an issue.

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Rocco and I am the Editor in Chief of Dragon Roots Magazine.

It seemed clear to me when I wrote it, but since you have some confusion, let me clear it up.

1 issue cost is $7.95
4 issue subscription cost is $25
On top of that, add in shipping. Say you live in the USA and want 1 issue, add $4. If you live in the USA and want a 4 issue subscription, add in $16, $4 for each issue.

Thus your total cost would be, if living in the USA, $11.95 for a single issue or $41 for a 4 issue subscription. With a 4 issue subscription you basically save $6.80 by ordering 4 issues versus 1.

Is that more clear?

 

[DM-Rocco]

Here is the notice I recieved:
SHIPPING COSTS AND ORDERING INFO
The magazine is $7.95 an issue or a 4 issue subscription, including the Premiere issue as the first
issue, for $25 plus shipping for each issue.
Shipping to:
USA standard envelope $4.00
USA Padded envelope (much sturdier envelope)$5.00
Canada & Mexico Padded envelope (much sturdier envelope)$6.50
Anywhere else in the world $11.00
Note: if you are paying for a 4 issue subscription multiply shipping costs by 4.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
There are two methods of payment available as of now:
1) You can log into your PayPal account and send a payment to dragonroots@comcast.net. Please
be sure to be very clear on which method of shipping you prefer and if it is for a single issue or a 4
issue subscription. Also, please be sure to include your full name and shipping address.
2) You can send a check (made out to Christopher Rocco)or money order to: Dragon Roots c/o
Rocco, 311 Winifred Street East, St. Paul, MN 55107. Again, please be very clear as to which
method of shipping you prefer and if it is for a single issue or a 4 issue subscription. Also, please
be sure to include your full name and shipping address.
ADD A PDF VERSION FOR A SMALL FEE
If you would like a copy of the magazine in pdf format, you can purchase a copy for download for $2 with the purchase of a magazine. If you purchase a 4 issue subscription you can purchase a downloadable pdf of each issue for a total of $5 for all 4 issues. You can purchase a downloadable copy of the issue in pdf format, without buying the magazine, for $8. Add $3 for a hard copy of the magazine in pdf format to be mailed with your order.

The $25 is the total for a 4 issue subscription THEN you get the shipping added on top. The shipping for each issue is $4-$5 (depending on the type of envelope). Final tally?
$6.25 per issue + $4.00 shipping (cheapest option) = $10.25
That compares to $11.95 for individual issues.

The really sad part is the $8 for a pdf. It costs MORE for the pdf! Yeah, at this price point, I'll keep up with my Kobold Quarterly and put a wait and see on Dragonroot.

I understand your concern and it is really my intent to charge as little as I can for the pdf version. As I have to FTTP the PDF to send it manually, I have to ask for something to get it ready to send. If you order the magazine, you can buy the PDF for $2, that is pretty cheap. The extra $3 for a hard disk copy is to cover burning expenses and added weight for shipping.

It only costs more if you don't order a magazine. I am new to publishing PDFs, so maybe I am asking for a high price for PDFs. I realize that the price of shipping overseas also makes it hard to buy the magazine when you are paying $19 for the magazine and shipping and handling.

The cost of the magazine is $7.95, so yes, you are going to pay 5 cents more for a PDF. Let me think about it over night and perhaps I will come down to $5 or $6.

Fair enough?

 

[DM-Rocco]

Yeah, my biggest problem here is not the price, whatever it may be, but that there is a question at all about such a small thing. I don't want to malign the magazine, its content, authors, or publishers. We know that the hobby needs growth where it can get it, but, um, I find it disheartening that such a simple thing as pricing should be an issue in a gaming magazine.

Just so you know, I am not a regular gaming company. I am a one man show still learning the ropes on what works and what doesn't when it comes to printing.

I started Dragon Roots because WOTC took away Dragon and Dungeon in a paper format. A magazine isn't a magazine unless you can take it with you anywhere you want.

As a one man show, with a few authors willing to work for free to help get off the ground, money is very tight. I was lucky that Wolfgang, from Kobold Quarterly, answered many questions for me and gave some great advice. Some of which, like buy the best writers you can and pay for the best art you can, I couldn't take because I didn't have thousands of dollars to pay out for such things.

Does that mean Dragon Roots sucks? Well, you will have to be the judge, if I learned one thing on ENWorld, I had better not tell you what you are thinking.

I can say that my good friend Todd F. Jerde did all of the art for free, he and I went to art school so he did it out of friendship. You can check out more of his work here: http://www.imagusdigitalfineart.com/welcome

I had Mark Manders volunteers to do all the maps and even Ravencrowking, from ENWorld fame, wrote an article.

I hope many others will want to write for the magazine and make it a success.

So, the short of it is, money doesn't grow on trees so I can't print it for free, thus money is no small thing. However, I will look into reducing the pdf price. As I said, I am new to that pricing, and perhaps it is a bit high. I'm reasonable, for the most part.

Er, that is if you don't count my past threads against me

Pricing is important if you have a limited spending budget... for many in our hobby their gaming budget is already allocated and possibly even stretched as is. $10.25 for an issue of a magazine is no small thing.

Could I afford it? Definitely. Can I justify the price sight unseen without knowing the page count? No. Do I need another gaming magazine at this moment. Probably not, but that hasn't stopped me in the past.

If the PDF price was in the $4 to $5 dollar range I'd been signed up already. It isn't, so I will wait and see.

The content information has been around for a while. It is a perfect bound magazine, 70 pages, full color cover and interior cover with B&B for the rest. The featured articles are listed on the website at www.dragonroots.net, you will have to scroll down on the main page to find them. Each article has a sample about the article and the writing style of the author.

Hope that helps.

 

[kenmarable]

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Rocco and I am the Editor in Chief of Dragon Roots Magazine.

It seemed clear to me when I wrote it, but since you have some confusion, let me clear it up.

1 issue cost is $7.95
4 issue subscription cost is $25
On top of that, add in shipping. Say you live in the USA and want 1 issue, add $4. If you live in the USA and want a 4 issue subscription, add in $16, $4 for each issue.

Thus your total cost would be, if living in the USA, $11.95 for a single issue or $36 for a 4 issue subscription. With a 4 issue subscription you basically save $6.80 by ordering 4 issues versus 1.

Is that more clear?

Seemed clear to me the first time. Not sure how you could interpret it to be $8 for 1 or 4 issues (I get to pick? Well, I'll go for all 4!), but $25 shipping for each (I better expect it sitting on the doorstep when I wake up tomorrow morning).

I suppose you could have worded it:

The magazine is $7.95 an issue plus shipping or $25 for a 4 issue subscription plus shipping. Subscriptions would start with the Premiere issue.

The "plus shipping" is awful repetitive, but when you're trying to be informational, it's ok. Or, I'm obviously not afraid of parentheticals, so you could throw it in that way with (plus shipping) or even (+sh). But, really I'm not sure even how it could be confusing unless people think you are just trying to drum up business for FedEx at your own expense.

Best of luck with the new endeavor. Now that you get to wear the publisher hat, as you can see here, the fun ride begins!