EN World GameStore - To answer some publisher questions...

[Twin Rose]

No, its a high fee up front I shouldn't have to pay, particularly when the storefront reserves the right to change and/or cancel my ability to use the storefront at any time (unless that user agreement has been changed over the last week). Perhaps later when all the promised features are explained my opinion would change. But they don't exist yet. Until then, it's just an arbitrary fee.

Yes, a change in the Agreement is being worked on, and consulted with a lawyer. The clause in question was supposed to be a shield against any situation we couldn't possibly foresee. Say, someone who continually finds loopholes in the contract to abuse, or when the affiliate program is in place, finds ways to bypass the referrers earnings. The changes will be beneficial to everyone, of course.

I'm comitted to the full-time support and service of the ENGS, and I believe our track record with customers and publishers will show that we are working hard for them. If someone has a problem, we do everything in our power to help them, in real time. If you can find somewhere with a lower comission rate, and cheaper services above and beyond the activation cost, by all means, don't give us another thought. If, on the other hand, you find yourself with more than 5 or 6 free products.... Paying additional money for bandwidth to host your free downloads... Finding a lack of service... Paying out more in comission than you realized you would be... Look to us again.

 

[Bardsandsages]

Yes, a change in the Agreement is being worked on, and consulted with a lawyer. The clause in question was supposed to be a shield against any situation we couldn't possibly foresee. Say, someone who continually finds loopholes in the contract to abuse, or when the affiliate program is in place, finds ways to bypass the referrers earnings. The changes will be beneficial to everyone, of course.

I'm comitted to the full-time support and service of the ENGS, and I believe our track record with customers and publishers will show that we are working hard for them. If someone has a problem, we do everything in our power to help them, in real time. If you can find somewhere with a lower comission rate, and cheaper services above and beyond the activation cost, by all means, don't give us another thought. If, on the other hand, you find yourself with more than 5 or 6 free products.... Paying additional money for bandwidth to host your free downloads... Finding a lack of service... Paying out more in comission than you realized you would be... Look to us again.

So as to provide some context for my complaints and not just come across as a witch (Happy Friday before Halloween, BTW)

Well, right now with RPGNow, I paid $50 set-up, 30% comm, but I get free MOTD, free sending of comp copies, free sending of e-mails, free revision service, a review process BEFORE my product goes live to insure it meets standards, POD servive, a press release system, button exchange, newsletter coupons and promotion, a new cross-vendor promotional tool, an affliate program, etc, etc.

Digital Book Booth had no set-up fee. 25% commission, free complimentary copies, free sending e-mails, review process BEFORE products go live, free revision system, special sales in which DBB eats the cost of the discount.

I've also worked with two non-RPG e-sellers. Neither has a set up fee, 30% comm, ability to offer coupons, newsletter promotion, POD service. The only reason I stopped using them for fiction was that they mostly catered to romance and self-help ebooks and my book didn't fit the market.

So while 20% comm is in fact lower, it is a nominal difference when with the exception of one product all my PDFs are under $5. The $99 fee is for the promise of a lot of services, which according to the user agreement will most likely have fees attached to them anyway, making the big selling feature of 20% comm a mute point.

 

[TheLe]

a review process BEFORE my product goes live to insure it meets standards

For the record, I find that particular feature to be a huge hinderence. While I understand the need to have standards, this has caused me quite a number of hassles. At least a dozen of my books were submitted, only to have it in queue for days at a time. Two of my books took a week to get approved. This constantly happens, because the reviewer was not around to approve it (once was due to an emergency, so I understand, but why they don't have a second person as backup I will never know).

Worst of all, they never actually *tell* you when the product is approved (which immediately activates it). So I am constantly refreshing my rpgnow page every hour to see if it is there. This screws up my press release schedules, coupon schedules, and everything else (to me, nothing is more insulting than sending a coupon to people who already purchased the book).

Someone once said to me that I should not expect things to be timed so closely, and that I was a fool for planning such things that way. That pissed me off. My Headless Horseman book was released last week, plenty of time for Halloween. If it were to have taken them a week to activate it (which has happened before), I would have been pissed.

So yes there is a positive side to having quality standards, but having a 1-week wait for activation blows. Activation within 24 hours is what I would expect, which happens about 75% of the time... but not getting any notification just adds salt to the wound.

[imager]http://www.thele.com/thelegames/images/tn/SuMonsters_HeadlessHorseman_tn200w.jpg[/imager]There are many publisher features I love about the ENworld GameStore. Of those, "instant activation" is by far my favorite. I released my Headless Horseman book last wednesday on the fly here on Enworld. Activation was immediate and painless.

I released it a few minutes later to Rpgnow... but had to wait a day for them to activate it.

~Le

 

[Bardsandsages]

For the record, I find that particular feature to be a huge hinderence. While I understand the need to have standards, this has caused me quite a number of hassles. At least a dozen of my books were submitted, only to have it in queue for days at a time. Two of my books took a week to get approved. This constantly happens, because the reviewer was not around to approve it (once was due to an emergency, so I understand, but why they don't have a second person as backup I will never know).

Worst of all, they never actually *tell* you when the product is approved (which immediately activates it). So I am constantly refreshing my rpgnow page every hour to see if it is there. This screws up my press release schedules, coupon schedules, and everything else (to me, nothing is more insulting than sending a coupon to people who already purchased the book).

Someone once said to me that I should not expect things to be timed so closely, and that I was a fool for planning such things that way. That pissed me off. My Headless Horseman book was released last week, plenty of time for Halloween. If it were to have taken them a week to activate it (which has happened before), I would have been pissed.

So yes there is a positive side to having quality standards, but having a 1-week wait for activation blows. Activation within 24 hours is what I would expect, which happens about 75% of the time... but not getting any notification just adds salt to the wound.

~Le

I totally understand the convenience of not having a review process for publishers. But considering that some of the big publishers get their panties in a knot over "amateur" product being on the same site as them, and considering how customers complain about too much "amateur" material, it is in the best interest of all publishers and the store to make sure a product at least meets a certain set of standards before going live. The $99 fee will NOT deter hacks (as has already been addressed in another thread). The instant activation without review can, in fact, INCREASE the amount of poor product and flood the storefront. And this could hurt business, particularly when the store is claiming it wants to bring in new PDF buyers, not jusy siphon off existing ones from other stores. This is my primary concern. Taking it down after it has already been purchased, and complained about, by multiple consumers is too little, too late.

 

[Morrus]

I have to say that I see it as a bonus, too, not a negative thing. Horses for courses, and all that, I s'pose.

 

[TheLe]

I totally understand the convenience of not having a review process for publishers. But considering that some of the big publishers get their panties in a knot over "amateur" product being on the same site as them, and considering how customers complain about too much "amateur" material, it is in the best interest of all publishers and the store to make sure a product at least meets a certain set of standards before going live.

The big publishers shout for standards because they don't want competition eating their sale$. The big publishers put out crap products too you know, so that argument does not fly. Retailers will look away at these big publishers because they bring in the money. so don't think for a moment that big publishers are better than the rest, because they are not.

Rpgnow does not truly review for standards. They may say they do, but take a good look at the products. Go buy some. Have you any idea how much stuff out there is total crap?

They review for things like broken images within the pdf or making sure the cover image is the right size -- not if the cover image looks like crap or not. Heck, most products on Rpgnow are now cover-less.

So when you read that places have a "review" policy, don't read too heavily into it. There are plenty of products that pass this litmus test and still get 1-star reviews, look like total crap, have a high number of errors, or any combination of the above.

My original arguement stands. For me, having instant product activation is the best feature of the Enworld Gamestore. And this should be one of the best selling points to all publishers out there.


~Le

 

[GMSkarka]

Rpgnow does not truly review for standards.

You are mistaken.

 

[Vascant]

Now I read all this very differently and in some ways agree with both of you...

I do not see RPGNow's review policy as if they read the material more of a, this isn't fake or full of porn but has nothing to do with quality of the product. I can see the need for a new publisher to go thru this.

Now, after the publisher has say released a certain number of things, the odds of them turning around and releasing something it does not claim to be lessen to the point where it this pause only hurts the publisher and does not assist anyone. It should be removed at this point and the publisher should be able to create "Instant Releases"

Allowing Instant Release to just anyone, it isn't a matter of IF someone does it, just WHEN. If you have any doubt, see any of Man-Thing's posts lately. Any educated person seen that coming.

This is where ENGS will do some good things that DTRPG did not, since both RPGNow and ENGS offer very close business models, it will come down to who evolves and changes to meet the customers and their desires/needs. I think we will go thru a few hard months as both learn to listen and understand those desires and needs.

 

[TheLe]

For the record, my comments do not represent rpgnow in any capcity. I do not know what their official policy is on "reviews", and officially it may be different than what I stated. My comments are opinions based on my experiences as a vendor.

I hold no ill-will against rpgnow; I am simply using my experiences and thoughts as arguements for my case.

That being said, I love instant product activation.

~Le

 

[BrooklynKnight]

You are mistaken.

Hold on there buddy. An "opinion" cannot be "mistaken" or wrong.

I certainly read his post as an opinion and not a statement of fact. Instead of a one line reply to his "opinionated accusation" (i guess thats what it is) how about explaining what exactly the review process is and why it takes so long.