Enlightened Title: PDF Margins must be higher due to the smaller audience.

[Flyspeck23]

One thing should be considered when comparing prices between PDFs and print books: how usable they are.

While a PDF means more work and costs for you (printing), it's superior to a print product in some regards. As already mentioned, they're searchable. Furthermore, you can print out single pages - maps, NPC and monster stats, handouts for your players, ... that's a huge benefit (even more for adventures than sourcebooks, IMHO).
Normally I'd be willing to pay extra for any special feature I'll likely use. Not so with PDFs... and that's a little strange.

Btw, one cost factor for PDFs is the $5 minimum purchase at RPGNow. But I won't go as far as to say that PDFs are overpriced because of it. It's more like nobody will have the guts to publish a 12-page PDF and still charge $5 for it - they'd increase content first. Or offer it for less than $5, but that's risky (as I'm told).

(Disclaimer: I'm not going to publish any adventures soon )

 

[Tom Cashel]

I am not considering the costs of layout, art, and so on, because assumably PDF publishers have those expenses as well.

...so by all means educate me...

It's presumably. "Assumably" is not a word.

Poof! You're educated.

 

[pogre]

It's presumably. "Assumably" is not a word.

Poof! You're educated.

Ah, thanks Tom! Adding meaningfully to the discourse once again I see.

Thanks for the correction in any case. It's a mistake I often make.

BTW - assumably is a word, and one I employed incorrectly.

 

[tensen]

It's presumably. "Assumably" is not a word.

Poof! You're educated.

Actually assumably is a word. It means basically the same thing as presumably. But it does indeed exist.

And so he gets the 2 cents worth.

A way to look at PDFs is to consider maybe the top 10 if even that, have equated to sales equivalent to a low selling print product.

Now, look at the fact that there are somewhere over 2000 products on rpgnow.
That is like .5% of products reaching the top 10.
Not a very good percentage.

 

[The Sigil]

The simple answer...

It's already been discussed in more detail, but the short, simple answer is, "economies of scale." PDF sales are usually at least an order of magnitude smaller than print sales, and often closer to two orders of magnitude smaller (with Malhavoc Press possibly being the exception that proves the rule).

That, and the $5 minimum purchase at RPGNow.com, are the two main contributing factors.

Probably in that order. The reasons have been discussed to death here, but I'll just re-iterate them.

--The Sigil

 

[Janx]

So I'm considering starting my own ePublishing venture, and to sum up my research:

not likely to get rich
low volume of sale typical (less than 80)
no print costs
similar development/art costs

Is it no wonder that many consider PDFs to be of lower quality. If I could expect to only sell 80, at $5 a piece, I'll only make $400. I don't dare spend more than that on producing it in terms of labor and art. The more time I spend on it, the more it costs me. No wonder philreed says he spends no more than $200 on a product.

Letting RPGnow sell my product would drain 25% of that $400, leaving me $300. I might have $100 worth of art in it, if I get it cheap (cover, plus a few pics scattered throughout).

Or as someone else estimated,it costs a company about $2000 to do a book (excluding printing). At 80 sales, I need to charge $25 a piece to break even. I think that explains why you don't see print-quality PDFs. There is a price point where consumers won't pay for something intangible. It seems like $15 might be the top limit.

Janx

 

[Fast Learner]

There is a price point where consumers won't pay for something intangible. It seems like $15 might be the top limit.

Well... I think that limit is simply based on current market perception and has nothing to do with tangibility. People very regularly spend $50 on incredibly intangible videogames, many of which only provide 5 or 6 hours of play (for good players).

 

[V_Shane]

Also "open window of exposure" on RPGnow is minimal. And really really fast turnaround time to boot. About June this year, I was able to see most of the Arcanes I put up last about a week (7 days) and as long as they were on the front page with a graphic (as most publishers already know) there were sales.
Literally as soon as they left the front page...zzziiippppp..nothing.

Now just a week ago I had put up my TTF series of runes. In less than 3 days, every single one (of 4) were off the front page. I'm lost for how to advertise further. I send out the reviews,mailings,posts here, and news releases. But that has little impact. Banners on sites don't seem to do jak.

A year ago with Heathen Oracle we had put out an adventure weighing in at 15mb for $6 I think. But we made sure it had usefullness beyond the adventure itself with art that was seperate from the text, that had scenes for the players as well as characters etc... that could be used for other adventures as well. Didn't make much of a difference in sales, people really don't buy adventures. Even when I did, I mainly canabalised them for other adventures. But onto the same note, no profit was made on it (Bane of the Salt Fen Lich), lots of good reviews (mostly for the eye candy and versatility), but with time effort and skill, we barely broke even. Yeah this is definatley a field "do it as you love it", all my profits come from Book & novel clients

 

[pogre]

. A year ago with Heathen Oracle we had put out an adventure weighing in at 15mb for $6 I think. But we made sure it had usefullness beyond the adventure itself with art that was seperate from the text, that had scenes for the players as well as characters etc... that could be used for other adventures as well. Didn't make much of a difference in sales, people really don't buy adventures. Even when I did, I mainly canabalised them for other adventures. But onto the same note, no profit was made on it (Bane of the Salt Fen Lich), lots of good reviews (mostly for the eye candy and versatility), but with time effort and skill, we barely broke even. Yeah this is definatley a field "do it as you love it", all my profits come from Book & novel clients

Well, I buy adventures and I will definitely check that 15 mb adventure out. That sounds perfect for me!

 

[johnsemlak]

Pssst! Pogre, there are lots of free adventures available for download on teh internet. Very good souce of cheap adventures.