Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fiery James" data-source="post: 79126" data-attributes="member: 625">Hello, my name is Fiery James.  You may remember me from such d20 hits as, “There’s Too Much Treasure in that Dungeon Crawl!”, or “The Ogre Mage Could Do Better on His Own!”.Since I’ve been fairly caustic lately, and mostly because I’m glad to see people finally complementing Piratecat on his excellent adventure, I’ve decided to interview myself to answer many of the questions about Fiery Dragon that my self-centeredness makes me assume you all have. Fiery James: What’s with all the humor-laden rage behind the Of Sound Mind thread, buddy?  Why do you feel like you’ve got to stir it up? James: Well, it’s not rage, really.  I just think Kevin – uh, Piratecat to you – did a really great job and deserves to see lots of threads about his adventure every time he logs on.  I guess I just get frustrated seeing endless discussion of “this sucks” and “this sucks more” and only occasionally do I see a thread that says “5/5 Great Job!”  It’s not that big a deal, really.  The only other thing that gets frustrating is when I’m spending almost as much on postage for review copies as we did on the cover, and don’t see any reviews! FJ: Well, I did see that Psion apologized for that. J: Oh, Psion’s not the one that I was directing that comment at – no one at EN World, really.  I know Psion’s got a pile of stuff on the go, and I know that he WILL write the review eventually, so I certainly don't have a problem with him.  It’s some other places… no one specific… it’s just that I see more reviews by people that BOUGHT products than received for free….  I just wanna see Kev – Piratecat – get the respect he deserves. FJ: Really?  That seems awfully nice. J: No, not really.  I just want people to buy the thing.  I’m hoping that frequent posts about how great it is will motivate some to go out and see what the fuss is. FJ: Does the current d20 market require these tactics?  Do you feel that Fiery Dragon isn’t selling their fair share? J: Oh, in the scheme of things, we’re doing very well – better than most, actually!  But, my feeling is that right now, there are just too many people splitting the pie. FJ: So, you think there are too many d20 publishers? J: Oh, no – not at all.  I just think that there are too many publishers competing in the PRINT market when many of them would probably do better selling via the PDF route.  I know the kind of numbers that I’m moving – and that’s with White Wolf’s distribution system and sales team, a recognizable brand (Sword & Sorcery), and frequent ads in trade magazines.  Publishers that are selling half or a quarter of what I am may do better to decrease their sales by 90% but remove the cost associated with printing their product.  Also, I think the low barrier to entry is allowing many companies to immediately jump into the print arena, where it might have been wise to test out stuff in PDF form first – of course, I’m just re-hashing what Ryan Dancey said in his chat with Morrus. FJ: So how many publishers do YOU think should be in the print market? J: One. (laughs)  Seriously, I think there’s room for 5 or 6 solid publishers, easily.  Not including WotC. FJ: And which 5 or 6 would those be? J: Oh, that’s not for me to decide.  I think the market is going to decided that on its own.  Eventually some companies are just going to decide that the joy of seeing your name on the Amazon website just isn’t worth a $2000 print bill and 900 hours of work.  Hey – it could be us in a few years, who am I to say?  But, knowing what we’re like, we’ll move to PDF-press before that happens.  FJ: So you’re not going to stir up trouble by naming any names, are you? J: No.  But, realistically, I think it’s safe to say that Atlas and Green Ronin certainly deserve to keep on chugging.  And, I think my friends under the Sword & Sorcery umbrella have got the right stuff.  Really, I like most of what’s come out and I don’t want anyone to fail or be kicked out, but I think, with some re-thinking, everyone could find their niche and do even better.</blockquote>

Verification