? For PDF Publishers

[Morrus]

Morrus is the only one who replied with the answer I was looking for. He pushes his product. He sells his product.

Have I passed some sort of test? Do I get a prize?

 

[Rawhide]

My guess is that if you;re in the top 50 or so producers on rpgnow, reviews make no difference. You already have enough of a following (and your new products automatically act as portals to your back catalog) that a review doesn't really expose you to a new customer.

People below the top 50 (or so -- I'm guessing a the break-point) don't have a following yet and thus get a big bounce when they get a review.

Actually, I guess the bounce may exist for both. But Phil Reed and GMS are selling enough copies that the bounce looks small or invisible to them.

What I'm not sure most reviewers (or fans) realize is the products most worthy of review, the ones from the companies with a proven track record of quality, well-doine pdfs, don;t need them. There is no reason for them to pass about free copies. Since I'm sure GMS and PR are both in the top 20 on rpgnow in terms of sales, it's hard to say just how far down you'd have to go before reviews would be a big help.

Of course I'm sure EN Publishing falls in the top 20 too, but it's different. It has a rabidly loyal fan abse here, so reviews on ENWorld is certainly worth it. I doubt reviews for EN Publishing products found elsewhere add many sales. But the EN machine gets to pretend it's a fan site (and thus able to play favorites, ask for donations, use volanteers, and cry foul is any other company demands equal treatment), a company (buying advertising and getting their own products reviewed on their home site) and even an awards program. So it breaks the normal rules anyway.

But other rank 1 and rank 2 companies just don't need the help. In fact, reviews may hurt more than help, since there are essentially no professional, critical rpg reviewers (and those few who might qualify work for SJG). The reviewers we do have focus on what they like or don't like, and give ratings that are largely random. I doubt they do much for big, professional pdf companies, but they might drive away sales now and then.

Now if a reviewer find a diamond in the rough, or a underexposed company, that's a big help to consumers. But otherwise, I suspect they're mostly just preaching to the choir. Even with pdf sales, the entire En World audience is a small part of the customer base. It seems improtant when it's all you're looking at, but it's not the one and only forum anymore.

 

[arwink]

Now if a reviewer find a diamond in the rough, or a underexposed company, that's a big help to consumers. But otherwise, I suspect they're mostly just preaching to the choir. Even with pdf sales, the entire En World audience is a small part of the customer base. It seems improtant when it's all you're looking at, but it's not the one and only forum anymore.

I think you'd be surprised at how big Enworlds contribution to the customer base is. It represents at least a quarter of the known sales sources for my products (and, I suspect, a relatively large portion of the "unkown" sales source that appears when I run a report on RPgnow). Admittedly I'm d20 focused and tend to use enworld as the primary drop-off point for press releases, but it's still four times more prevelent than everything else on the list that isn't RPGnow's frontpage.

 

[Rawhide]

And I strongly suspect you aren't in the top 20 vendors by dollar at RPGNow, which means you apparently fall into the catagory I said needed reviews here. You may well be in the top 50, but if so I'd guess between 40 and 50, which may mean my break-point needs to be the top 30 or 35.

I think you'd be surprised how little EnWorlder's make up the customer base of the top 20 companies.

 

[jgbrowning]

I'm in the bottom of the top 20 vendors and roughly 20% of my customers that I know where they have come from have come from ENworld.

"Unknown" is 25% of my total. So even factoring unknown as 100% not-from ENworld, roughly 15% (or more depending on where "Unknown" comes from) are due to ENworld.

That's not insignificant. It's the single most important location for customer sales and it is roughly 3x more important than the next single location.

If there is a significant trend away from ENworld I wonder how far up the ladder one has to go? Where I am, however, ENworld is important.

joe b.

 

[Rawhide]

Okay, that's obviously hard evidence. Do you see a spike in sales when a review goes up?

 

[lmpjr007]

Morrus is the only one who replied with the answer I was looking for. He pushes his product. He sells his product.

People don't know about it, they can't buy it.

Now, you can't create a buzz about your products, but you can help get it started.

But there are alot of product that sell on names involved alone and have nothing to with buzz or even quality. A great example of this is, outside our industry, was when Frank Miller wrote and issue of Spawn. The issue came out everyone said it was crap but it still sold well over their normal amount, just because Frank Miller's name was on it. Some time sales, promotion and quality don't go hand and hand.

 

[Mark CMG]

Thank you for trying out my products! I hope you'll find them use in or when preparing your games!

 

[mythusmage]

But there are alot of product that sell on names involved alone and have nothing to with buzz or even quality. A great example of this is, outside our industry, was when Frank Miller wrote and issue of Spawn. The issue came out everyone said it was crap but it still sold well over their normal amount, just because Frank Miller's name was on it. Some time sales, promotion and quality don't go hand and hand.

But Miller's name did create buzz. People know who he is and so they bought that issue based on his reputation.

An author's name can create buzz. The publisher's name can create buzz. But when neither the author or the publisher is known then buzz has to be created.

What is buzz? simply word on the street about a product. Good or bad, so long as it's being talked about. Mr. Famous writes an Urban Arcana adventure. It gets talked about. Sales are better than expected. Word gets out that it's crap. More people buy it to see if the stories are true. All buzz.

What if it's Mr. Obscure who writes the adventure? Then you need to let the world know. And if the buzz is bad, you're not going to do well. When you're not well known you need to establish a reputation as a producer of good product. Then means producing good product, and getting the word out about it. That means writing more than basic mechanics and making an active effort to sell what you've written.

Things are changing in this industry, to survive publishers will have to make changes. Hate to say this, but the day of the short PDF are done. You want to keep selling you need to publish works that offer more than just the mechanics. Your products need to add value or you will see them fail when somebody offers the OGC for free.

Yes, it is cruel. Sometimes life can be a royal bitch.

 

[lmpjr007]

Things are changing in this industry, to survive publishers will have to make changes. Hate to say this, but the day of the short PDF are done. You want to keep selling you need to publish works that offer more than just the mechanics. Your products need to add value or you will see them fail when somebody offers the OGC for free.

I don't think that is true at all. Short PDFs can be a much better return on investment then the majority of a large PDFs. People will easily spend $1 on a PDF then $10 on one. You buy a PDF that is bad for a $1, you still are more likely to still try another PDF from that publisher. If you buy a bad $10 PDF, you will tell everyone how bad it was and how you got "ripped off". With small PDFs (10 pages or less) you have to remeber many of them cost anywhere from zero to $50 to create. If it cost you nthing but your personal time and you make $20, that product is a success.