Critical Role Here's The Cover Of The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount; Plus It's #15 In Amazon Bestsellers!

While Amazon may have revealed the title and description of The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount earlier, it had no cover art. Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, has the cover but at the time of writing no title or description. Here it is!

The official announcement should be coming later today. In the meantime, the book - which has not yet been announced! - is already #15 in the bestsellers chart for all books on Amazon, based only on pre-orders. That's pretty astonishing for a book which 'officially' doesn't even exist yet (although the announcement is expected later today).

 

[dave2008]

Show me the Venn diagram of people who watch their show vs those who actually play vs those who buy more than the core books. It's not 11.4 million worth who will actually buy this book.

I have no idea, but it is a show about playing D&D so my guess is the overlap is unusually large.

 

[darjr]

What the heck 3cat?!? Preorders are money spent.

 

[dave2008]

Amazon preorders aren't actual sales. I've got like 50 items in my Amazon cart right now. When I actually complete the transaction probably 90% or more of those items won't be subsequently on their way to my house...

As already note, when pre-ordered you have already paid, just not received yet. It is not the same as storing it in your chart. Those are not pre-orders.

 

[Parmandur]

Amazon preorders aren't actual sales. I've got like 50 items in my Amazon cart right now. When I actually complete the transaction probably 90% or more of those items won't be subsequently on their way to my house...

OK, Boomer.

 

[lkj]

Did you guys see that it got to #3 in books? I mean, I'm not surprised it is doing well. But holy mackerel . . .

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This message brought to you by someone who will definitely not be getting involved in a messageboard back and forth about whether there is any way ever to tell whether a book is successful.

 

[3catcircus]

Pre-orders are not the same as cart-saved items. And, pre-orders are not often cancelled.

To be clear, putting an item in your cart is not equivalent to paying to pre-order it.

Fair enough. That having been said, how many of those pre-order colors are going to be opened once and then sit on a shelf never to be opened again. I've a ton of product spanning multiple different RPGs going back to the early 80s. 95% of it was bought on a whim and never used. more if it was returned (back when you actually had to go to a store with the receipt to return it).

I have no idea, but it is a show about playing D&D so my guess is the overlap is unusually large.

I'm betting not. We already know that not every player buys more than the core. We know that viewers are a percentage of players (and sooner of them don't play at all). Other than as a money grab, this book isn't serving the entire potential player base and potentially alienating grognards from all editions...

 

[Prakriti]

Mark my words.

Free views on twitch and YouTube don't translate into book sales. This will come out, sell for a few weeks, and then disappear.

Look, I don't want this book either, but your prediction is frankly ridiculous. Let's look at a few Amazon sales ranks, shall we?

Rank in Books:
#20,167: Princes of the Apocalypse
#9,005: Out of the Abyss
#3,645: Ghosts of Saltmarsh
#3,333: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus
#3,246: Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica
#1,207: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
#1,022: Critical Role: Tal'dorei Campaign Setting (published in 2017)

That's right, the first Critical Role setting book, a third-party product, is outselling nearly every official D&D supplement! And that's after 2-and-a-half years of being on the market. So, if the first book didn't "disappear in a few weeks," then why do you think this one would? Far more likely is that Wildemount will sell even better being an official product. That's my prediction, anyway.

 

[3catcircus]

Look, I don't want this book either, but your prediction is frankly ridiculous. Let's look at a few Amazon sales ranks, shall we?

Rank in Books:
#20,167: Princes of the Apocalypse
#9,005: Out of the Abyss
#3,645: Ghosts of Saltmarsh
#3,333: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus
#3,246: Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica
#1,207: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
#1,022: Critical Role: Tal'dorei Campaign Setting (published in 2017)

That's right, the first Critical Role setting book, a third-party product, is outselling nearly every official D&D supplement! And that's after 2-and-a-half years of being on the market. So, if the first book didn't "disappear in a few weeks," then why do you think this one would? Far more likely is that Wildemount will sell even better being an official product. That's my prediction, anyway.

You aren't accounting for the possibility that it was just less crappy than the others rather than actually being worth the cover price...

 

[Nikosandros]

What the heck 3cat?!? Preorders are money spent.

Amazon only charges when the order is actually shipped, but still a pre-order is very different from putting an item in the cart. I put stuff in the cart all the time for later consideration. I pre-order only when I've decided to buy.

 

[Parmandur]

Look, I don't want this book either, but your prediction is frankly ridiculous. Let's look at a few Amazon sales ranks, shall we?

Rank in Books:
#20,167: Princes of the Apocalypse
#9,005: Out of the Abyss
#3,645: Ghosts of Saltmarsh
#3,333: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus
#3,246: Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica
#1,207: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
#1,022: Critical Role: Tal'dorei Campaign Setting (published in 2017)

That's right, the first Critical Role setting book, a third-party product, is outselling nearly every official D&D supplement! And that's after 2-and-a-half years of being on the market. So, if the first book didn't "disappear in a few weeks," then why do you think this one would? Far more likely is that Wildemount will sell even better being an official product. That's my prediction, anyway.

And those other books haven't done half bad, either.