I rarely complain about the price of an RPG product but . . .

[Crothian]

And, as a demonstration of why lowering costs drastically has no real impact on revenue, I'll step up to the plate.

Using the following link will let you buy my "101 Collection" for $1. That's over 100 pages of material. This expires in a few days.

http://www.rpgnow.com/?coupon=55726

I predict that fewer than 5 copies of this product will be purchased using this coupon. Granted, this is a very limited experiment since only people that see this thread will know of it. I'll be sure to post the number of people that used this coupon so that everyone has the data.

I'd buy it if I didn't already own them.....

 

[Ace]

And, as a demonstration of why lowering costs drastically has no real impact on revenue, I'll step up to the plate.

Using the following link will let you buy my "101 Collection" for $1. That's over 100 pages of material. This expires in a few days.

http://www.rpgnow.com/?coupon=55726

I predict that fewer than 5 copies of this product will be purchased using this coupon. Granted, this is a very limited experiment since only people that see this thread will know of it. I'll be sure to post the number of people that used this coupon so that everyone has the data.

If there were some proof that such a drastically low price would greatly increase sales I would price all of my PDFs extremely low. To show numbers, this product has been brought me $1,773 after 324 sales. That means that I'd need to sell over 6x the number at $1 to make the low price worthwhile. I just don't think that many people would buy it even at $1.

Its a very good deal Phil! If you were wondering -- I am not going to buy -- the site requires a minimum purchase account of like $6.50 (I don't blame them mind you) and I really don't want anything else --

 

[Turjan]

And, as a demonstration of why lowering costs drastically has no real impact on revenue, I'll step up to the plate.

Using the following link will let you buy my "101 Collection" for $1. That's over 100 pages of material. This expires in a few days.

http://www.rpgnow.com/?coupon=55726

I predict that fewer than 5 copies of this product will be purchased using this coupon. Granted, this is a very limited experiment since only people that see this thread will know of it. I'll be sure to post the number of people that used this coupon so that everyone has the data.

If there were some proof that such a drastically low price would greatly increase sales I would price all of my PDFs extremely low. To show numbers, this product has been brought me $1,773 after 324 sales. That means that I'd need to sell over 6x the number at $1 to make the low price worthwhile. I just don't think that many people would buy it even at $1.

I don't think that proofs much. If you bring down the price without anyone knowing it (except for the few people stumbling over this thread) this will be more an example for poor marketing than for what you intend to prove.

Anyway, I think you are right that you would not sell too much even if you had broader advertising for this sale. As advertising costs quite a lot, a $1 price tag would probably result in a net loss.

Do high prices prevent me from buying books? Sometimes. I'm pretty generous with what I spend on RPG books. A high price tag prevents me from buying books that I'm moderately interested in. If I really want something, I'll probably buy it (of course there's a limit), though grudgingly. I will refrain from buying something I'm moderately interested in then (this means, I will buy less items). Do I buy books because they are cheap? Yes and no. I bought a few books I would not have bought when our local WotC shop closed in April. Anyway, I did not buy the Wheel of Time RPG, even at 80% off. Another example is a very recent pdf sale advertised here on ENWorld. The stuff was dirt cheap, but the reviews kept me from buying anything.

So, the answer is, low prices are not a way to get more customers, if you cannot generate interest in your product in any additional way. High prices will reduce your sales, but not necessarily with customers who really want your product. As higher prices may mean higher revenue, this is some kind of a gamble; it might be an overall win, loss, or neutral outcome. You have to know your customers .

Oh, regarding your special offer: I have "The Book of Unusual Treasures" with an autograph; very nice book, that one . I suppose there is some kind of overlap between your special offer and this one .

 

[BryonD]

Bryon, nobody's claiming that creatives are getting "shafted' in this industry. We get paid less than we would writing for other industries. That's a simple fact. Obviously, our love for this industry means more than our desire to make more money, or we would go work elsewhere.

I wasn't claiming that I'm owed any more than I'm getting (though I certainly wouldn't mind a raise). My point was simply to illustrate that this industry is resource-poor; the pay rate for creatives is simply one symptom of that, so I used it as an example.

OK

You are dead on that "love" of the work is a major factor in keeping rates down. But every now and then there is a little rash of "whoa is us, poor game writers" around here. And I'm certain my reading in this thread was prejudiced by past comments.

I've been paid a very tiny bit for some published gaming stuff. I get paid a lot more for the technical writing I do for my engineering job. But there is no equating between the two. The technical stuff is both a hell of a lot more demanding and a hell of a lot less enjoyable. And there are times when it crosses my mind to be jealous of people out there getting by doing game writing, which I do for the simple unpaid fun of it. But it remains inconceivable to me that I'd ever get paid 20% of what I do now if I were writing "fun" stuff. So any reference to "other industries" pay rates rings as a real red herring to me.

No offense intended. Hamunaptra is at the top of my Xmas wish list.
But I don't see any evidence that game writers can automatically jump into another writing profession and be better off. I'm certain that there are some who could, and you may be one of them. But a world class swimmer can claim he'd make more money in Major League Baseball, but it doesn't mean he would make the team. Again, not saying YOU wouldn't make a team. But just because baseball players make more than swimmers, it is no fact that a swimmer would make more playing baseball. And its also no fact that a game writer simply would automatically make more writing in another industry.

 

[philreed]

Oh, regarding your special offer: I have "The Book of Unusual Treasures" with an autograph; very nice book, that one . I suppose there is some kind of overlap between your special offer and this one .

Nice! There aren't many of those out there. I hope you've managed to get some good use out of it.

 

[Incenjucar]

A few issues:

PDFs: There's a bit of difficulty with these due to the inability to properly browse the things. Teasers are useful, but you never know what, exactly, is going to grab a consumer. Until there's a safe, secure, and widespread method for PDF sellers to SHOW their goods directly to people (Like having them available on the computers at bookstores for browsing through), they're going to be harder to market. Alas, the fact that there's a number of jerks out there who share PDFs with each other for free hardly helps.

Book Covers: For whatever reason, Hardcovers are sexy these days. This means higher costs for everyone involved. If people, en masse, expressed a soft cover fetish, this might possibly change for some books. This would save on space issues a bit, and cut a few costs here and there. It also means those books they get -seriously- used and start falling apart might be demanded second printings of.... muhahaha.

Frills: Sexy books are, well, sexier. Just like hard covers, this is fan taste. If we had more stoics in the community, maybe they'd save a few bucks on art costs and color inking. Not going to happen this century, so, eh.

Range of Competition: D&D is a form of entertainment, rather than 'literature' (especially nowadays, with the crunch focus). As such, with every new form of entertainment, D&D gets more competition. If publishers want to make money, they have to design something more alluring than XBox 2's three versions, PS3, the PC, and whatever the heck the latest gameboy is. And comics. And graphic novels. And 'normal' books. And manga. And anime. And Cartoon Network. And Comedy Central. And LARPing. And board games. And hunting/fishing. And dancing. And clubbing. And bar-hopping. and dating. And every other RPG. And older editions. And homebrewing. And hiking. And sports. And cable/satellite. And internet porn. That's a lot to deal with. Especially internet porn.
It takes a lot of sexing the books up to compete here, and sexing up costs money, because "Free Love" hasn't come back in to the fad system yet. (...maybe I shouldn't post after a date...)

There's a lot more than simple greed going here.

 

[Mouseferatu]

No offense intended. Hamunaptra is at the top of my Xmas wish list.
But I don't see any evidence that game writers can automatically jump into another writing profession and be better off. I'm certain that there are some who could, and you may be one of them. But a world class swimmer can claim he'd make more money in Major League Baseball, but it doesn't mean he would make the team. Again, not saying YOU wouldn't make a team. But just because baseball players make more than swimmers, it is no fact that a swimmer would make more playing baseball. And its also no fact that a game writer simply would automatically make more writing in another industry.

No offense taken. I don't know if I could do technical writing. My love for the subject is the only thing that enables me to write as much as I do.

I do believe that I could make more writing non-RPG-related fiction, and in fact, doing just that is a major portion of my career goals. Haven't been able to get there yet, but I'm still working on it--and I'm in no rush, because I'm happy with the RPG stuff at the moment.

You're right, though. "I'm getting paid less than other industries" does not equal "I could easily hop into other industries and make more." And love of the work does make up for a lot.

Some of just wish, on occasion, there wasn't quite so much of a difference to make up for.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

However, I still do feel it is justified charging such high prices for some of the items out there. I have seen a HACKMASTER monster manual for monsters A-E or whatever, for about $20, it was softbound. I do not play hackmaster, but $20 for an incredibly thin book? Sorry, I know I am NOT the only one who feels this way. My brother-in-law is an avid HACKMASTER player and they are not touching anything new because of the prices.

Well, I wasn't going to chime in on this thread, but I had to comment once I saw this (of course).

Personally, I don't think that $19.99 for a 120-pg book, with approximately 200 monsters, is "incredibly thin" or out of line. Now, some people did disagree with our making a multiple-volume encylopedia of monsters, which is why we created a "Field Manual" for those that only want one book. But I digress...

We price all of our products to be as affordable as possible to the average gamer, while still making enough profit to keep our company running. Okay, off my high horse...

 

[DaveMage]

I go the discount route (at least 20% off) wherever possible these days because list price has become prohibitive for the quantity of products I want to buy.

And amazon's free shipping and 34%-off discounts are too enticing to ignore - even though I generally get the product 2-6 weeks after everyone else.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

And, as a demonstration of why lowering costs drastically has no real impact on revenue, I'll step up to the plate.

Using the following link will let you buy my "101 Collection" for $1. That's over 100 pages of material. This expires in a few days.

http://www.rpgnow.com/?coupon=55726

I predict that fewer than 5 copies of this product will be purchased using this coupon. Granted, this is a very limited experiment since only people that see this thread will know of it. I'll be sure to post the number of people that used this coupon so that everyone has the data.

If there were some proof that such a drastically low price would greatly increase sales I would price all of my PDFs extremely low. To show numbers, this product has been brought me $1,773 after 324 sales. That means that I'd need to sell over 6x the number at $1 to make the low price worthwhile. I just don't think that many people would buy it even at $1.

Well Phillip, I hope I don't disprove your theory but you have at least 1 sale as a result of selling your "101 Collections" for $1. I had thought about getting it on a number of occasions in the past but discounting it to $1 made me finally decide to buy it. Depending on what I think of the 101 Collection I may go back and purchase some more Ronin Arts products.

Olaf the Stout

P.S. I must say that I felt like a real cheapskate buying the product because it was reduced to $1. I did think though that it was Phillip's choice to price it at $1, nobody elses. I hope that thought will help me sleep tonight.