Invasion of the 5-10 page PDFs . . .

[Flyspeck23]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the general subject matter of the shorter PDFs?

Is it mostly monsters or spell lists, or something a little more meaty?

Just curious.

I'd say there isn't a "general subject". Just take a look at Ronin Arts' products for instance. The latest small PDFs are named A Dozen Bothersome Spells, A Dozen Modern Rumors, A Dozen Musical Instruments, and so on.

 

[philreed]

BTW, It amazes me how much you and a few other folks can put out in a short period.

Thanks. But keep in mind that this is my job now. My only major responsibility is to sit at home and write RPG products. I do some freelance work but it's actually a very small amount of my time these days.

Thanks for all of the responses, guys. It's giving me some things to think about.

 

[mroberon1972]

Well, Phil...

You did advocate this method publicly quite a few times...

Anyway, I looked at the possibility of doing the modern fantasy classes a while ago, and deciding chopping it into related chunks did the following:

1. Allowed me to release finished sections now.
2. Allowed customers to only buy what they like.
3. Gives me the option to create a print book from the compiled data later.

This would seem to make everybody happy.

Later,
John Bowden

 

[philreed]

Well, Phil...

You did advocate this method publicly quite a few times...

Yeah, but I advocate lots of things.

For example:

www.davidliss.com

Go there now and read the first chapter of one of his novels. Every D&D DM needs to read at least one of his novels.

 

[Nellisir]

I've been skeptical of the short pdfs, but they're beginning to grow on me. They ARE convenient, and as Steve points out, it's like a magazine where you select the articles.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[Prest0]

This is an interesting discussion. Nobody has mentioned the reason I was expecting to find when I saw the thread title: shelf time. With the barrage of short PDFs coming out, the amount of time thumbnails appear on the category pages decreases. That means the 80 page/4 month project gets just as much (or little) exposure as the 5 page/1 week GM aid. With thumbnail "shelf" time being so important for sales on RPG Now, I don't find it surprising that more publishers are following suit.

Please understand I'm not complaining or trying to be inflammatory. It's just a part of business.

 

[mroberon1972]

This is an interesting discussion. Nobody has mentioned the reason I was expecting to find when I saw the thread title: shelf time. With the barrage of short PDFs coming out, the amount of time thumbnails appear on the category pages decreases. That means the 80 page/4 month project gets just as much (or little) exposure as the 5 page/1 week GM aid. With thumbnail "shelf" time being so important for sales on RPG Now, I don't find it surprising that more publishers are following suit.

Please understand I'm not complaining or trying to be inflammatory. It's just a part of business.

Hmnnn... Never thought of that... That might actually be a problem.

Perhaps a section dedicated to mini-PDFs? Seperated in the same way as the normal PDF groups?

But then: What makes a PDF a 'mini-PDF'? Where do you draw the line?

 

[Prest0]

Hmnnn... Never thought of that... That might actually be a problem.

Perhaps a section dedicated to mini-PDFs? Seperated in the same way as the normal PDF groups?

But then: What makes a PDF a 'mini-PDF'? Where do you draw the line?

Exactly. I hate to say it, but I think what's being done is for the best: let market forces rule. Publishers will either compensate by spending more on advertising, or publish their own mini-PDFs as a means of grabbing shelf time and encouraging backlist sales for their regular lines. Or both. Any "corrective" actions on RPG Now's part would be unwieldy at the very best.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

Just to barge in with an occasional freelancer/customer's POV:

Keep putting these short PDFs out.

I had purchased some PDFs before, but most of my purchases now are handfuls of these type of PDF release. The short page count makes them be concentrated on a single topic so I can buy only what I want/need. Plus, I can check out things I would not normally buy with very little risk involved (aside from the risk of liking it, and ending up spending even more, which has already happened). To me, this is the strength of the PDF format, so keep exploiting it and making me (and many others like me) very happy.

 

[philreed]

This is an interesting discussion. Nobody has mentioned the reason I was expecting to find when I saw the thread title: shelf time. With the barrage of short PDFs coming out, the amount of time thumbnails appear on the category pages decreases.

Shelf time actually isn't all that important to me. Yes, it's nice to have new releases on the RPGNow front page but I've been working at promoting the PDFs in other ways.

I do remember when I released my first PDFs. Products stayed on the front page for weeks. Now they seem to stay there a few days. I just see it as a sign of the success of RPGNow and the growing PDF industry.