Invasion of the 5-10 page PDFs . . .

[The Mad Kaiser]

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.

I haven't found shelf time to be a noticable factor in my sales. I would say good external and internal reviews are the keys to healthy sales. Some people are willing to be the first to try a product, but most would prefer to see what others are saying before taking the plunge (myself included).

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Does anyone have figures on units sold vs. larger PDF runs?

Do they sell as well? (volume as opposed to profit)

The smallest/cheapest products I've done are my spell books and the 22 Talent Trees. I've done the math on prospective titles, and I know what sort of sales it takes to attain various rankings on the RPGnow site (rankings held by some very short ($1.00) products right now.

Speaking strictly in terms of economics, it is the best way for a publisher to turn his time into money. The bigger your book, the more time you have to spend writing it. Of course you can charge more for it too, but the justified increase in price does not make up for the extremely long increase in production time. For example, I'll use two of my own titles to illustrate my point.
It took my roughly 6 months to write the Primal Codex (120 pages, sells for $10). I've made a little over $2,000 off it as of right now. So that's $2,000 for 6 months of full time work (56 hrs a week or more, no days off), or roughly $11/day.
By contrast, I wrote 22 Talent Trees in less than 2 weeks (and could have done it sooner if I wasn't working on other things at the same time). It has also sold over 200 copies, but at a mere $2.88 each. So that's roughly $450 earnings for 2 weeks of work, or a whopping $32/day.

This happens because the smaller products are more expensive to the consumer when you consider the price/word count ratio. With the Primal Codex, you get over 80,000 words for $10 or roughly .00125 cents per word. By contrast, 22 Talent Trees is only about 8,000 words, for a price/word ratio of .0036 cents per word. The words in 22 Talent Trees are almost 3 times more expensive than those in the Codex!

Therefore, writing small titles that you can pump out in a week or two is a much better way to turn time into money than writing long books.

That being said, I have a few other points to make about this practice.
1. I'm not the only publisher that has figured this out.
2. Although I figured that out a long time ago, its not really my bag. I've done some smallish books, and will do more in the future when it suits me. However, I'm also going to continue doing the much larger books as well because I know that is where the value is (at least to me, as a consumer).
3. The fact that I've figured out how earnings work for small titles compared to big titles means that I haven't bought any small titles. I'm waiting for them to be collected into an Anthology or bundle and sold at a more reasonable price/word count ratio.
4. Dave Stebbins makes a good point about the usability of the smaller titles. Basically, he’s saying that the consumer gets just exactly what they are looking for (however small that is), with no other material at all. Apparently people are willing to pay more for that, or they don’t realize that they are paying more in the first place.

 

[mroberon1972]

3. The fact that I've figured out how earnings work for small titles compared to big titles means that I haven't bought any small titles. I'm waiting for them to be collected into an Anthology or bundle and sold at a more reasonable price/word count ratio.

Hmnnn...

Paladins and Priests has about 7 pages of usable material, and I charge about $1.33 for it. The active sale about for a 64 page PDF is about 5-7 dollars.

This means that the price I'm charging is about x2 the price of a compiled book. In exchange, they get:
1. To only purchase the material they want.
2. To have it in easy to distribute 'chunks' to thier players.
3. To know if they want to purchase more books by the author.

Considering other forms of marketing, it seems to be about right.

Overall, this method has been used for years in everything from fast-food to music sales. It works because people like getting a choice.

On the other hand, some people like to purchase compiled versions at a discount. That's can be compaired with a value meal or buying a compiled CD collection from an artist.

Both sides are useful, and have a place in nearly every market. Due to printing costs, though, it never caught on in the printing industry. A bigger book with everything costs less to make than a lot of little books.

PDF's have opened the market to micro-books, and I'm really surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

Later,
John Bowden

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Paladins and Priests has about 7 pages of usable material, and I charge about $1.33 for it. The active sale about for a 64 page PDF is about 5-7 dollars.

This means that the price I'm charging is about x2 the price of a compiled book. In exchange, they get:
1. To only purchase the material they want.
2. To have it in easy to distribute 'chunks' to thier players.
3. To know if they want to purchase more books by the author.

Considering other forms of marketing, it seems to be about right.

Yeah, it's viable and its a common practice in other markets. I'm not slamming it, I'm just saying that its not for me. As a consumer, I don't see any value in your point #2, and I see very little value in point #3. Usually, I'll decide to buy something from a particular author based on the previews, reviews and other sources. The fact that RPGnow has a minimum checkout means that I can't really get the benefits you mention unless I spend at least $5 in the first place. So is there really value in paying 10 times as much for 1 prestige class? You have still got to spend another $4 on other things just to check out. (note I'm not attacking your argument, just stating my views as a consumer).

As a businessman, I understand your points and I see the irrefutable evidence in my own sales of Nature's Wrath (which is a reprint of selected material from the Codex plus a few new ideas), The Bane Ledger (which sells for $3.33), and the various spell books and the Spell Bundle that prove people want to buy material under that agreement (higher price for selected -specific material). As I said, I plan to do a few more smallish titles in 2-3 dollar range.

It’s an angle I'm working in my own sales. I'm just not taking it as far as others might, and I'm doing some of it retroactively.

I guess what I'm saying is it seems too far, in my opinion, to sell one class or one prestige class at a time. Selling a small group of things (12 of This Stuff, 22 of That Stuff), seems more palatable.

On the other hand, some people like to purchase compiled versions at a discount. That's can be compaired with a value meal or buying a compiled CD collection from an artist.

That would be my boat, as far as PDF buying goes anyway.

Due to printing costs, though, it never caught on in the printing industry. A bigger book with everything costs less to make than a lot of little books.

PDF's have opened the market to micro-books, and I'm really surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

Good point. I've been thinking about that too...

 

[philreed]

3. The fact that I've figured out how earnings work for small titles compared to big titles means that I haven't bought any small titles. I'm waiting for them to be collected into an Anthology or bundle and sold at a more reasonable price/word count ratio.

And that's exactly why I've been putting the finishing touched on Forbidden Arcana Collection. 168-pages of material from the various FA PDFs and articles. To reward those who have bought the single PDFs those who have purchased all of the FA PDFs will be sent this collected version free. And it's not just a bundle. It's a completely new layout with new art and some new material added.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

And that's exactly why I've been putting the finishing touched on Forbidden Arcana Collection. 168-pages of material from the various FA PDFs and articles. .

Sweet.

Good things come to those who wait.

 

[cleavthorn]

Thanks for the information, people!

We (Enkwell) hope to have several PDF's out in the next few months, and there are always a million questions and ideas that run through your head before you want to commit to a project.

I am not a regular poster, but I am a very frequent watcher-of-others. I check this site out at least once every day.

I have witnessed, for the most part, a great generosity in companies helping one another. This thread is just one more example of professionals pulling together to make the industry stronger as a whole.

 

[d20Dwarf]

And that's exactly why I've been putting the finishing touched on Forbidden Arcana Collection.

I'm planning to put out multiple small pdfs at once along with a bundled package with a slight discount, I'm hoping that will cover all the bases.

 

[Vigilance]

PDF's have opened the market to micro-books, and I'm really surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

I think the $5 minimum purchase that RPGnow needs to use (if a single sale is less than $5 they end up losing money so they don't have a lot of choice) acted as a barrier for a time.

However once small products reached a critical mass where the consumer could pick up 3-5, depending on price, to make up the $5 minimum this "barrier" became a feature.

That said, I think large books make more money if they are successful. However there's also more risk, and I think some writers like the immediate gratification.

I still have a preference for the weighty books- but the types of books I write are a little different. Classes, magic items, spells, these things are modular and easily broken up into smaller packages.

When you look at a book like Blood and Fists that wouldnt really work. The classes make no sense without the styles (the feats). So sense I tend to write mechanics to fill mini-genre needs within d20M (martial arts, military, gothic horror) the small book is a bit more of a challenge to fit into that product line.

Still its a good market and we're going to do some as they fit in with out lines.

Chuck

 

[GMSkarka]

It's not a problem if you don't rely on front page exposure as you marketing strategy. And if you do, well...

Right. Remember that James has said that RPGNow is strongly recommending that publishers actually make marketing efforts on their own...the days of the category product spotlights (new release, etc.) being enough are LONG over, and people should be taking that into account.

(For what it's worth, I'm currently working on re-designing Adamant's website in preperation for a major relaunch of the company, and shorter PDFs will play a part in my catalog. Basically, I've finally come to the realization that I can make a more stable and lucrative living working exclusively on my own PDF material than I can in freelancing for print publishers, so that's what I'm gearing up to do.)