Numenera's Limited License

[wedgeski]

Thinking more about the $2000 limit, that would imply a pre-sales inventory control. With a price (say) of $10 per unit, the first 200 units must be strictly tracked (say, numbered), with the sales channel structured to allow only those 200 units to be sold.

Since MCG have no way of tracking your sales, unless their licensing terms require to use some third-party marketplace and grant them access to sales figures, I would suggest the $2k limit is loose at best, designed to encourage small-press, grass-roots PDF products, and an entirely different beast than the license you'll be losing if inventory is in any way a concern.

 

[Warunsun]

The only feasible thing you could do with this is release a free product. Since you would never hit $2000 there would be no issues. All in all this is a pretty strange license.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Yeah, it is a bit odd.

I think if they don't want to grant a licence then don't grant one. This is too GSL-ish and has the potential to attract bad publicity.

Perhaps they should have handled this behind the scenes with some trusted counterparts instead.

 

[frankthedm]

Wow, looks like a terrible policy to my eyes. I'm having a hard time figuring how to make an actual book for this while staying more profitable than flipping burgers.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Wow, what a terrible policy. To me it looks like making an actual book for this will be less lucrative than flipping burgers.

I'm pretty sure making most of the products on RPGNow.com is less lucrative than flipping burgers (seriously).

 

[Nikosandros]

It is indeed a very strange license and looks very restrictive. I wonder what would have been the reaction if WotC had offered a similar license...

 

[Morrus]

I'm pretty sure making most of the products on RPGNow.com is less lucrative than flipping burgers (seriously).

Some companies selling on RPGNow are making a fortune. I imagine NUMENERA, for example, has made Monte & Co. an awful lot of money just from direct PDF purchases. PDF publishing has come a LONG way in the last decade; it can be a serious revenue stream now. $2K isn't that high - it's only 200 sales. Even I've sold many times that for many products, and I'm small-fry.

 

[Wicht]

Some companies selling on RPGNow are making a fortune. I imagine NUMENERA, for example, has made Monte & Co. an awful lot of money just from direct PDF purchases. PDF publishing has come a LONG way in the last decade; it can be a serious revenue stream now. $2K isn't that high - it's only 200 sales. Even I've sold many times that for many products, and I'm small-fry.

I don't know how many companies are making a fortune, but it is getting more and more possible, thanks to the OGL in particular, to make a living doing supplements for other people's games.

Though, I would guess that still for most small publishers, its very nice to have a "day" job to live off of, while the PDF sales provide a small, but steady boost to the standard of living.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Some companies selling on RPGNow are making a fortune. I imagine NUMENERA, for example, has made Monte & Co. an awful lot of money just from direct PDF purchases. PDF publishing has come a LONG way in the last decade; it can be a serious revenue stream now. $2K isn't that high - it's only 200 sales. Even I've sold many times that for many products, and I'm small-fry.

Most.

That's why I said most.

Remember when certain publishers have revealed their sales figures here in the past? There were some real surprises about how few copies of certain products were sold. That's was what I was referring to and I assumed others would understand (hehe... and you're not the mod whom I expected to misunderstand! ).

BTW, when I typed most I was not referring to ENPublishing because I'm aware you've had some hits. But I was referring to figures revealed here in the past about other products.

There. Does that make sense now?

 

[frankthedm]

Give yourself another point of XP boss man.

You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to Morrus again.

Exactly and that is for PDFs. Those are at least mostly direct profit after DRMRPG.con takes their cut. An actual book has printing costs and more to eat away at the meager profit one might make if one hits the $2000 sales cap.

At least with the GSL one can hope to make a respectable profit. Not have to STOP selling a product if it gets popular.