# of copies a d20 product can expect to sell...

[Krug]

Well Sean Reynolds said that Swords to Plowshares sold 'more than 150 copies' and it was #23 on the rpgnow.com chart at the time. Unless you're Monte Cook, don't expect to make a living from PDF right now.

 

[philreed]

Not a plan at all . . .

I'm just trying to get an idea of how things are doing in that area.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, Monte has more name recognition than anyone else selling at RPGNow.com. ENWorld has the second most name recognition, probably. Since you can't really run out of copies of a pdf product, you should probably only count the first month of sales as a way to gauge success.

[Uh-uh. -Morrus]

 

[Dextra]

electronic numbers

I'm pretty certain that the issue of PDF sales was discussed in another thread. I'm not going to start disclosing our exact numbers, but let's just say that the majority of PDFs are lucky to break 150. Those in the top ten have around (at least) 500 sales and are the exception, certainly not the rule.
At least with PDFs you have the advantage of bringing product to the market faster, and a greater profit margin than print.

 

[Breakdaddy]

I wonder how many sales on PDF copies of supplements are lost because of out and out piracy? It is very easy to ftp or dcc someone a small pdf supplement. Could this be part of the reason for low sales, or is it just player and dm preference to have a tangible hardcopy for their pen and paper games?

 

[Dextra]

I wonder how many sales on PDF copies of supplements are lost because of out and out piracy? It is very easy to ftp or dcc someone a small pdf supplement. Could this be part of the reason for low sales, or is it just player and dm preference to have a tangible hardcopy for their pen and paper games?

We could actually shrink down Thee Compleat Librum ov Gar Udok's Necromantik Artes to make it a faster download, but deliberately haven't done so, purely because I want to be a bitch about file-sharing. We expect some amount of sharing, and don't begrudge it TOO much, although personally I'd be happier if people wouldn't share around our stuff in its first month or two of release. Afterwards, well, it's understandable... just let us make what little money we CAN make off those first two months of sales!
We have a three-inch thick binder full of nothing but prestige classes. It's nice to have the hardcopy available. But then again, we game about three feet away from one of our computers, so it's not uncommon to see our DM turn around and access the answer to a question (sometimes online- yay wireless!)