DMs Guild Pay What You Want on the DMs Guild - An Analysis and Explanation

[FrogReaver]

I have a modest little addition to the PWYW section of the DM's Guild. It's a small data point, but in about a week's worth of being up, it has been downloaded 166 times and 12 people have paid (so a 0.07% pay rate). I never expected to make any money off of it, but it is interesting what a low percentage of people do pay when it is PWYW.

I think a lot of people see something as PWYW and the barrier to obtain the items becomes so low that there really isn't a reason not to click on it and add it to your cart. With about 10 minutes worth of time, you can add a hundred items, download them all, and peruse them later or never look at them again. I know I've been guilty of going on a binge download and not even looking at something. Then, months later, I'll be looking over my downloads section, and I'll see a bunch of stuff that I've never even opened. So even if an item has been downloaded 1,000 times, there's no way to tell if a dozen, a hundred, or several hundred people have even read the work in question.

I think it's partially this uncertainty that makes PWYW dangerous. Oh, not dangerous in the sense that you shouldn't do it, but in the fact that it is difficult to know the numbers or expectations of readers, and use that to gauge future ideas you have. Working on Volume 2 now, it would be nice to have some feedback on my product, for example, and I feel that if I had charged money then people would be more willing to give feedback (negative feedback is still feedback) or review than they are with PWYW. It's easier to ignore, I suppose is what I'm saying. That's probably one of the big reasons people charge money. Yes, less people may read your product, but the ones that do will feel a bit more mentally invested in your product, because they actually did invest in it in a literal sense.

Maybe the only people that paid are the only people that would have bought it had it not been free?

 

[Jimbro]

Could be they didn't like the product that much?

It seems to be a fairly common occurrence with PWYW across different companies and designers so I don't think so... Unless most everyone ends up hating all PWYW products.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Could be they didn't like the product that much?

I don't think that's the case. By and large, my one page adventures get 4 and 5 star reviews across the board, so I know it's a decent product, so 95% of the people who downloaded it not liking it is highly improbable. More likely, since you can get it for free, most people view it as a free product.

 

[Mark CMG]

This only affects those people not just unwilling to pay for my work, but unwilling to pay for *anyone's* work including some fantastic stuff by other great fan publishers, content by well established and reputable 3rd party publishers, expansion content for official adventures by the original authors, content by former WotC designers, and even official PDFs.

At that point, I'm not sure I want their downloads if they're that entitled they with *only* take free content and won't even pay for WotC PDF material.

Y'know, plus much of my stuff is available free on my website as OGL content. It's revised and expanded for the PDF but not new...

Yeah, admittedly, there are some folks who simply can't afford to be buying stuff, and I feel for them, but there is honestly piles and piles of other free stuff available to them all over the store and rest of the Internet. They won't miss it if PWYW goes away (or stops getting used by people) and new folks entering the field ask for a buck for their early efforts. I never felt comfortable trying PWYW as a publisher and the more I learn of other people's experiences, the more I am glad I never tried it. I make some things free and I make some things which I put on sale from time to time, for as low as a buck, but those decisions are my own.

At the risk of seeming crass, I will add a quote of my own (with slight edits) from another thread regarding putting out freebies -

For those having the free product downloads discussion, I can tell you that since roughly eight and a half years ago (09-2007) the The Cooperative Dungeon Collection (01 - 04) (as a bundle, not available individually since this time) has had 115K downloads through OBS sites. Prior to that time, each adventure was probably downloaded between 1K to 2K times individually. This from a rather small one-man publishing operation so I'd imagine when larger or better know entities put things out for free they get many times this sort of attention. It's also good NOT to think in terms of "first quarter" from my experience as an ePub, though some others may feel differently or have spikier experiences. BTW, my CMG GM's Day sale is on for those who want to snag a $1 offering or something else here.

 

[AngryTiger]

I only "buy" free or PWYW products. Most of the stuff is garbage and not worth paying for, atleast for me. The stuff that is worth paying for, i can't know if they are worth anything before buying it. After i have already gotten a product for free legally, i don't really have any incentive to go back and pay for it even if i liked it. There probably are products out there that cost a small amount that are definitely worth it, but i'm not going to gamble my money buying something before seeing what it's like. This is of course from my perspective, and i'm very poor and always try to get everything for as cheap as possible, because i can't afford to pay more. Value is very subjective thing, and other people are probably willing to pay more if they can afford it.

 

[Jimbro]

I only "buy" free or PWYW products. Most of the stuff is garbage and not worth paying for, atleast for me. The stuff that is worth paying for, i can't know if they are worth anything before buying it. After i have already gotten a product for free legally, i don't really have any incentive to go back and pay for it even if i liked it. There probably are products out there that cost a small amount that are definitely worth it, but i'm not going to gamble my money buying something before seeing what it's like. This is of course from my perspective, and i'm very poor and always try to get everything for as cheap as possible, because i can't afford to pay more. Value is very subjective thing, and other people are probably willing to pay more if they can afford it.

I totally understand if cash is tight. Would you go back and review or even just rate a product then? That helps designers and publishers more than you know and doesn't cost a penny. Heck a simple rating takes a single click if you don't leave a review. Another way to appreciate a great product could be to share it on social media or forums.

 

[AngryTiger]

I totally understand if cash is tight. Would you go back and review or even just rate a product then? That helps designers and publishers more than you know and doesn't cost a penny. Heck a simple rating takes a single click if you don't leave a review. Another way to appreciate a great product could be to share it on social media or forums.

I don't ever write reviews either, because i'm not good at giving constructive feedback. I can only say i liked it, or i didn't like it, which is not really useful for anyone. It's hard for me to describe my feelings with words. I could of course leave a rating, and probably should do that more often.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Maybe the only people that paid are the only people that would have bought it had it not been free?

If only it were possible to know. It's very possible that there would be less buys, as many people don't want to take the risk on an unknown author or product.

What I would love to know would be a breakdown of the people who downloaded it and then came back to pay versus the people who looked at the preview and decided to pay as they were adding to cart for the first time. That would be pretty interesting to me, as it would give me good feedback on how well the preview does versus how many people are willing to revisit a page after downloading in order to pay after the fact. Honestly, I'm not sure which is more likely at this point.

I totally understand if cash is tight. Would you go back and review or even just rate a product then? That helps designers and publishers more than you know and doesn't cost a penny. Heck a simple rating takes a single click if you don't leave a review. Another way to appreciate a great product could be to share it on social media or forums.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I would convert every "buy" to a "review" if I could. Right now I'm sitting at one single review, and 12 buys, and I'd rather have the reverse. Even just stars. Written reviews are great, but just clicking X out of X stars is highly appreciated.

 

[Morrus]

I don't ever write reviews either, because i'm not good at giving constructive feedback. I can only say i liked it, or i didn't like it, which is not really useful for anyone. It's hard for me to describe my feelings with words. I could of course leave a rating, and probably should do that more often.

Just saying you liked it is enough.

One of the problems I personally struggle with is putting something out there after months of hard work to a resounding silence. I think that's tough for any author to deal with.

 

[Jimbro]

Just saying you liked it is enough.

One of the problems I personally struggle with is putting something out there after months of hard work to a resounding silence. I think that's tough for any author to deal with.

TOTALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!