PDF Industry - How do we help it grow?

[Chern Ann]

Well I got a quote back from Sirivatana and Phil was indeed right about the printing costs for 3000 copies being around $11k. Unfortunately, the quote did not include the colour sep cost at $80 per plate. Assuming there's some leeway for bargaining, the costs work out roughly the same either printing with Sirivatana or SC-International, the guys I used. I think large quantity runs will get the plate costs waived for either printer, but I'm not in that league yet

 

[Fast Learner]

Great, thanks for checking that out. Seps and plates can cost a fortune.

 

[philreed]

Well I got a quote back from Sirivatana and Phil was indeed right about the printing costs for 3000 copies being around $11k. Unfortunately, the quote did not include the colour sep cost at $80 per plate. Assuming there's some leeway for bargaining, the costs work out roughly the same either printing with Sirivatana or SC-International, the guys I used. I think large quantity runs will get the plate costs waived for either printer, but I'm not in that league yet

Sounds like you're getting the "small fish" price. I think a lot of the reason we get better rates is we print more than one product at a time and have printed with them multiple times. We just got the samples of one book back and the proofs of another and there was nothing like the charges you're talking about on those projects.

Your best bet would be to work a deal with a larger printer and partner with them. This will let you take advantage of discounts and shipping costs.

 

[pogre]

By the way, I've considered those Dire Kobold adventures I don't know how many times, but I can never figure out if I can change the level or if I buy them at a certain level. If I could scale the level at will, I'd certainly pick them up. I'd pay more than usual for that, really.

You can scale the level at will and a lot more. You can download them in as many versions as you choose.

 

[Morrus]

Back to the original question - "how do we make the PDF industry grow?". I feel that doing so requires that we put PDF products for sale as far and wide as we can. To that end, I have signed EN Publishing up at SV Games.

If anyone knows of any other stores which sell PDFs, please let me know. I will sign up with them immediately. While everyone who sells PDFs sells at one single store, the market will not grow beyond the expansion of that store. WotC (somewhat unsuprisingly) sell their D&D books at more than one store - they sell them at thousands of stores worldwide, and there's a good reason for that. PDF publishers should attempt to accomplish the online version of that.

I find it suprising, to be honest, that other people don't seem to share this opinion - "growth" by definition requires a wide variety of sales outlets. If WotC only sold D&D in one store in Seattle, none of us would be here now...

 

[Chern Ann]

Your best bet would be to work a deal with a larger printer and partner with them. This will let you take advantage of discounts and shipping costs.

You're probably right. I'll approach the bigger boys for the next run and see if they're prepared to assist in publishing for a piece of the action.

If anyone knows of any other stores which sell PDFs, please let me know. I will sign up with them immediately. While everyone who sells PDFs sells at one single store, the market will not grow beyond the expansion of that store. WotC (somewhat unsuprisingly) sell their D&D books at more than one store - they sell them at thousands of stores worldwide, and there's a good reason for that. PDF publishers should attempt to accomplish the online version of that.

Although by no means a large store, I do carry downloads. Whilst I'm not sure how well a pure RPG product would do at my store I'd be happy to attempt to promote it. Email me at chernann@coolminiornot.com if you'd like to set it up.

 

[philreed]

If anyone knows of any other stores which sell PDFs, please let me know. I will sign up with them immediately. While everyone who sells PDFs sells at one single store, the market will not grow beyond the expansion of that store. WotC (somewhat unsuprisingly) sell their D&D books at more than one store - they sell them at thousands of stores worldwide, and there's a good reason for that. PDF publishers should attempt to accomplish the online version of that.

I've looked at Hyperbooks but communications with the guy running the site were . . . less than satisfying.

Steve Jackson Games is working on e23.

http://e23.sjgames.com/

But it's a bad idea to listen to me about this one since I work for SJGames on a part-time basis.

I tried joining SVGames and sent a contract and CD last November. Then that was it. No response to e-mails and no product on their site.

While I do wish there were other sales sites I have to say that -- at this time -- RPGNow is the only site out there and I've been very happy with the service there.

 

[jgbrowning]

While I do wish there were other sales sites I have to say that -- at this time -- RPGNow is the only site out there and I've been very happy with the service there.

Me too. James has always been good with us as well. I woulding mind having more sites, but i've heard a lot of bad things about SVgames. Morrus, I'll probably be contacting you in a few months to see how things turn out.

joe b.

 

[Morrus]

Me too. James has always been good with us as well. I woulding mind having more sites, but i've heard a lot of bad things about SVgames. Morrus, I'll probably be contacting you in a few months to see how things turn out.

joe b.

Oh, I agree. James is fantastic, and I strongly recommend RPGNow to anyone without reservation.

So far, I have had no trouble at all with SV. They added ENP's entire library of 25-ish products in under two days, which I think is pretty good going.

One thing SV does currently lack is a lot of the automated reporting systems that RPGNow provides. However, SV has told me that over the next two weeks they are doing a thorough backend overhaul so that they can provide such things. He does seem very serious about moving strongly into the PDF arena.

 

[jmucchiello]

Oh, I agree. James is fantastic, and I strongly recommend RPGNow to anyone without reservation.

So far, I have had no trouble at all with SV. They added ENP's entire library of 25-ish products in under two days, which I think is pretty good going.

One thing SV does currently lack is a lot of the automated reporting systems that RPGNow provides. However, SV has told me that over the next two weeks they are doing a thorough backend overhaul so that they can provide such things. He does seem very serious about moving strongly into the PDF arena.

Is he planning to put a link on the home page (or any page) that explain who to write to if you are a vendor and wish to sell your products at SVGames? The only public email address on the website I could find was orders@....