PDF Industry - How do we help it grow?

[rpghost]

I'm all for the idea of some sort of portal site. But as I said, it really has to be customer / fan driven. It can't just be a site we run or people won't bother with it.

The electronicd20.com site was a good idea and still is viable, just need someone willing to get on the soap box and review good d20 products. Maybe have a "dud" list to keep people from buying crap or maybe just a top 20 list of those they bothered to review which can be on their front page... etc.

In short it needs a couple of reviewers to adobt it. I'm sure we can "swag" that team free copies.

James

 

[Cecil]

James,
I've started putting some reviews up on my site (only two so far), but I should be able to get about five more up by the end of next weekend.

I included a page for a publisher to make a reply, which is something I've not often seen in a review. I've also been up front about being a rather harsh reviewer--I expect a good product that is well thought out. What most people give 4 or 5 stars, I will most likely give three (middle 50% of products). That should make the great products really shine.

I will also be very above-board in my biases---I like those products that will continue to give to a campaign. A bunch of plug-and-play settings is not as valuable to me as something that helps me design my own settings efficiently.

I will focus on PDFs this week and do not mind cross-posting to electronicd20.com (but am totally unfamiliar with the site).

 

[rpghost]

I will focus on PDFs this week and do not mind cross-posting to electronicd20.com (but am totally unfamiliar with the site).

It was started by some people from ENWorld but they have fallen off the world. I suppose I could make an effort to ask for and repost D20 reviews there ... GameWyrd.com might allow it and using yours would be great... time time time... best thing would be to find someone to adopt the site. We could help promote it.

James

 

[Prest0]

One thing in particular caught my eye in your top post, and that's the idea of partnering with someone else to bring in people who aren't regulars on the RPG Host system. As someone whose full-time job is marketing, it seems to me we (the independent industry) need to establish some formal partnerships with the big publishers such as WotC.

I noticed The Game Mechanics' Come for the Reaping is featured on the WotC d20 System site. If more PDF products were featured on the WotC (or other larger publisher) site it might lend legitimacy to the format.

Or, taking it a step further... what if RPG Now could broker a deal with WotC to get exclusive distribution for one of their releases? Or barring that, exclusive PDF distribution deal for one or two months before the print version hits stores, and an ad for RPG Now at the back of the print version when it does come out. That would introduce a lot of new people to the format (and RPG Now in particular), and again lend it a stamp of legitimacy.

-Preston DuBose
12 to Midnight
(one of those new e-publishers taking up market share)

 

[rpghost]

The Game Mechanics people are x-WOTC employees so they get some "inside" help for promotion.

WOTC also will not sell anything exclusive with/to us... I've tried with the PDFs they offer. In fact they want to make the playing field level so they won't do anything for me in the promotion department

I do agree with your comment about getting more "big" publishers on board and links on their front pages. Even more effective is them releasing old product or even (in the case of Atlas Games, Pinnicle, and Guardians of Order) release a product for FREE.

James

 

[Prest0]

WOTC also will not sell anything exclusive with/to us... I've tried with the PDFs they offer. In fact they want to make the playing field level so they won't do anything for me in the promotion department

First there has to be a playing field before it can be leveled. Right now it's more like a mine field.

 

[Morrus]

I've started work on a PDF news site - it should be up and running in the first half of next week. When it appears, it'll be at http://www.enworld.org/pdf/

 

[Tim Tellean]

Help the little guys

Being one of the little guys I find it extremely frustrating that everytime WoTC or S & S or Malhavoc, Mongoose (larger guys) sneeze it makes the news gets instant reviews and generally takes all the attention while we little fish wait patiently for maybe (fingers crossed) to get a review or even a mention from anyone. As fast as we post a news item it disappears and is lost. I think James is doing a decent job giving everybody some exposure but we need to band together a form maybe an advertising co-op and generally get more attention from the boards(this one included) to help us out. The co-op could also help with setting up POD, I know for us the ISBN cost ($300 for 10 ISBN's) has at least postponed our POD hopes, the cost would be reduced for everyone. The only way to get attention is too advertise, advertise, advertise and have an in-store print presence. I have seen mention where people believe the market will shake out the wannabes, much like the dotcoms, I think this is coming and will help to strengthen the PDF industry. Remember we are still very young as a business and as James can attest too we are still in a growth cycle.

 

[Morrus]

The fact that some products were added AFTER Malhavoc's latest but somehow appeared lower in the recent releases made it apparent that PDF site not connected to James' bottom line is important (no offence!). My aim is to create a parallel site very similar to EN World going into PDF releases and reviews in detail.

 

[rpghost]

The fact that some products were added AFTER Malhavoc's latest but somehow appeared lower in the recent releases made it apparent that PDF site not connected to James' bottom line is important (no offence!). My aim is to create a parallel site very similar to EN World going into PDF releases and reviews in detail.

Actually, the problem is that all products added on the same day are shown in ID order. So other products added later that day actually show under the product added earlier that day. I didn't notice that before, I'll see if I can put a sort order on that to fix it. Should be "products_id desc"

In other words, I have no say or ability to change the order in which things are listed on the front page. It's just a database query.

James