RangerWickett
Legend
As most of you are aware, ENWorld supports a pdf publishing company, Natural 20 Press. Its first product, Wild Spellcraft, was graciously brought into a print format by Mystic Eye Games, and can hopefully be found in your local gaming store.
A lot of pdf publishers aren't fortunate enough to get a print run, though, and have to rely on people seeing their work for sale at RPGNow.com. There are definitely many nice books on RPGNow that will sell, at best, a few hundred copies, simply because the online market is about a twentieth the size of the print market.
Also, a lot of people don't like pdfs, preferring to have books they can hold in their hands without having to waste whole lots of ink on. However, there is the option that a few publishers provide for Print-On-Demand books. Often these books are printed and bound with just the same quality as a softcover book you'd buy from a bookstore (though sometimes they're just bound by plastic rings).
Now, I have two points to make about this.
1. If you go to the home page of www.RPGNow.com, you'll see that they're asking if people would be interested in a print-on-demand service. If you're interested in that prospect, please swing by the website and send in an email. I know a lot of people aren't thrilled about pdfs, but with print-on-demand, you can get a full book, with double-sided pages, an actual cardstock cover, and proper binding. It's not quite as cheap as if there were a full print run, but it lets you get a hardcopy version. As Morrus himself stated on the Nat20 forum, the hardcopy version of Four-Color to Fantasy that he has is gorgeous.
2. Pdf products don't get much exposure, since you'll never see them on the shelf in your local bookstore. How likely do you think it is that local game stores might be able to stock a catalogue of digital gaming products that are available. It might not be terribly prominent, but it would be more publicity than we're getting online. The poll refers to the first question, and if you want to answer the second one, post below.
A lot of pdf publishers aren't fortunate enough to get a print run, though, and have to rely on people seeing their work for sale at RPGNow.com. There are definitely many nice books on RPGNow that will sell, at best, a few hundred copies, simply because the online market is about a twentieth the size of the print market.
Also, a lot of people don't like pdfs, preferring to have books they can hold in their hands without having to waste whole lots of ink on. However, there is the option that a few publishers provide for Print-On-Demand books. Often these books are printed and bound with just the same quality as a softcover book you'd buy from a bookstore (though sometimes they're just bound by plastic rings).
Now, I have two points to make about this.
1. If you go to the home page of www.RPGNow.com, you'll see that they're asking if people would be interested in a print-on-demand service. If you're interested in that prospect, please swing by the website and send in an email. I know a lot of people aren't thrilled about pdfs, but with print-on-demand, you can get a full book, with double-sided pages, an actual cardstock cover, and proper binding. It's not quite as cheap as if there were a full print run, but it lets you get a hardcopy version. As Morrus himself stated on the Nat20 forum, the hardcopy version of Four-Color to Fantasy that he has is gorgeous.
2. Pdf products don't get much exposure, since you'll never see them on the shelf in your local bookstore. How likely do you think it is that local game stores might be able to stock a catalogue of digital gaming products that are available. It might not be terribly prominent, but it would be more publicity than we're getting online. The poll refers to the first question, and if you want to answer the second one, post below.
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