PDFs - Does size matter?

[philreed]

Ronin Arts - I haven't purchased anything from Phil because I won't buy short PDF's.

If you think all that Ronin Arts produces is short PDFs then you've been missing out on a lot.

And if you think all of our collections are just collected PDFs zipped then you've been missing out on a lot.

Basically, you've been missing out. But there appears to be no way that I can change your mind so I'm finished trying. My last words are:

I prefer quality over quantity. ANYONE can write tens of thousands of words of pure crap. I'd rather buy a few thousand valuable words.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Interesting thread, except for the flaming. I'm in the final stages of writing on my first PDF book (see sig.), and I've been worrying if it has grown too long. The first Vikings D20 book, Midgard, is looking to be roughly 200 pages. Is it too much?

What is the going price on a PDF that size? (It is of course of the highest possible quality! )

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Interesting thread, except for the flaming. I'm in the final stages of writing on my first PDF book (see sig.), and I've been worrying if it has grown too long. The first Vikings D20book, Midgard, is looking to be roughly 200 pages. Is it too much?

What is the going price on a PDF that size? (It is of course of the highest possible quality! )

My experience would lend me to tell you to break it up if possible.

 

[BASHMAN]

I think people would buy it.

If you sold the pdf for say 12-15 dollars, you should get people to buy it.

 

[jmucchiello]

I prefer quality over quantity. ANYONE can write tens of thousands of words of pure crap. I'd rather buy a few thousand valuable words.

And this concept is what led me to try small PDFs. Too bad my first stalled at only 20 sales.

But I have a few more coming soon, hopefully that will help.

 

[GMSkarka]

It's an addon, and because it's small, it now requires me to either deposit money into an account, or pile on a bunch of other crap just to meet minumum order requirements.

Actually, that's no longer true.

If you want to check out below the minimum order requirement, RPGNow lets you do that by paying a 35 cent processing fee.

Since there is no sales tax on internet sales, RPGNow felt that this wasn't a hardship for most folks, and allows people who want the ability to check out with any amount of product to do so.

 

[philreed]

And this concept is what led me to try small PDFs. Too bad my first stalled at only 20 sales.

But I have a few more coming soon, hopefully that will help.

In my experience PDF sales stall because people can't find the PDFs. Every PDF sales site has massive issues with organization that lead to problems for publishers and customers. I can't count the number of times someone has asked for a product and basically described an already existing PDF.

Until the various PDF sales sites find a way to better organize the products this is going to continue to be a problem.

 

[GMSkarka]

The first Vikings D20 book, Midgard, is looking to be roughly 200 pages. Is it too much?

Yes, that's too long.

My advice would be to look at what RPGObjects does with their large products (which they also release in hardcover): They split it into two or more PDF releases, organized by subject (a players book and a GM's book, for example).

 

[GMSkarka]

In my experience PDF sales stall because people can't find the PDFs.

Bingo.

Which makes marketing efforts by the publisher critical, perhaps even more critical than for print publishers. In PDF, your chances of being spotted "on the shelf" at random is much lower than for print.

Even RPGNow's market data backs this up. More than half of sales are coming from direct links to products, rather than browsing. That means that the publishers have to work hard on selling the product....the concept, mentioned by somebody above, that "exposure on the front page" is going to sell your product is just not true.

 

[DMH]

So what are three quality PDFs in your opinion?

Shaping the Self

Book of Templates (Deluxe Edition)

Enchiridion of Treasures and Objects D'Art

And for non-d20

vs Monsters (main file and supplement)

Aquavita