Price of PDFs (Poll)

[mroberon1972]

I was wondering the price that most people would pay for a 64 page PDF (a standard size in the industry).

I would also like to hear other's comments on this question, and other publishers are welcome to chime in (Like I could stop you ).

 

[Crothian]

It depends more then just page count. I know that's probably not what you want to hear though. It also depends on the company producing the pdf and the track record of that company.

But to just force an answer I'll say 6 bucks.

 

[mroberon1972]

Crothian, you're right. But there is no good way to deal with that, though...

Simply, let's try it this way: Consider it's a new publisher, and that the PDF is possibly somthing you can use.

I guess that this is a poll to determine what a person would pay based on what prices they are used to paying... In other words: When is it too much?

 

[Li Shenron]

I wouldn't pay more than 5$. But reality is that I don't like PDF for RPGs, I want only real books I would use a rulebook in electronic form only as a reference during gaming if it had awesome browsing facilities, such as being fully-crosslinked HTML.

 

[Cor Azer]

I voted for $6, but that's qualified with a very important "if it's of great use to me." I don't buy RPG sourcebooks lightly, and books filled with rarely needed optional rules, alternate magic systems, or worse more monster, spells, and magic items are of little use to me. The core books have a lot of options I've yet to explore, so I don't need more of the same.

That said, I do tend to prefer PDFs to actual books for a lot of things - for example, my prep work is easier because I have limited desk space, and I tend to work on my computer anyways, so PDFs are great for that.

 

[diaglo]

you don't have the exact choice i would pick. but roughly what it is worth would be my answer.

if it was a good subject with a decent author and few mistakes i would buy it.

but i don't buy pdfs. they aren't worth it for me.

 

[Prest0]

Here's my $0.02.

I think there are too many variables to get very helpful information from this poll. I would be VERY wary about making any sort of business decisions based on the results. People might pay less (or more) for paper minutures than a player aid, or more for a GM aid than a 1-shot adventure.

Something else to consider is that people don't always answer correctly on polls. If you polled people on how they would choose a plumber, probably 80% of them would tell you they'd pick one from the yellow pages. But if went back and asked them how they picked a plumber last time they needed one, more than half would probably tell you they asked for recommendations from a family member, friend, colleague, etc. When digging for this kind of information, it's generally better to ask about what has already happened rather than asking them to predict future behavior.

Thus, you might ask "What is the most you've ever spent on a PDF product?" and possibly in follow-up "Would you do so again?"

A better way to get a feel for where to price your product is to scan a list of similar products and get a feel for the average price.

I hope I'm not sounding too harsh. That's not my intention at all.

 

[Crothian]

I think if you are new to publishing, have no name recognizition, you need to have a realtively cheap pdf. So, I'd go with 5 for that situation. I might pay more if I read previews or reviews that said it was really good though.

Most expensive pdf I've seen is Sidewinder which is around 16 dollars. I think it is a little overpriced, but one cannot igore the quality of book. It is very well done. Many print publishers have been releaseing print products as pdf s I I think some of these are overpriced as well. But with them it becomes how much more are you willing to pay for the print versions. And since most of the books they are releasing have been out for quite a while, one can pick them up used for pretty good prices.

But I ramble.....

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, a bit tougher than you might think to answer that. I buy a fair number of PDFs, and the amount I am willing to pay depends entirely on the product.

In general I buy things that fall into two categories:

Those that I will need to print multiple copies of - forms are a prime example, I have used Campaign Planner a fair amount for example, as well as Character archive. I bought both on DMs Day, and they were less than $5 apiece.

Terrain such as World Works is another example of this, and I pay around $15 for them.

The other category I like in regards to PDFs are the ones where I am not likely to need to print the whole thing at once. I have used both Book of Templates and Librum Equitus compiled in this manner. I paid around $7.00 each for these. if I recall.

Though I do own other PDFs that fall into neither category - A MAgical Midieval Society: Western Europe leaps to mind. I paid $10 for this, and found it well worth the money.

I would say that $5 - $7 would be a fair range, depending on the nature of the material.

And let the community know what you are selling! A sample that shows the quality of the product is a good idea - it was the free sample from MMS:WE on cities that sold me, if it hadn't been such a useful sample t might not have done the job, but it sold me not only on MMS:WE but on the sequel that covers cultures and world creation.

Oh, and by the way - I have found the script that you made for Fractal Mapper pretty handy, just thought that I'd take the opportunity to thank you in a public forum.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* And folks should bear in mind that the sales on PDFs are small enough that the price really can't drop below a certain point - it just isn't worth the writer/publisher's time otherwise.

 

[KB9JMQ]

It is really according to the PDF.
To me some are more valuable than books while others are less.
In most cases though if I already have the book also getting the PDF is of lower value since I don't use a computer while playing.