Price to content ratio for PDFs

[Rifter]

Philp J Reed's books, many of them, are under $5. That is kind of annoying at times, really, but his prices are reasonable.

 

[jmucchiello]

I don't know Joe's Book of Enchantment was $5 for its first 4 months of existance and only managed around 140 sales in that time period. Jan 1 I raised the price to $6.95 and it still sells around 8 copies a month. Not bad for a title in its 8th month of release.

Hellhound: Sales on CC: Assassin's Manifesto is more likely low because there are akready several in print assassins books. Also, didn't a couple assassin / poison PDFs come out at a similar time? I would guess it just came out at the wrong time.

 

[Cergorach]

I disagree.

I personally feel the main thing that has been hurting sales of Crimson Contracts : the Assassin's Manifesto has been the $7.50 price tag.

128 page book, illustrated. $19.95 is a good estimate on street price for it... But $7.50 is just too rich for good sales of a PDF product.

No offense HellHound, but would it sell well if it had a street price of $19.95 and was in print? Do people really want it?

I have recently purchased "A magical Medieval Society: Western Europe" by Expeditious Retreat Press for $10 (136 pages, no illustrations) and i can say i'm not sorry i bought it. I'll use it extensively!

Half the price of a printed product makes people actually think, do i want this or not. I prefer sharp pricing to cheap pricing mostly because it culls the herd, and makes it worthwile for the publisher. Usefulness and quality are of course the most important aspects, some people seem to forget that though. Because why would i buy a product that isn't useful to me (either for use or amusement).

Malhavoc's Beasts of the Id is decently priced at $5, but NOT at $7. Still i have to ask myself, do i want another book of psionic monsters at $5? (besides it getting in print in a couple of weeks/months and i'll get it for sure then)

 

[philreed]

Under $5 Prices

Philp J Reed's books, many of them, are under $5. That is kind of annoying at times, really, but his prices are reasonable.

Most of my PDFs are priced under $5. I just don't feel that it's fair to charge $5 for less than 32 pages and hope that a potential customer would rather wait and purchase one of my PDFs with another one that he'll enjoy.

I had considered creating only 32 page + PDFs from now on but there are some ideas I have that must be shorter. The expanded version of 101 Spellbooks took it to 59 pages so I upped the price to $6. If future revisions/expansions of PDFs increase their size to 32 pages or so I will increase the price.

I don't feel that 1/2 print price is fair for PDFs. That seems a little high.

I'm rambling. Sorry, just tired still from the trip.

 

[Blacksad]

and some PDF are just fine under $5, such as Gori's men, Floating City, and other short PDF (and some very good one, from the poster above ).

 

[Vigilance]

Well- unlike many reviewers- including some well known ones- I honestly couldnt care less about the page count to price comparison.

I look at value when I buy something, and Id rather pay 10 bucks for 64 well written pages than 5 bucks for 128 poorly written ones.

I frequently see reviews which state "8 bucks for 128 pages = average value".

I look at quality first.

 

[PosterBoy]

I disagree.

I personally feel the main thing that has been hurting sales of Crimson Contracts : the Assassin's Manifesto has been the $7.50 price tag.

128 page book, illustrated. $19.95 is a good estimate on street price for it... But $7.50 is just too rich for good sales of a PDF product.

I have to disagree here. 50% (give or take 5-10%) of print is fair and I think going less than that just means lost revenue.

If you weren't happy Crimson Contract sales (not sure of that is what you saying above), I personally feel the name of product could have been a bigger factor. Nice descriptive names go a long way to getting people to click on the product. Crimson Contracts: the Assassin's Manifesto is very creative, but it’s not entirely clear what is it. Is it adventure? Sourcebook? Npcs? D20? Something like, Crimson Contracts: d20 Assassin Guide might have been more descriptive to someone that knows nothing of your products. Just my 2 cents there.

But back to the topic…

Darwin’s World (128) pages sells at $10 and does just fine.
Blood and Space (117) pages sells at $8.95 and did very well for us.

Also, there’s more than just price to consider. Both those are sci-fi products and that means less sales than fantasy. I have to consider that and price accordingly. I’ve herd Jim Butler say several times to price the book so you can make a fair profit, and nothing less. People are going to buy it if they want it. Don't price gouge people, but don’t undersell either.

A good example would be my GM Mastery books. Those are more expensive for me to produce. NPC Essentials was 80 pages for $9. That’s a high price for the page count for sure, but I needed it at that price. It didn’t affect sales one bit. In fact, it was my highest selling first month for a product (over 170+). Of course Johnn Four’s name had a lot to do with that…

BTW, I think your Deadly Games POD is way under price. A print book of 96 pages is often 17.96-19.95. I was shocked to see it at 13.95.

I think the POD stuff is near print quality. I think you should have priced it more in line with standard print books and put it on-sale for 13.95. Again, just my 2 cents.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

128 page book, illustrated. $19.95 is a good estimate on street price for it... But $7.50 is just too rich for good sales of a PDF product.

Do you think so? I think $7.50 for a 128 page PDF is a good value, assuming a writer of at least average skill produced it. I agree somewhat with the previous poster who suggested that the title might be a little ambiguous. Also, the reason I haven't purchased it is that I'm not particularly interested in it right now (no offense ). I'm just focused on other things at the moment (d20 Modern).

But if I were in the market for a book on assassins, I'd snatch up 128 pages of PDF for $7.50 in a free action. In fact, I would be willing to pay as much as $9.50 for it, which brings me to the "ceiling" observation. Does anyone know of a PDF d20 product that sells for more than $10.00? I can't think of one, but there probably is at least one out there.

Im my mind, as a consumer and a publisher, I see the $10.00 mark as a barrier that I'm not willing to cross. As a consumer, the product would have to be damn good, very rare, and exactly what I need, before I'll pay more than $10.00 for it. Being over 150 pages long would help too.

As a publisher, I wouldn't try to sell something at more than $10.00 without really doing my homework first.

Someone above mentioned a 250 page PDF (I think). As a consumer, I would seriously consider paying more than $10.00 for it (based on page count alone). Therefore, as a publisher, I would give it serious thought too. I wouldn't dare go over $12.00 without doing a lot of market research though, either.

Furthermore, I remeber reading a conversation between Ryan Dancy and some game designer. Ryan was defending WotC's pricing and he argued that game designers were selling themselves short.

Mr. Dancy is very good at what he does. When he makes observations about the industry, I listen closely.

One final point and i'll shut up

Personally, I believe that sales are more contingent on "Market Appeal" than on the page count or price.

 

[rpghost]

Does anyone know of a PDF d20 product that sells for more than $10.00? I can't think of one, but there probably is at least one out there.

As a publisher, I wouldn't try to sell something at more than $10.00 without really doing my homework first.

Its for this reason that I recomend people split up books over 150 pages. Sell it as seperate sections.

Though, there are some books that have done well over $10 (ePublisher Guide for an extream example)- it definatly takes something unique or of highest quality to do it.

Anyway, to get a listing of d20 products priced at 10 or more (regardless of specials):

http://www.rpgnow.com/advanced_sear...rice_min=10.00&show_images=1&d20=1&system=d20


James

 

[Scott Lynch]

Its for this reason that I recomend people split up books over 150 pages. Sell it as seperate sections.

As the seller of a 376-page PDF, I quite understand this sentiment-- but my reason for keeping *Deeds Not Words 1.1* together at that ridiculous size was to preserve the advantage of internal linking. It has a rather elaborate set of bookmarks and clickable links, and having to switch back and forth between two large PDFs to learn and cross-reference a complex system-- well, ugh.

Though, there are some books that have done well over $10 (ePublisher Guide for an extream example)- it definatly takes something unique or of highest quality to do it.

The original DNW was 318 pages for $10, and it sold 300+ copies off my website. DNW 1.1, 376 pages at $11.95, has currently sold 37 copies at RPGnow.com and 42 off my own website, since mid-April.

I doubt I'll ever do anything so large again, but DNW was no disappointment. In fact, it's outsold my original optimistic projection four times over.

As far as other pricing concerns– my PDFs tend to contain less art and a more pedestrian layout than some of the really, really nice ones produced by some of the folks posting in this forum (hatesssss Philip Reed, hatesss him, my precioussss, nasssty lovely PDFsses...), so I rarely feel comfortable offering less than 40 pages for $5.00. *Killers I* was an exception at 28, because it contains quite a few illustrations-- but *The Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks* was 45 pages at $5, and the BODD Modern is 60 pages for the same price.

Cheers,

SL