Pricing a PDF?

[Prest0]

So ideally, the publisher is getting 40% of retail or $9.60. Subtract from the the cost of printing - let's go with a round number and say $2.00. In a perfect world the publisher is gaining $7.60 gross or so from each book sale to the distributor. I'm not including all the random costs such as warehousing and shipping companies get nailed with.

I recently saw a 32-page pdf I would like to buy listed for $6.95. I'll probably pick it up, but it still seems dang high to me. And, no, it's not offered in print - although I'm sure you could get POD.

Yes, it seems like you're focusing totally on printing and distribution while ignoring all the other costs. Writing. Editing. Interior artwork. Cover artwork. Layout. A website to support the product line. Just because it's not in print doesn't mean there aren't a lot of expenses involved in its production.

Of course, if you buy a poorly written and edited PDF with crummy artwork, then yes--you were screwed.

 

[pogre]

I do think it's a scale issue. You just plain are not going to sell as many copies. Indie prices are always a little higher and I can live with that. Economy of scale and all that...

There are fewer costs involved with creating a pdf product, but less return too. That probably is not changing anytime soon.

 

[pogre]

Here's an interesting article on this very topic. I think the short message is that most rpg design houses are underpricing themselves out of business. Not something I want to admit, but hey, at least I'm honest.

 

[rpghost]

As Arwink pointed out, sales of a PDF product will be somewhere between one and two orders of magnitude smaller than a print product (with rare exceptions).
... you'll be selling between 1% and 10% of a printed product's volume;

I donno where you're getting your numbers and they are most likely out of date. PDFs are evergreen products and constantly sell for years, but even so- hundreds of products have sold over 100 copies. In fact well over 100 have sold 250 or more. In the print world these days, print runs of 500-1000 are many times not even sold out. The retail stores are hurting and the d20 glut is collecting it's dues.

So we are quickly appoaching a time in this industry where you can sell about half as much in PDF as you would in print. At the very least I would say you can typically see 25% of the print run in PDF sales WITHOUT hurting your print sales at all!

James

 

[DaveStebbins]

That's good to hear. My information was indeed dated, but the best I had to offer.

Thank you James.

-Dave

 

[BASHMAN]

As a general rule of thumb, I price items based on the price of other items with a similar content and page count. For isntance, 12 dollars is not an outrageous cost for an 80 page role-playing system if there are dozens of others selling for 12 dollars (or more). However, if the going rate is 5 dollars, you cannot get away with charging 12.

 

[GRIMJIM]

I tend to think about a dollar every 10 pages seems about right, but capping out around $10 or so as this seems to be a psychological barrier for 'indy' material.

 

[ukgpublishing]

I tend to think about a dollar every 10 pages seems about right, but capping out around $10 or so as this seems to be a psychological barrier for 'indy' material.

I'd have to disagree with the cap. Year of the Zombie is selling well at $12. The key to selling a product is 'selling' the product, the price will be a factor but that can be overcome with good marketing and a good product.

 

[BryonD]

I also disagree with the $10 cap. I've bought several great PDFs at well over $10.
But I do agree that the price to page ratio is important.
There have been quite a few PDFs I have clicked on recently with the full intent to buy and then stopped when I saw the page to $ ratio.

I don't believe that publishers are pricing themselves out of business. Gaming publishing is lower profit than most other publishing. That's just the reality of it. You're competing with people like Pogre who are just happy to be published at all..... Kinda limits the profit margins.

Price to high on the other hand and you will price yourself out of a market. Of course this particualr problem is always self-correcting. So no big deal there either.

 

[HinterWelt]

I price our books based on the cost of production combined with what the market will absorb. That said, Roma Imperious is priced about 12.99 and sells o.k. This reflects how much we make through print distribution.

Bill