seasong
First Post
SJ Games owns e23. In fact, e23 was originally set up to sell SJ Games products!
But we had a store front, all shiny and new, and so we went ahead and starting selling other publishers through it as well, and over the past two years, we've grown that side of the business a fair amount.
The OneBookShelf merger has prompted some discussion within SJ Games (mostly of the "bwahaha" sort), and we want to make sure everyone is aware of their alternatives. And grow our business an obscene amount.
With that said, let me address some common questions:
1. Here are our terms:
* We charge a 20% commission.
* We don't ask for exclusivity.
* You provide us with files to sell, the price you want to sell it at, and info about the file.
* We host the files, provide lifetime download support for registered customers, and handle 99% of all customer service and sales front issues.
* We pay monthly.
* There are no fees outside the commission.
* There are also no fees for hosting free content (as long as you are also selling stuff).
2. Is e23 the right fit for you?
It won't be for everyone. And if our audience and your products aren't a good match, selling on e23 is a gamble (this applies, incidentally, to any store you want to sell at).
We like quirky stuff and cool stuff and insanely well researched stuff and anything-John-Nephew stuff.
We do screen for suitability - we don't want to waste your time or ours if we can avoid it, and making sure your products and our audience make a good match is one of the first things we look at.
3. Will I make more money by being exclusive, or by getting drive-by sales from lots of sites?
I encourage everyone to do the math. Some relevant bits:
Publisher-directed sales: These are the sales from your fans, who prefer to go to the site you point them at. Even if you don't point them at e23 (oh, the horror), you should absolutely point them at the site that offers you the best money.
Drive-by sales: These are sales you get just from being on a particular store front, and having some reasonable match to that site's audience.
Advertising-directed sales: These are sales you get from having an advertisement on a non-store-front site, but who aren't necessarily your fans. In these cases, they may or may not prefer to go to the site you point them at... but you should still point them (in most cases) towards the site that offers you the best money.
Your profit if you are non-exclusive is going to be:
(drive-by sales at OBS x $price x 0.65) + (drive-by sales at other sites x $price x 0.8) + (directed sales to the site of your choice x $price x 0.8). Note: I use 0.8, because that's what you'll get at e23 - sneaky, eh?
Your profit you you are exclusive with OBS is going to be:
(drive-by sales at OBS x $price x 0.6) + (directed sales to OBS x $price x 0.6).
In my own noodlings, if your directed sales comprise 25% of your total sales or more, it's best to diversify. If your directed sales comprise less than 25%, your survival as a publisher is almost wholly reliant on the whims of drive-by sales, and I wish you all the luck at OBS.
For many of you, you're going to have to guess at what your directed sales are. But I suspect it's higher than 25% for most of you. And something to keep in mind is that if you want to experiment first, a non-exclusive contract is a lot easier to get out of than the exclusive contract - for e23, it's 30 days' notice. Nothing more.
So if this sounds good to you, email me (e23@sjgames.com). Include a website, a general description of your products, maybe an overview of your market. I (and a few others) are devoting a lot of time over the coming week or two to go over them (including those I've already gotten).
But we had a store front, all shiny and new, and so we went ahead and starting selling other publishers through it as well, and over the past two years, we've grown that side of the business a fair amount.
The OneBookShelf merger has prompted some discussion within SJ Games (mostly of the "bwahaha" sort), and we want to make sure everyone is aware of their alternatives. And grow our business an obscene amount.
With that said, let me address some common questions:
1. Here are our terms:
* We charge a 20% commission.
* We don't ask for exclusivity.
* You provide us with files to sell, the price you want to sell it at, and info about the file.
* We host the files, provide lifetime download support for registered customers, and handle 99% of all customer service and sales front issues.
* We pay monthly.
* There are no fees outside the commission.
* There are also no fees for hosting free content (as long as you are also selling stuff).
2. Is e23 the right fit for you?
It won't be for everyone. And if our audience and your products aren't a good match, selling on e23 is a gamble (this applies, incidentally, to any store you want to sell at).
We like quirky stuff and cool stuff and insanely well researched stuff and anything-John-Nephew stuff.
We do screen for suitability - we don't want to waste your time or ours if we can avoid it, and making sure your products and our audience make a good match is one of the first things we look at.
3. Will I make more money by being exclusive, or by getting drive-by sales from lots of sites?
I encourage everyone to do the math. Some relevant bits:
Publisher-directed sales: These are the sales from your fans, who prefer to go to the site you point them at. Even if you don't point them at e23 (oh, the horror), you should absolutely point them at the site that offers you the best money.
Drive-by sales: These are sales you get just from being on a particular store front, and having some reasonable match to that site's audience.
Advertising-directed sales: These are sales you get from having an advertisement on a non-store-front site, but who aren't necessarily your fans. In these cases, they may or may not prefer to go to the site you point them at... but you should still point them (in most cases) towards the site that offers you the best money.
Your profit if you are non-exclusive is going to be:
(drive-by sales at OBS x $price x 0.65) + (drive-by sales at other sites x $price x 0.8) + (directed sales to the site of your choice x $price x 0.8). Note: I use 0.8, because that's what you'll get at e23 - sneaky, eh?
Your profit you you are exclusive with OBS is going to be:
(drive-by sales at OBS x $price x 0.6) + (directed sales to OBS x $price x 0.6).
In my own noodlings, if your directed sales comprise 25% of your total sales or more, it's best to diversify. If your directed sales comprise less than 25%, your survival as a publisher is almost wholly reliant on the whims of drive-by sales, and I wish you all the luck at OBS.
For many of you, you're going to have to guess at what your directed sales are. But I suspect it's higher than 25% for most of you. And something to keep in mind is that if you want to experiment first, a non-exclusive contract is a lot easier to get out of than the exclusive contract - for e23, it's 30 days' notice. Nothing more.
So if this sounds good to you, email me (e23@sjgames.com). Include a website, a general description of your products, maybe an overview of your market. I (and a few others) are devoting a lot of time over the coming week or two to go over them (including those I've already gotten).
