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<blockquote data-quote="JLowder" data-source="post: 9466089" data-attributes="member: 28003">The novels did not &quot;kill&quot; TSR. The narrative that talks about all the book trade returns in the TSR warehouse at the time WotC bought the company fails to mention that the returns were caused not by lack of sales, but by TSR ending the distribution deal with Random House, one of a series of bad moves by upper management. RH returned everything they had in their distribution warehouses because they no longer had a deal with TSR to sell the product and they got money back for any unsold product they returned.Yes, TSR released too many novels after 1994 or 1995, but they released too many of everything after that point, in part because they were desperate for big hits, in part because they were exploiting their distribution contract with Random House, which paid the company on ship, not sale. (And, again, when the ended the distribution deal with Random House, RH could return anything unsold for credit, expanding TSR's debt at the worst possible time.)Overall, the novels were selling fine even to the end, not as strong as they had been back in 90 or 92, but steadily for many of the books. A lot of the novels that were returned would have sold eventually, unlike many of the game products, which tended to have a more limited sales window. The fiction tended to have a much longer sales &quot;tail.&quot; I have a good sense of how the novels were selling in 96 and 97 because TSR still owed me and many of the other authors a lot of royalties in those last years--royalties WotC paid when they took over the company. (In fact, I still get royalties from Hasbro regularly for sales of my Realms and Ravenloft fiction, even 30+ years later.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JLowder, post: 9466089, member: 28003"] The novels did not "kill" TSR. The narrative that talks about all the book trade returns in the TSR warehouse at the time WotC bought the company fails to mention that the returns were caused not by lack of sales, but by TSR ending the distribution deal with Random House, one of a series of bad moves by upper management. RH returned everything they had in their distribution warehouses because they no longer had a deal with TSR to sell the product and they got money back for any unsold product they returned. Yes, TSR released too many novels after 1994 or 1995, but they released too many of everything after that point, in part because they were desperate for big hits, in part because they were exploiting their distribution contract with Random House, which paid the company on ship, not sale. (And, again, when the ended the distribution deal with Random House, RH could return anything unsold for credit, expanding TSR's debt at the worst possible time.) Overall, the novels were selling fine even to the end, not as strong as they had been back in 90 or 92, but steadily for many of the books. A lot of the novels that were returned would have sold eventually, unlike many of the game products, which tended to have a more limited sales window. The fiction tended to have a much longer sales "tail." I have a good sense of how the novels were selling in 96 and 97 because TSR still owed me and many of the other authors a lot of royalties in those last years--royalties WotC paid when they took over the company. (In fact, I still get royalties from Hasbro regularly for sales of my Realms and Ravenloft fiction, even 30+ years later.) [/QUOTE]

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