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<blockquote data-quote="Cergorach" data-source="post: 8037951" data-attributes="member: 725"><p>Is it? I know that there are quite a few small companies that operate that way and make a 'profit', the question is: "What are they paying themselves and others?". We've had so many discussions about freelancers not earning much, the same is true for a lot of smaller companies, paying themselves peanuts because that's the industry 'standard'. Some small companies become somewhat larger companies, like Monte Cook Games. But it seems to me that folks are often only looking at the success stories and not at all those that failed and you never noticed. I suspect that very few small companies that start actually make a decent profit. In theory it could be done with the right people who have ALL the right skills, have the right idea, with the right sized target audience group, at the right time, in the right economy. In practice, most folks starting these small companies lack a lot of the skills or are just missing the right idea, started in the wrong economic period, or just are targeting a far to small audience...</p><p></p><p>There are a limited amount of potential customers, those have a limited pool to spend on RPG books (and other hobby articles), so these companies are all competing for a piece of the same pie. And it's often just down to who can capture the most audience for their own niche product, often ending up competing with others servicing the same niche. It all reminds me so much of the D20 glut we had after the OGL release. At least with KS people aren't printing a TON of books which don't end up selling all that much...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cergorach, post: 8037951, member: 725"] Is it? I know that there are quite a few small companies that operate that way and make a 'profit', the question is: "What are they paying themselves and others?". We've had so many discussions about freelancers not earning much, the same is true for a lot of smaller companies, paying themselves peanuts because that's the industry 'standard'. Some small companies become somewhat larger companies, like Monte Cook Games. But it seems to me that folks are often only looking at the success stories and not at all those that failed and you never noticed. I suspect that very few small companies that start actually make a decent profit. In theory it could be done with the right people who have ALL the right skills, have the right idea, with the right sized target audience group, at the right time, in the right economy. In practice, most folks starting these small companies lack a lot of the skills or are just missing the right idea, started in the wrong economic period, or just are targeting a far to small audience... There are a limited amount of potential customers, those have a limited pool to spend on RPG books (and other hobby articles), so these companies are all competing for a piece of the same pie. And it's often just down to who can capture the most audience for their own niche product, often ending up competing with others servicing the same niche. It all reminds me so much of the D20 glut we had after the OGL release. At least with KS people aren't printing a TON of books which don't end up selling all that much... [/QUOTE]
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