JohnNephew said:
For example, we've cut publishing for d20 entirely. Ars Magica books sell better than d20 for us, and I suspect that part of the reason is that the Ars Magica audience is loyal and understands that buying is not only getting a book but supporting a hobby, a specific game that they play and love and wish to see continue.
That's a possibility, but I think the trouble with d20, is you can't treat it like other games. From my POV anyway, that's what Atlas seems to have done. For one, it's a different market; for another, you have to compete with others.
For instance, most (all?) of Atlas's d20 stuff is aimed at DMs. Which dramatically reduces the market size. And most of the subject matter is quirky, very quirky. I think the only mainstream product was the monster book, and that was a 3.0 release after 3.5 had come out (or close to it).
To a certain extent, it's why Woody Allen doesn't direct action movies.
And not to be mean, the production values on a lot of Atlas's d20 products, especially the adventures, were not up to industry standards. You can get away with that when you don't have to compete with anyone. But particularly in adventures, you have to compete with everyone else, and D&D itself, in the guise of Dungeon. Glossy, full color, great value. I'm not sure anyone can really compete there, because of the latter, even with great production values, they can't compete with cost.
Not to mention marketing. Presumably every Ars Magica fan on Earth takes it upon themselves to keep up on what the releases are. But d20 fans can't do that. Atlas is fairly invisible when it comes to marketing, especially online.
For instance, you say one of your earlier sourcebooks sold 20 times better than your last one. Well, that's because most people don't know what your last one way. I'm guessing the first one was "Touched by the Gods" which did in fact have a decent amount of buzz when it came out...