So has d20 been viable?

[gooplaux]

To the small publishers out there, a heartfelt thanks.

My question is, I'm considering doing some stuff for d20 as well. How have your products done, in particular the PDF products? How do they do in term of sales?

Thanks for any help or guidance.

Gooplaux

 

[HellHound]

With the possible exception of Monte Cook's products, PDF publishing is nothing to write home about. Sales are generally fairly slim, and to make it pay off you are best to be doing your own layout and so on. So unless you really are multi-talented, the products don't come out as professional-looking as most printed releases (there are obviously exceptions to this - there are PDF products that look and feel better than some print products).

But honestly, if I wanted to support JUST my gaming purchases with the income of my electronic sales, I would have to release my books twice as frequently as I do.

 

[rpghost]

PDF products and sales vary widely. The most popular products are d20 source books writen by proven publishers or authors. The least popular are any non-d20 and any adventures modules. So your results will very widely, but if you're a new comer and only have an adventure to sell, don't expect to pay for much more then the cost of creating it.

In general, you'll see about 10/th the sales in PDF for as you would in print form. But then again, you're not shelling out $1000-$4000 to print the stuff and don't have to deal with getting into a distributor the hard way.

Keep in mind though, that PDF is an excellent method to refine your work and get it ready to print. Several companies are doing just that. Plus I honestly believe it won't effect your sales through the standard distributor channels once you do decide to go to print. We'll have some more data on that shortly with Darwin's World as well as several other RPGNow.com products going to print in time for GenCon 2002.

In short, do it because you love to. This is not an industry many make a living at. It's a hobby for most. PDF being a very good way to test market your ideas...

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

 

[The Sigil]

Echo...

I have to echo Jason's (Hellhound's) thoughts on this one....

PDF is a great way to get your work out there, but don't quit your day job to do it. Your products will probably be good in some places and rough in others; that's the nature of the thing.

At the current rate of sales for my product, I would need to have close to 50 products out there, all selling at the same rate my current product is selling, in order to totally replace my income from my day job. Granted, not having a day job would give me more time to get more products out there, but still, that's a LOT of work! Now my day job pays fairly well, so YMMV, but I daresay that it is almost impossible to live solely off PDF sales - with Monte Cook being a possible exception.

For me, I do it because I love it and because it brings in a little extra cash... which I use as my "gaming fund" - I restrict my gaming purchases to the amount I earn from my PDF sales. That way, as sales peter off over time, in order to purchase more gaming stuff I force myself to make another contribution to the gaming community.

--Spencer "The Sigil" Cooley

 

[MEG Hal]

I have not seen any huge amount of money from our first .pdf product, but it sold well and we made some money, BUT we had professional writers, artists, and layout and editing on it...so IMHO like was stated above use it to help pay bills or your gaming addiction do not expect it to replace what you are doing now.

Thunderhead Games could not afford to just do pdf items. BUT we will be doing more in the future that are exclusive in pdf format.

 

[Monte At Home]

I don't feel the need to add anything about the money you earn in pdf format, because others have covered that well (and my own experiences are atypical).

I will agree that doing both pdf and print versions of the same product doesn't seem to hurt print sales. It's my theory that many (not all, clearly) of the people buying pdf products are people who would not have bought the print version anyway because they live far from a game store, the price would be too high, etc.

I won't agree that it's a good plan to put out a "test" version of a product in pdf to refine it when it comes out in print. Pdf will never succeed as a viable platform if people think of those versions as a beta version. We don't look at our products that way. We look at them as two different versions, like coming out with music on both CD and cassette, or putting out software for both Mac and PC.

 

[rpghost]

I won't agree that it's a good plan to put out a "test" version of a product in pdf to refine it when it comes out in print. Pdf will never succeed as a viable platform if people think of those versions as a beta version. We don't look at our products that way.

I did not mean it that way. Of course you should do your best and make the most effective PDF you can. My point was that if there isn't an interest in your product offering even when doing your best, you learn that earlier and with much reduced cash risk. Or that if you had still made mistakes after 5 editors combed over the product- you still have a chance to take user feedback and improve the product before print. But by no means release a sub-par or half-ass PDF as you'll just shoot yourself in the foot.

As for sales, we DO send some rather large checks to people BESIDES Monte So don't get the opinion that no one is making some good money on PDF products.

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

 

[MEG Hal]

IAs for sales, we DO send some rather large checks to people BESIDES Monte So don't get the opinion that no one is making some good money on PDF products.

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

I am not complaining at all, we are doing fine, but I wanted people to be aware not to expect a huge bundle of capitol coming to them because they release a pdf.

 

[gooplaux]

I am not complaining at all, we are doing fine, but I wanted people to be aware not to expect a huge bundle of capitol coming to them because they release a pdf.

Thanks all. One more requests: It'd be great if you could get specific as in are you talking about hundreds or thousands in terms of sales for PDFs and printed adventures.. or am I pushing my luck?

I do hope that publishers release more stuff in PDF. Where I live it's impossible to get hold of some stuff since there's so much of it and the local retail shop can't bring everything in.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Morrus]

If I was recieving all the money myself for Natural 20 Press .pdf sales, I could make a decent living at it - so if you're doing all the work yourself, and you can get good sales figures, then, yes, it's possible.

As you bring in other people, though, it becomes less viable (but, conversely, your project becomes more professional and so probably sells more - I have no figures to show how Nat 20 products would sell if they were all done solely by myself, but I suspect they'd be considerably less).

I'll be straight - each Nat 20 product nets well over $2000 in the first month, and that's when we sell it very cheaply ($5). I have no doubt that I could increase that price, and may try it for future products (an increase from $5 to $6.95 made no difference at all to sales of Wild Spellcraft)). Of coure, a lot of that goes to paying people (and Nat 20 is very generous with that, given its "community publisher" role), so I personally make much, much less than that.

All in all, it doesn't compare to print products - although I should find out firsthand when I see the sales figures on the print version of Wild Spellcraft.