Too Many Books. . .?

[Staffan]

Do you have a link for that?

This site isn't quite up to date with the latest stuff, but for pre-2000 releases it should suffice.

 

[Ranger REG]

The problem is not the books, it's coming to terms with the fear that you miss something if you don't always go for the latest greatest. Once you realize that the newest is not always the best, the problem is gone. This may sound a bit like diaglo, but in the end, it's about having fun the way you like it .

Easier said than done. It's peer pressure here. Every time somebody talked about or suggested a feat or rules from a WotC book that I do not own (e.g., Book of Exalted Deed and its VoP crap-ola), there is a decent amount of temptation one has to resist. Which is why I try not to have more than $10 in my wallet, because to have $30-35 on hand means I am going to buy a WotC book.

 

[MerricB]

A company is putting out books too fast if not enough people want to buy those books.

That's it, put simply. It doesn't matter if you alone feel it's too much; it only matters if enough people don't see the need for that many books.

Consider book publishing in general. The industry puts out far more books than any one person can read. Heck, I can't even keep up with all the fantasy books that are produced (even by one publisher).

Is Tor Books putting out too many books then? (To pull an example at random).

There seems to be this obsession with "getting them all" that has only *ever* reflected how (most?) people handled it in the first few years of D&D, if then. The reality is that people tend to buy the books they want.

Collecting series of books is popular - thus the lines of Complete, Races, Environment, Fantastic Locations, Monsters and so forth. I don't buy Forgotten Realms books, but I'm always interested in the next Eberron or Complete book...

Cheers!

 

[buzz]

Is Tor Books putting out too many books then? (To pull an example at random).

I's sort of an awkward comparison, though.

A Tor book costs less to produce, costs less to buy, is easier to use, and theoretically appeals to anyone who can read, though mostly to people who are interested in fantasy/SF.

A D&D book costs more, cost more to create, requires a great deal more effort to use/incorporate, and theoretically only appeals to people who play D&D. More specifically, to people palying the current edition and who have some interest in the subject matter (e.g., I don't buy FR books anymore).

The question Chris Chinn raises is: Is the PR/marketing effort required to maintain fan interest in the supplement cycle, plus the development cost of the product, really cost-effective? Would it possibly be more profitable to sell fewer, but better books that can be hyped louder and longer. And could some of the leftover PR/markleting resources then be used for the possibly more profitable goal of expanding the user base, instead of just trying to sell more products to the same people all the time?

I find these ideas intriguing.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Let us not forget that many of the releases in the bad ol' days of TSR were of very poor quality and many of the settings released were barely supported.

While there is probably a lot of disagreement about the quality of current material, overall you don't here people saying that a particular WotC book was not worth the paper it was printed on.

TSR did more than fragment the market, they also disillusioned their customers. That was where their business model really failed.