Trying out a super-sale

[BSF]

Bleah, I tried to reply earlier today and received a timeout.

James,
Thanks for the pointers. I will try to check them out soon, probably not until after work.

Clearly, I have set an option off somewhere since I am not receiving any newsletters. I'll look around to see if there is a way to get myself put back on an email list somewhere. Hmm, perhaps you could add a little menu in the My Account area that would act as a reminder for where to find all the features?

In theory, publishers should be interested in doing anything that makes their products sell. But, I suspect there are some people that are just not comfortable plugging their own products. I am sure there are also folks of the "if you build it, they will come" mentality. It's unfortunate that they might have a great product, but if they don't put any effort forth to market it, I probably won't see it. However, that is business.

James, you probably are a little too nice at times, but that isn't necessarily a huge flaw. It sounds like PDF publishers get to interact with you directly. That is a far different situation than interacting with the FLGS (or LGS in some cases). RPGNow is a store - you do have to keep it profitable to have it make any sense to keep it open. Poorly done product doesn't help. Well done product that is poorly marketed isn't very useful either.

I've been reading these conversations on and off for months now. I can't ever wrap my mind around productive feedback for everyone involved. Maybe I should keep my posts shorter and more focused on ideas. I don't have all the answers but if I throw ideas out there, I am sure everyone else can shoot holes in them.

 

[Mark]

I'm considering making this a required purchase before we sign up any new publishers. Kind of a startup fee that includes a free book.

Thoughts?

It might be a good idea, and perhaps also offering a discount to members who are already on board but you can lead a horse to water...

How much support to understanding the materials would you be offering? You will likely get a lot of Emailed questions from folks who do not follow the material as well in some parts as in others.

Which leads to another point... Part of the problem with having the E-Publishers forum open to anyone is that it can deter people from asking questions they would rather not have the general public viewing. And even if you personally do not mind receiving questions (which some might not send because they do not feel like imposing), they would benefit more greatly from a wider peer response, IMO. Can I suggest that you either make the E-Publishers' forum private, or create a private E-Publishers' forum in the same forum group as the other five?

 

[jmucchiello]

Can I suggest that you either make the E-Publishers' forum private, or create a private E-Publishers' forum in the same forum group as the other five?

There is a forum for the E-publisher's guide. If you bought the guide, you can request access to the forum. If he makes it necessary to buy the guide to get a vendor account, I'm guessing he'll automatically put those folks into the private forum.

 

[Mark]

There is a forum for the E-publisher's guide. If you bought the guide, you can request access to the forum. If he makes it necessary to buy the guide to get a vendor account, I'm guessing he'll automatically put those folks into the private forum.

If the forum were open to all E-Publishers at RPGNow, and a discount was placed on the book to all members, I'd imagine it would sell a few additional copies based on how people could see parts of it being used effectively. Or the opposite could be true.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

You'll be happy to hear I picked up 22 Talent Trees to fill up my cart quota during the EN Publishing sale.

You and many others I see. Thanks!

About BardStephenFox 's Comments.

I agree completely about the wish list. That is also how I use it, and I suspect that is how many others use it. Not so much as a "wish list" but as a way to keep track of interesting products so I can find them later.

OK, something like this. Instead of just a keyword search, have a search page that would have a bunch of radio boxes that you could select. Maybe stuff like "Maps", "Adventures", "Prestige Classes", "Cities", "Dungeons", "Spaceships", "NPCs", "Rules", "Churches", Bars", etc. I could then check a few boxes and submit a search to see what pulls up.

I like that idea. Especially because I've always felt that the "combat" "Puzzles and Traps" etc. ratings were a little vague, both as a publisher and a consumer.

I don't know how difficult it would be, but it seems like it could be done easily by adding options in the publisher section that lets us check a menu of radio buttons, indicating the content of the item. If you publish a sourcebook that has a lot of spells, feats, and prestige classes in it, you could check the "Spells" "Feats" and "prestige Classes" buttons, listing it as such in the database. Later, when someone is looking for "Feats" or "Spells" they can find all books that have Feats and Spells in them, even if those books are adventures, or sourcebooks.

Its just an idea... I don't even know if it is a good one. Obviously, a system like that could be abused by someone writing an adventure that has 1 new spell, 1 new monster, 1 new map, etc, and getting it listed every time someone does a search...

I'm also interested in how the sale is going, if we are still talking about that

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

I'm considering making this a required purchase before we sign up any new publishers. Kind of a startup fee that includes a free book.

Thoughts?

James

I think this is rather foolish. Not every new vendor will be a "new" publisher, in which case, this would be an unjustafiable expense, IMO. And by initiating a startup fee, you open the door for others to start stealing your business.

If there was a requirement for signup I'd like to see, it would be that they actually have a product ready to sell. There are a lot of vendors on the list with nothing available for purchase.

 

[BSF]

I like that idea. Especially because I've always felt that the "combat" "Puzzles and Traps" etc. ratings were a little vague, both as a publisher and a consumer.

I don't know how difficult it would be, but it seems like it could be done easily by adding options in the publisher section that lets us check a menu of radio buttons, indicating the content of the item. If you publish a sourcebook that has a lot of spells, feats, and prestige classes in it, you could check the "Spells" "Feats" and "prestige Classes" buttons, listing it as such in the database. Later, when someone is looking for "Feats" or "Spells" they can find all books that have Feats and Spells in them, even if those books are adventures, or sourcebooks.

I am pretty sure the interface is not the difficult aspect. Retrofitting the database tables might be a little more convoluted. As well, populating the data for the existing product would be troublesome. As well, a search in this manner may be rough on a server, I'm not sure.

I'm also interested in how the sale is going, if we are still talking about that

Yeah, I think I helped hijack it a little bit.

 

[Voadam]

I took advantage of the sale this weekend and now own all but 3 enpubs. I had picked up a four before on the last sale at $2.50 and a few at moderate sales over the years.

I also picked up three other products on this latest purchase that I had been thinking about getting for a while.

As an rpgnow.com customer I'd say 80-90% of the stuff I buy is on sale there. I've only bought one product at over $5 and that was a 3 in one package.

When looking to make a purchase I usually look over the sales page to see if there are also good deals on things I'm interested in.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

I wish the tavern book was part of the sale, its the one i really wanted

 

[GMSkarka]

I think this is rather foolish. Not every new vendor will be a "new" publisher, in which case, this would be an unjustafiable expense, IMO.

With all due respect to Dana's.....interesting take on the issue, I would say that if a 20-dollar guide represents an "unjustafiable expense", then the "publisher" in question has cash-flow issues (not to mention a critical lack of business sense), and would represent precisely the sort of basement-press fanboy amateur that RPGNow needs to stop coddling.

Sorry to be so blunt, but that's just how I am. Publishing is a business, folks---and PDF publishing stands to increase sales considerably if it can be accepted as a genuine branch of publishing, rather than continuing to be seen as a haven for amateurs who happen to have a copy of Acrobat.

Griping about a $20 "unjustafiable expense" is a perfect example of the image problem standing in the way of the next level of success for this part of the industry.

GMS