Using PDF sales to raise money for printing costs

[Cergorach]

If i where you, i would look at the pdfs Moonte Cook publishes, those are excellent. Don't expect that everyone has broadband.

 

[jgbrowning]

thanks gentlemen

I have been considering publishing as well and am very appreciative to have access to the shared experience of many established publishers. Thank you for your responses and I am sure there are more like myself who learned from this thread. I would like to recomend making a permanent repository of nuts and bolts publishing information for the ENworld reader if possible.


thanks,

joseph browning

 

[tensen]

Re: Re: start up

In addition to the great advice that Clark gave, I'd also add to check and double-check your pricing. Don't fall into the trap that pricing extra low will result in a huge influx of sales. With few exceptions, it just doesn't work that way.

Wasn't that Clark himself that ran into the issue of low pricing on their first product causing a problem with distributors? (I may have my knowledge muddle.. the heat wave is a killer for thinking.)

Looking at the range of pricing.. for the most part.. there is a range of pricing on PDFs that seem to be no worries on pricing... anywhere from $5-$7.50. Anything over that and it tends to be a question of whether people want to spend the money. Extra pages doesn't necessarily help.. because that just more pages they have to print out.

I'm not sure what the price range for things would be on print products.. because there is such a range. I always heard that pricing on print products was based on how much it costs to print them.. but since PDfs aren't printed by any quantitiy, you can't really price them based on that.

 

[Orcus]

I didnt have that problem, but I did get that advice and it is pretty sound--though there are times underpricing can work. The general concept is that if you underprice the book, why would distributors deal with carrying it when their margin is thinner on your product than other people's product. You dont just take money out of your own pocket you take a bit out of the distributor's too. And data seems to show there is little impact to underpricing. But whatever you do, DONT overprice. You dont want to be the highest price in your category. If you are doing 64 page adventures, and everyone is charging 12.99 you dont want to be the guy charging 14.99.

Clark

 

[Orcus]

I didnt explain that last thing very well.

If you are a new company, you will be in the position of trying to convince a distributor why they should carry your product. With new, unproven companies, there is risk attached to picking up new companies. What if your stuff doesnt sell? They get caught holding the bag.

So if you underprice your product, then when you try to convince the distributor to carry you, you are saying:

"Hi. I am a brand new company. You dont have any reason to believe my product will sell, but I want you to risk it and carry my stuff anyway. And in addition to that risk, I have also underpriced my product so that even if any of my products do sell or do sell and dont get returned, your profit margin on my product will be less than on other products. What more can you ask for: unknown name, great risk AND less money for you!!! Doesnt that convince you to pick me up?"

See what I mean?

If you are the distributor, you might say "thanks but no thanks kid." This is a business after all. Its all about the distribution.

Clark

 

[Heph]

Printing.

Whether you are going to do digital .pdf releases or hard copy printing, organize your material in 16-page increments.

The benefit is that when (if) you ever go to print, the data is already organized into increments that are condusive to printing.

If the project is meant for download and Double-Sided printing, but not for bookletizing, then use a number of pages that are a multiple of 4 for balance.

If you "know" that it will never be printed, then the length is less an issue, except as a factor of download time.