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What kind of Sales can you expect from PDF?
- Thread starter Pharaun
- Start date
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Gargoyle
Adventurer
JERandall said:
True, but if you pay writers so much a word, or write the product yourself (therefore spending an approximate amount of time per page) then page counts for PDF's do matter. Producing a 120 page PDF is much more expensive than producing a 64 page PDF, especially if you pay authors or artists. But I agree that comparing PDF page counts directly to print page counts is not quite right, so I didn't.
Gargoyle
Adventurer
Arnix said:
RPGNow charges 20% on every sale for non-Gold vendors, 25% for Gold vendors who have more functionality. They pay via PayPal on the 15th of the month for the previous month's sales. I'm not a gold vendor (yet), so if I choose to charge $7.00 for a PDF, I get $5.60 for each sale, and RPG Now gets $1.40 before their costs.
Your best bet is to send them an e-mail asking for more information, though, I don't want to give you wrong or incomplete info. Or perhaps they can post the vendor information here.
It's a good deal, and much less trouble than setting up your own site. Even if you have a secure server and a merchant account, getting people to come to your site probably isn't worth the extra cost and time. This lets me spend more time writing new products, which is the most valuable service they can give me...
Terra_Ferax_Mark
First Post
RPGNow category pages and reviews
Arnix, here are a few thoughts that might help you if you decide to produce PDFs.
Posterboy wrote about RPGNow that "Many of the books in the top 10 are there from the earlier day's of rpgnow.com" and while that's more true of the main pages, in the category pages you can also see how well like products are against like products (i.e. what's doing well in d20 sourcebooks, etc.). For example, I have a monopoly on Accessories: Name Tables so people can rank how well the sales are one PDF vs. the others.
If you do go the RPGNow route, it might help if you include links directly to your products as well as to the category pages you appear on. For example, "Role Playing: Fantasy d20: Low Level Adventure" is at http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?cPath=1_260_269&, "Role Playing: Fantasy d20: d20 Campaign Books" is at http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?cPath=1_260_279&, "Role Playing: Fantasy d20: d20 Sourcebook" is at http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?cPath=1_260_270&, etc. While these are readily available on the left (and very useful), I've wondered how many people use them (Turjan, for example, wrote "I browse the two columns on the right, best sellers and new products. Anything else? No."). Maybe directing people to these pages would help sales.
This can be helpful when you're first getting started, as you're not likely to start with reviewed products. If your products are selling well, it isn't a testimony to your product's quality, but it might help sales if onlookers see that you are selling well and positioning high without (or with few) negative comments. No news is good news. Just a thought.
On the review topic, when submitting material for reviews, expect some turnaround time. This glut of roleplaying products you hear mentioned so frequently also backlogs many reviewers (picture them as sailors on a sinking ship trying to bail, but armed with spoons and no buckets...)
Good luck!
Arnix, here are a few thoughts that might help you if you decide to produce PDFs.
Posterboy wrote about RPGNow that "Many of the books in the top 10 are there from the earlier day's of rpgnow.com" and while that's more true of the main pages, in the category pages you can also see how well like products are against like products (i.e. what's doing well in d20 sourcebooks, etc.). For example, I have a monopoly on Accessories: Name Tables so people can rank how well the sales are one PDF vs. the others.
If you do go the RPGNow route, it might help if you include links directly to your products as well as to the category pages you appear on. For example, "Role Playing: Fantasy d20: Low Level Adventure" is at http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?cPath=1_260_269&, "Role Playing: Fantasy d20: d20 Campaign Books" is at http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?cPath=1_260_279&, "Role Playing: Fantasy d20: d20 Sourcebook" is at http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?cPath=1_260_270&, etc. While these are readily available on the left (and very useful), I've wondered how many people use them (Turjan, for example, wrote "I browse the two columns on the right, best sellers and new products. Anything else? No."). Maybe directing people to these pages would help sales.
This can be helpful when you're first getting started, as you're not likely to start with reviewed products. If your products are selling well, it isn't a testimony to your product's quality, but it might help sales if onlookers see that you are selling well and positioning high without (or with few) negative comments. No news is good news. Just a thought.
On the review topic, when submitting material for reviews, expect some turnaround time. This glut of roleplaying products you hear mentioned so frequently also backlogs many reviewers (picture them as sailors on a sinking ship trying to bail, but armed with spoons and no buckets...)
Good luck!
Ghostwind
First Post
Re: RPGNow category pages and reviews
Ain't this the truth!!! We reviewers try our best to turn a product around as fast as we can, but sometimes a product may get buried and forgotten. If you've sent something out for review, be patient but don't be afraid to drop a polite letter of inquiry after a reasonable amount of time (30 days or so). We are human, after all...
Ain't this the truth!!! We reviewers try our best to turn a product around as fast as we can, but sometimes a product may get buried and forgotten. If you've sent something out for review, be patient but don't be afraid to drop a polite letter of inquiry after a reasonable amount of time (30 days or so). We are human, after all...
Twin Rose
First Post
Re: Re: RPGNow category pages and reviews
For this reason, you should try to get a review copy sent out 2, 3 or even 4 months before your final release date. If you don't, then you might find your product has gone through it's 'cycle' before you have even gone through the review process.
Ghostwind said:
Ain't this the truth!!! We reviewers try our best to turn a product around as fast as we can, but sometimes a product may get buried and forgotten. If you've sent something out for review, be patient but don't be afraid to drop a polite letter of inquiry after a reasonable amount of time (30 days or so). We are human, after all...
For this reason, you should try to get a review copy sent out 2, 3 or even 4 months before your final release date. If you don't, then you might find your product has gone through it's 'cycle' before you have even gone through the review process.
Turjan
Explorer
I suppose that you're right. But don't forget that this week's sale has been prominently announced on EN World's main page.philreed said:
However, the mentioning of some products that have escaped my view so far in this thread brought me to buy things I wouldn't have bought without this highlighting.
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