What kind of Sales can you expect from PDF?

[Eridanis]

If you buy my book, I assume only you among your circle of gamers is really going to pay for the PDF. That's almost a given. In fact, how else can you use the PDF without first printing off a few pages and giving them to the DM saying, I want to do this.

I'm glad you look at it this way. I bought your Enchantment book on the basis of some good reviews (btw, I think I was your 100th download!), and was really impressed. I liked it so much that I showed my printed copy to our party's enchanter, and I emailed him the pdf with the express instruction that if he liked it enough to use it, that he go to rpgnow.com to pay you your $5.

When one's budget is able to buy a gaming book OR put food on the family's table, but not always both, it's good to know that there are publishers like you and Malladin's Gate (whose paladin pdf I bought that same day for my own use) that put out high quality ideas at low prices.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'm glad you look at it this way. I bought your Enchantment book on the basis of some good reviews (btw, I think I was your 100th download!),

I believe that is correct. There are two sales on that day and you are one of them. I was vaguely familiar with your email address when I looked and not the other one so it's probably true.

and was really impressed. I liked it so much that I showed my printed copy to our party's enchanter, and I emailed him the pdf with the express instruction that if he liked it enough to use it, that he go to rpgnow.com to pay you your $5.

Did he? (just kidding) I'd be more interested in hearing what he may have used from the book. I haven't heard any "war stories" involving my stuff. That would be cool.

Joe Mucchiello
Throwing Dice Games
http://www.throwingdice.com

 

[The Sigil]

Sales over 100 copies is something to be proud of.

Honestly, breaking 200 sales makes you a "top 30" product on RPGnow.

The Enchiridion of Mystic Music is #26 on the list (As of this writing) and has sold exactly 160 copies at RPGNow.com (plus I sold one copy directly to a member of my gaming group - he liked it so much he wanted to pay me for it). That should give you some idea of the (little) profit you can make.

As others have suggested, do it to practice your layout/writing, do it for fun, DON'T do it expecting to make money hand over fist.

The Gaming PDF market is NOT an industry for making money.

That's for sure. I do this for the love of the product, not for the money. The money is nice "pocket change" to fund more gaming purchases (mostly from RPGNow).

--The Sigil

 

[Krug]

Yes, definitely not for making money. Has anyone thought about approaching Amazon to carry some of these in their ebooks section? Or tried selling them via ebay or other avenues besides Rpgnow.com or via their own storefronts using paypal?

 

[Terra_Ferax_Mark]

I looked in to Amazon this past spring. If Amazon hasn't changed their policies, I believe they require an ISBN to market PDFs on their pages (not via zShops). www.bowker.com sells ISBNs; 10 ISBNs (the smallest lot you can buy) are $225 for regular processing (or $300 for priority processing).

Now on top of that cash layout, Amazon was taking (If I recall) about 40-45% per sale (this was/is the Advantage program, I believe). I can't find the link now; the bookmark I had is leading me to zshops, so it may be different. But assuming that's still true,
if you buy 10 ISBNs and sell PDFs at $5:

At 100 sales ($500) - ISBN ($225) and Amazon (about $200) = $75 profit for your efforts, whether that's your first magnum opus or your first three.

Of course, after those 100 sales, profits would improve; as mentioned above, 100 sales is nothing to dismiss. Now, Amazon may have changed, if someone has an updated transaction figure and whether or not ISBNs are still required for Amazon -- that may help you decide if you wish to go this route. Physical books sell more copies than PDFs and it makes more sense to use ISBNs for books not ebooks.

Read (with a grain of salt) the newsgroup alt.publish.books for praises and condemnations of Amazon from many small publishers' viewpoints. And, no, I haven't chosen to sell via Amazon.

RPGNow does not require an ISBN and takes a lesser cut. http://www.rpgnow.com/info.php

 

[tensen]

The Enchiridion of Mystic Music is #26 on the list (As of this writing) and has sold exactly 160 copies at RPGNow.com (plus I sold one copy directly to a member of my gaming group - he liked it so much he wanted to pay me for it). That should give you some idea of the (little) profit you can make.

Is that number correct? Because PJR has already stated his product sold more than that and he is several places down in the best seller list.

 

[HellHound]

Actually, PJR (sounds strange refering to him by his initials) doesn't have any products on the top 30 list, and hasn't claimed sales figures higher than 160 for any of his products in this thread at least. (I believe I read that he had put his products on sale for $2 each as a thank you for over 100 sales of each product).

 

[Morrus]

Is that number correct? Because PJR has already stated his product sold more than that and he is several places down in the best seller list.

Oddly enough, I have 3 products in the 150s.... so the difference between the bottom 10 or so entries on that list must be less than 10 sales or so in total. The differences evidently get bigger as you move up the list.

Aww, what the hell - here are some figures.

Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns, at #2 on the list, has sold 730 copies to date.

Wild Spellcraft, at #4, has sold 578 copies.

So, that's a difference of 152 sales between positions 2 and 4.

Moving to the bottom of the list, we see above that #26 has sold 160 copies, and positions below #30 can have sold up to 155 copies, which means that the difference between #26 and #31 (at best, could be lower) is only 5 copies or so.

This is fairly educational - it would be cool to get a vague idea of what each position on that chart means in terms of sales. Since I've just shared my figures, anyone else (on the list) care to do the same, so that we can get an idea? Here's the list so far as we know it from the info here:

2 -- 730 (TF&T)
4 -- 578 (WIld Spellcraft)
10 -- 381 (4C2F)
26 -- 160 (Enchiridon)
<30 -- 155

Interestingly, Phil Read says he's sold 170 copies of 101 Spellbooks, but it's not on the list. That means either the list is screwy (which I have suspected in the past) or that he's sellng a lot of copies in places other than RPGNow.

 

[Morrus]

Actually, if people are willing to participate and share their sales figures, I'd like to make this list fairly public. It'd be of great help to those planning on going into PDF sales.

 

[tensen]

Actually, PJR (sounds strange refering to him by his initials) doesn't have any products on the top 30 list, and hasn't claimed sales figures higher than 160 for any of his products in this thread at least. (I believe I read that he had put his products on sale for $2 each as a thank you for over 100 sales of each product).

Well he did say "almost 170 copies of 101 Spellbooks". I guessing that is in the 160s. or else it should have been almost 160

Sorry, I'm not on a first name basis with him, so I used that instead of having to write out his whole name.... I'm lazy like that.