What kind of Sales can you expect from PDF?

[2WS-Steve]

I might as well jump in here as well...

Bodies and Souls: 20 Templates has been sitting at 99 sales for the last 12 days.

As a little comparison out the gate sales of Masters of Arms was around 1400; I have no idea where it's at now. Admittedly Masters of Arms will have broader appeal because of its size and the fact that its brown but any way you cut it people must like paper...

 

[PosterBoy]

I'll add my 2 cents since I'm one of the bigger sellers of PDFs (and the fact that I do some work for rpgnow from time to time).

Many of the books in the top 10 are there from the earlier day's of rpgnow.com (which could mean as little as a 3-4 months ago). The number of PDF releases that come out each month seems to grow exponentially. So the competition for sales is getting tougher and tougher. I doubt the 1-10 ranked books will change very much over time... and if some of the books were release today, I doubt they'd reach that rank again.

That's one of the reasons rpgnow did the weekly top 10. Because the the overall rank is somewhat skewed to the time when there wasn't a big number of PDF books. If your book stays in the weekly ranking for a few weeks, you are doing really well. I wouldn't concern myself so much with overall ranking.

With that said, here's some tips for new PDF publishers:

1) Make the product as complete as possible. The larger the sale price the better. I don't find that price has a huge affect on the # of sales. I don't mean over price your stuff (or add a lot of filler content), but better to sell a 72 page book for 6.95 then a 40 page book for 5.00. You'll just make more money.

2) Do some online advertising. Online advertising on sites can be cheap. Enworld may be a little spendy, but there are many other sites that are a great value (i.e. www.gamewyrd.com). There's also a few free banner exchanges out there. Make sure you're on them.

 

[rpghost]

Interesting thread guys... I can't contribute in the numbers as it's not my place. But even in print books are lucky to sell more then 1000 copies so don't get the wrong idea. Most new prints from unknown vendors are lucky to get 500 sales. Sure if you're well known and have a following you can do a lot better 1000-2000 copies in print. But most of the people doing the PDF's are just warming up to the prospects and I hope that RPGNow.com goes a long way to help.

Anyway, for the most part the top 10 of the last week has been very popular. The top 30 is to stagnant. So maybe the 10 ten should be for THIS MONTH or a longer period like 10-15 days? That would make it more stable and/or reset once a month. What do you guys think would be most relevant?
1) Change the top 10 to 2 week?
2) Change the top 10 to HOT THIS MONTH

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

P.S. Please be careful with all your guessing or stating of figure for other vendors, not everyone wants this info shared publicly.

 

[GMSkarka]

Wow.

This thread has been incredibly informative. Thanks to everyone who has posted so far. It's really opened my eyes.

It seems to me that there is definitely a niche out there for more high-quality PDF publishers---those who run their operations like that of a print publisher (with marketing, advertising, convention budget, etc.).

Something to think about, to be sure.

GMS

 

[2WS-Steve]

A little follow-up here; the print on demand options are looking much better nowadays too. The following site appears to have some pretty reasonable rates, fast turnarounds (they promise 24-48 hours from order to shipping), and the ability to print books not too far off the quality of what you can get from a regular printer:

Lightning Source

I'm not sure if this is the same service partner RPGNow uses.

 

[Morrus]

Interesting thread guys... I can't contribute in the numbers as it's not my place. But even in print books are lucky to sell more then 1000 copies so don't get the wrong idea. Most new prints from unknown vendors are lucky to get 500 sales. Sure if you're well known and have a following you can do a lot better 1000-2000 copies in print. But most of the people doing the PDF's are just warming up to the prospects and I hope that RPGNow.com goes a long way to help.

Anyway, for the most part the top 10 of the last week has been very popular. The top 30 is to stagnant. So maybe the 10 ten should be for THIS MONTH or a longer period like 10-15 days? That would make it more stable and/or reset once a month. What do you guys think would be most relevant?
1) Change the top 10 to 2 week?
2) Change the top 10 to HOT THIS MONTH

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

P.S. Please be careful with all your guessing or stating of figure for other vendors, not everyone wants this info shared publicly.

Monthly would be my preference. Otherwise it fluctuates so much that it's more just a random list of recent products.

Given that a PDF's shelf life is realistically about 3-4 weeks, a period matching that shelf life would be ideal.

 

[Morrus]

The larger the sale price the better. I don't find that price has a huge affect on the # of sales. I don't mean over price your stuff (or add a lot of filler content), but better to sell a 72 page book for 6.95 then a 40 page book for 5.00. You'll just make more money.

I agree. What I have noticed is that price seems almost irrelwvant as long as you don't price yourself out. In fact, pricing yourself too low can actually hurt sales - it creates an illusion of a cheap, inferior product.

As far as I'm concerned, reducing the price of stuff only generates extra sales because it's a little extra promotion. The effect of reducing something from $6.95 to $5.00 is much the same as the effect of producing a web-enhancement, news item etc. on the product. Just an excuse to mention it.

Many of the books in the top 10 are there from the earlier day's of rpgnow.com (which could mean as little as a 3-4 months ago). The number of PDF releases that come out each month seems to grow exponentially. So the competition for sales is getting tougher and tougher. I doubt the 1-10 ranked books will change very much over time... and if some of the books were release today, I doubt they'd reach that rank again.

Absolutely. I'd never had though it would happen, but the PDF market has reached a similar position to the print market - that of saturation. The pie's still the same size, but now there are hundreds of products competing for those dollars on an even footing where once there were just tens of them.

Just selling at RPGNow with no promotion will result in pretty poor sales. You have so many PDFs there competing on an equal footing that your chances of being the PDF the customer selects are pretty slim.

Of course, my problem with promotion is that I feel obliged to curb it as much as possible because I know it annoys people. I'm convinced I could double my sales with next to no effort, but that doing so would just be irritating to a lot of EN World visitors.

 

[jmucchiello]

Monthly would be my preference. Otherwise it fluctuates so much that it's more just a random list of recent products.

Given that a PDF's shelf life is realistically about 3-4 weeks, a period matching that shelf life would be ideal.

But that would skew books released in the middle of the month.

I think a "Billboard's Top 10" style would work pretty well.

Current Rank | Last Week's Rank | Title

James can even generate the past data from his database. This would allow you to see how a book did in its first few weeks as it moves up and down the chart. (Maybe it's my musical background but I've always wanted to land a number one with a bullet. )

The Top 10 would basically list last weeks sales figures.

Joe

 

[Morrus]

But that would skew books released in the middle of the month.

No, not if it was "the last 30 days" as oposed to "during this calendar month".

 

[jmucchiello]

No, not if it was "the last 30 days" as oposed to "during this calendar month".

Ah, I didn't realize you were sticking with the moving scale. That would cut down on the fluctuation, too.

Joe