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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CardinalXimenes" data-source="post: 7660790" data-attributes="member: 58259">That... does not sound like a highly-optimized sales plan, to be honest. I'm assuming that these two lines cover fundamentally different topics- and if that's the case, then the only parity between them is that they're both written by you. People who love sci-fi kelpmen may not be the ones who love intricate explorations of life as a macrame cultist, even if your name is on the cover of both products. Even if they're loosely connected, such as both targeting the same system, product lines have their own identity- or should, at least.If you make one line entirely PWYW, everybody who likes that topic but doesn't care about the other has just dropped out of your customer base. Sure, they might throw you some spare change, but I've never heard of anybody actually making meaningful money off of a PWYW product. You'll get very little from them, aside from those print fans who insist on ordering the POD for a given product. Worse, you won't get enough to support further development of the line- there won't be the "publish one, collect money, roll it into the next" cycle that actually enables a healthy line.There's also the issue of uptake. If you want to go with a free core product, you want it to be free. You want it to waft into the hands of multitudes, lifted to them by the slightest breeze, descending upon their fevered brow as lightly as a mesh of dew-pearled spiderwebs, except less creepy. You want absolutely nothing to stand between the public and that first hit, and PWYW is a substantial barrier for a lot of people. They just don't want the implicit social obligation. They have "free" and "not free" categories in their head, and PWYW is not in the former. Once you get them hooked on your limpid prose and splendid topics, then you start charging them full freight on the supplements.If you really do have two lines in mind, I'd recommend taking the most salable, doing a free core product, and then following it up a month later with the release of the next in the line at full-freight price. If you need to chum the waters a little, then toss in something small as a freebie, but I'd stay far away from PWYW if you have plans of serious line-building. Free is for marketing, pay is for earning, and PWYW is nowhere in what calculus.As for the second line, well, I'd wait to see if it actually is feasible to maintain two lines. I've got two going myself with the SWN-derived games and the LL-derived material, and it is enormously hard sledding. If you can really keep two lines flying, then I'd start the second one off with a full-price core. It's your initial line's core that's the bait, and you don't need two core games worth of bait in the water. If they aren't sold on you by the first, they're not especially likely to jump into your line because of the second.</blockquote>

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