Why I think all publishers should releases teasers.

[RangerWickett]

This is just tangentally related to the 'Why don't people stop piracy?' thread in general discussion. I think that it would curb at least a little bit of the pirating that goes online if publishers all released 4 to 6 page samples of each of their upcoming books in pdf form online. And I mean good samples, not the table of contents. Honest to goodness, readable sample pages, to let people get a feeling for how good the book is, and whether they'd like to buy it.

What do you think?

 

[Eternalknight]

Would probably reduce piracy, at least a little.

 

[2WS-Steve]

Actually I've contemplated releasing entire books in PDF as a teaser. Personally I think it might improve sales but I'm concerned about how the retailers would respond to doing that. As it is, the Second World Sourcebook has approximately 70 pages of previews and Masters of Arms something like 15 pages.

 

[dafrca]

I have bought at least three books based on the pdf "peaks" offered. For my money these are something I look for.

dafrca

 

[Eosin the Red]

I do not know that it would reduce piracy per say, but I have bought 2 of the more expensive books on the market based on good preview PDF's of approx 6 pages.

 

[mroberon1972]

I'll agree with that.

Overall, I think "teasers" allow more of an idea of the designers style than anything else. But is does let you know if they can put out a professional product.

Mr. Oberon
"Crud, Crud, Crud... Whoa... This looks nice!"

 

[Greatwyrm]

A good teaser can sell me on a product months before it comes out. The information released about Nyambe from Atlas and Midnight from FFG put these books on my must have list months before they were published.

 

[EOL]

Not to brag or anything, but that's one of the big advantages (for me) of my system. Since each adventure is customized for the end user, there's significant value added if you don't use a pirated copy, since at best pirating is going to get you a few of the possible variations of the adventure (and probably not exactly the one you want) whereas if you come to my site you can get exactly the adventure you want....

But in a larger sense I think this speaks to what RangerWickett is saying you've got to give the customer something that makes them want to come to your site, that makes them excited about buying it from you, whether it's a preview, or support, or customization.

 

[der_kluge]

Would have to agree. There are probably a couple of pdfs that I would buy if I had a better idea of what they contained. Not sure it would work as well for print products, since I can go to my LGS and read through them at my leisure, unless they're *gasp!* wrapped in plastic. (SIN!)

 

[DDK]

I've had this argument with a particular PDF producer who frequents these forums. I told him that I refuse to buy a product, sight unseen. So I ended up getting a jpeg of two pages. Normally that wouldn't be enough for me, but I decided the reputation of the guy stood for something so I promised I'd get a copy of it.

I've always felt that a preview is a great way of getting people to buy stuff. Two instances that stand out for me are the downloadable GURPS Lite, which not only convinced me to buy several of their products but also helped convince several people to play the system, and Starcraft, the demo of that totally convinced me to buy the game, despite having loathed Warcraft 1 & 2.

6 pages, however, seems a bit much. 1-3 pages would be enough for me, as long as they were REAL pages, and not just screenshots