4. What do FGG and GG have that make their product more viable than others on the market?
Kingofpain89 wrote:4. What do FGG and GG have that make their product more viable than others on the market?Money.
1. Do most of these ventures struggle solely with the issue of achieving sales of the finished product? Do they manage 50 units before having problems? Or is it 100, 300, 500 units before they feel they've saturated their market? And what are the parameters for optimum printing? I remember AGP saying their optimum return was on a BW product of 16 pages.
2. NTRPGCon seem to have the digest sized printing down to a tee. At this size, are you able/willing to discuss cost per unit printed? And how mauch time is put into assembling and proofing each product prior to publishing it?
4. What do FGG and GG have that make their product more viable than others on the market? How do they achieve the sales they do, and afford to pay for quality artwork and cartography? Is it purely a case of having thousands in the bank, or is there something they 'get' that the smaller presses don't understand yet? How do these companies' business models vary from those of other publishers? And why are their prodcts larger, better typeset, and better presented than the rest?
5. What size of production team does it take to put out a product? What are the dispensible skills and resources a small time publisher can do without, and what impact does omitting those resources have on the final product, its sales, and the publishers perception in the marketplace?
Thork N Hammer wrote:the vast majority (about 90%) of products (of mine) sell less than 20. Pdfs will generate dramatically more income than print....but print is what this hobby (and collecting) is all about--or should be.
TheHistorian wrote:Thork N Hammer wrote:the vast majority (about 90%) of products (of mine) sell less than 20. Pdfs will generate dramatically more income than print....but print is what this hobby (and collecting) is all about--or should be.As a point of comparison, how many pdfs do you sell of a book that moves only 20 print copies? It would be interesting to see if there is any trending - people always buy pdfs because they're cheaper, or print sales increase on newer products as you build a fan base, or well, whatever could be learned.
Thork N Hammer wrote:TheHistorian wrote:As a point of comparison, how many pdfs do you sell of a book that moves only 20 print copies? It would be interesting to see if there is any trending - people always buy pdfs because they're cheaper, or print sales increase on newer products as you build a fan base, or well, whatever could be learned.Without pulling my Lulu files, i can generally say that, "it varies". Sorry :oops: But its true. Some adventures sell pdfs 2-3-4to1 than the print; others, depending on obvious art&graphics, prints move more. DISCOUNT coupons always seem to help people justify buying the prints.
TheHistorian wrote:As a point of comparison, how many pdfs do you sell of a book that moves only 20 print copies? It would be interesting to see if there is any trending - people always buy pdfs because they're cheaper, or print sales increase on newer products as you build a fan base, or well, whatever could be learned.
Kingofpain89 wrote:Thork N Hammer wrote:Without pulling my Lulu files, i can generally say that, "it varies". Sorry :oops: But its true. Some adventures sell pdfs 2-3-4to1 than the print; others, depending on obvious art&graphics, prints move more. DISCOUNT coupons always seem to help people justify buying the prints.It's interesting how the mentality differs between someone who strictly buys games to play and someone who buys them to collect and not necessarily play. I want the printed material. I have purchased only a handful of pdf's and then only when it is the only option available (like I did with your Beneath the Barrier Peaks offering). And when it comes to Lulu, I never purchase something without the availability of a discount coupon. They come up so often its insane not to wait to use one. And if I am on the fence about a product, its is almost always the cover art that sways my decision. If its good I'll usually buy it. If the item has less than decent artwork I will usually only buy if I am convinced the item is of good quality (word of mouth, reviews, etc.).
Thork N Hammer wrote:Without pulling my Lulu files, i can generally say that, "it varies". Sorry :oops: But its true. Some adventures sell pdfs 2-3-4to1 than the print; others, depending on obvious art&graphics, prints move more. DISCOUNT coupons always seem to help people justify buying the prints.
Thork N Hammer wrote:DISCOUNT coupons always seem to help people justify buying the prints.
TheHistorian wrote:Thork N Hammer wrote:DISCOUNT coupons always seem to help people justify buying the prints.Slight tangent: when lulu offers a discount, does that come out of their profit, or does an author's share of the purchase price drop as well?
bbarsh wrote:2. NTRPGCon seem to have the digest sized printing down to a tee. At this size, are you able/willing to discuss cost per unit printed? And how mauch time is put into assembling and proofing each product prior to publishing it?The problem with the NTX digest modules is that they are pure collector items, for the most part. Their target buyer is most often the collector. Nothing negative about that, but they are not what I would consider a more mass-market product, if that can really be said about any OSR stuff.
bbarsh wrote:4. What do FGG and GG have that make their product more viable than others on the market? How do they achieve the sales they do, and afford to pay for quality artwork and cartography? Is it purely a case of having thousands in the bank, or is there something they 'get' that the smaller presses don't understand yet? How do these companies' business models vary from those of other publishers? And why are their prodcts larger, better typeset, and better presented than the rest?Yes, it is money. Also, I think many of their products cross platforms so this helps drive their sales. They are also well-established and the products are solid. But it can't be stated loud enough that good art costs money - big money in relation to OSR sales numbers. Getting an established (named artist) to do a cover is typically going to cost you several hundred dollars (and usually more). If you drop $800 or so on art, you are way behind the profit curve unless you can sell about 200 copies minimum to break even. Assuming you are selling a $10 book at about 32 pages.
mbassoc2003 wrote:bbarsh wrote:The problem with the NTX digest modules is that they are pure collector items, for the most part. Their target buyer is most often the collector. Nothing negative about that, but they are not what I would consider a more mass-market product, if that can really be said about any OSR stuff.Sure, but you could publish modules in this format. I suppose people really want to buy 'traditional' card cover and 16 page BW modules, because those are in keeping with the old school feel of the hobby. This is where finding a publisher wh can bang out products on newspring might be beneficial to a small press publisher, because it is in keeping, and an author/publisher could build a congruent product, or even a range, based around a particular niche printing style.bbarsh wrote:Yes, it is money. Also, I think many of their products cross platforms so this helps drive their sales. They are also well-established and the products are solid. But it can't be stated loud enough that good art costs money - big money in relation to OSR sales numbers. Getting an established (named artist) to do a cover is typically going to cost you several hundred dollars (and usually more). If you drop $800 or so on art, you are way behind the profit curve unless you can sell about 200 copies minimum to break even. Assuming you are selling a $10 book at about 32 pages.So if you had financing in place, you knock out your first product, print 300 copies, sell 120 and keep the balance in backstock whilst you knock out the next. That tells me that you could probably feasibly establish a decent product line with quality artwork on a one product every four to six months with about $1000-1500 capital and a further need for a $500-$800 to bump the second product along assuming slow sales of the first. Backstock presumably will sell as new products are released and a publisher becomes better known.
bbarsh wrote:The problem with the NTX digest modules is that they are pure collector items, for the most part. Their target buyer is most often the collector. Nothing negative about that, but they are not what I would consider a more mass-market product, if that can really be said about any OSR stuff.
bbarsh wrote:Yes, it is money. Also, I think many of their products cross platforms so this helps drive their sales. They are also well-established and the products are solid. But it can't be stated loud enough that good art costs money - big money in relation to OSR sales numbers. Getting an established (named artist) to do a cover is typically going to cost you several hundred dollars (and usually more). If you drop $800 or so on art, you are way behind the profit curve unless you can sell about 200 copies minimum to break even. Assuming you are selling a $10 book at about 32 pages.