In late spring I published my first module (low level fantasy OSE/OSR adventure) and released it on DriveThru RPG for $4.99 as a pdf.

Took me almost two years to finish - I am very proud of it. I paid a lot of attention to detail, yet tried to be concise. Used two dozen play testers including at two Cons. So far I've sold 43 digital copies. If I get to 51+ sales, I get a Copper metal badge that I can put on the cover. That would be awesome - I'm so close.

I'm looking for marketing advice that doesn't involve a monetary investment - I'm already still a bit in the red as I paid an artist for the drawings.

Any advice to help me get to copper?  What have you done that has worked?

Here's what I've done so far:

- I posted a link to the adventure on forums and Facebook groups that let me (I always asked first if it wasn't clear in the rules)

- My friends helped to promote it on FB
and You Tuber, Professor Dungeon Master, recommended it for free with a tweet and on FB (he did not do a review video).

- I wrote a GM tool kit as PWYW, got 175+ downloads (95% of them paid zero) and emailed them a loyalty discount coupon for 1 week - got 2 sales from that.

- Listed it in DriveThru's Christmas in July sale - got only 5 sales

- Started a creator page on FB for rpg designers and posted there https://www.facebook.com/groups/1707411016354124

- The guy that reviews adventures at Tenfootpole.org did a review: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=8616
     I want to use his review, but have been a bit hesitant. He gives me a lot of praise, calls it "closer than most", but I feel its a C+/B- review.  I'm grateful for his review and his opinion - not sure how I can use it.

The adventure is available in pdf - I'd like to make print on demand, but it's taking a long time to get In-Design down - so that's on the back burner.

Thanks in advance for the read / trying to help me.

Only 3 away from copper now.  On sale at DriveThru through Cyber Monday.  Thanks.

I'd probably try to post on Reddit or other sites with significant focus on TTRPG hobby. Do a post-mortem writeup, or just make another product and cross-reference the first.

I'd also be curious in checking out the link on DTRPG.

The most effective thing I know of is to email all your existing customers, and offer a slight discount. Remember that there is a minimum threshold to count for metal purposes; I think it's $2.00 or $2.50.

Is this your first significant release? In that case, I can tell you the two things that will do the most:
1. Get someone to review it.
2. Put out a second release.

Since you are so close, here are some things you can do chip at the margins:

If it's been more than a week, bump any self-promo threads you already posted. Offer to answer any questions or respond to comments, and then do so.
Find existing self-promo threads where people are invited to share their stuff, and post it there.
If you have a FB or Mastodon account or whatever, and this is one of your first few publications, don't be shy about posting it again on your personal page.
Any time you mention it, make sure you namedrop it. For instance, in this thread, after you described what it was, you should have said the name of it.
Banners actually work pretty well, but you won't have a lot of free points if you are just getting started. Still, 5000 views could very well turn into 3 to 5 sales. Which would help you meet your goal.

Quote from: Zelen on January 13, 2024, 12:02:56 PM
I'd probably try to post on Reddit or other sites with significant focus on TTRPG hobby. Do a post-mortem writeup, or just make another product and cross-reference the first.

I'd also be curious in checking out the link on DTRPG.

I like the post mortem idea!

Quote from: Vic99 on January 13, 2024, 04:40:07 PM

Quote from: Zelen on January 13, 2024, 12:02:56 PM
I'd probably try to post on Reddit or other sites with significant focus on TTRPG hobby. Do a post-mortem writeup, or just make another product and cross-reference the first.

I'd also be curious in checking out the link on DTRPG.

I like the post mortem idea!

All good advice.  I finally reached Copper just before Christmas!

I did not post a link because I thought it might break the rules here - but based on what I've seen from other people, I bet it's okay.

I also just published another book of ten 1-page side quests (actually one page description and a facing page of maps).

Here's my stuff: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/24813/Wicked-Cool-Games?

The Murk's Curse went Copper.  Evocative One Page Fantasy Side quest is a 1/3 of the way there.

If you get it and you like it, please post a favorable review on DriveThru.

Pawsplay, what do you mean by do a second release?  Do you mean another product, or modify and release again? Or something else?

Another product. Nothing sells more product A, than products B, C, and D.

Assuming that people are getting to page (which is likely the biggest problem you have):

From a consumer standpoint, I would work on the presentation quality of the product (speaking of The Murk).  Your artwork is nice & layout seems clean, but the PDF itself looks a bit amateurish in terms of how the artwork is presented & the overall on-page look.

Quote from: Zelen on January 15, 2024, 09:27:53 PM
Assuming that people are getting to page (which is likely the biggest problem you have):

From a consumer standpoint, I would work on the presentation quality of the product (speaking of The Murk).  Your artwork is nice & layout seems clean, but the PDF itself looks a bit amateurish in terms of how the artwork is presented & the overall on-page look.

I'm all ears. Any suggestions that you could give without having to pay a professional?  Thanks.

Okay, I've seen worse. Here's some quick tips:

1. Indentation. Do regular first line indentation, or hanging indentation, or at least put more visual space between longer paragraphs, but do something.
2. If text has a colored background, it needs padding around the words. This just looks like highlighted text from an old DOS game.
3. It shouldn't take that many pages to get to the meat of the product. Condense your credits section, and consider moving editorial commentary to the back.
4. For Murk's curse specifically, I think the parchment background clashes with the fairly simple formatting. It brings attention to the artificiality of the parchment, and affects readability. Either kill the background, find something more subtle, or do something with fonts and decoration to pop out the text more.

Thanks for the advice.

I have toyed with doing a re-release of the product updating it based on some of the suggestions that people have made.

I could damp down the parchment look a lot more or get rid of it entirely.

Indentation is tough.  I spent an enormous amount of time trying to be concise, avoiding hanging words.  Also wanted to make sure concepts stayed on one page and didn't leak over to another.

The reason the book is 40 pages is because I have pre-generated characters, larger printable player handouts, etc. all on a white background.

The guy from tenfootpole.org did a review of it.  I would use a few of his suggestions, others I don't agree with.

If Zelen thinks the artwork presentation

Quote from: Zelen on January 15, 2024, 09:27:53 PM
"the PDF itself looks a bit amateurish in terms of how the artwork is presented & the overall on-page look."

I wonder what could be done to improve the artwork presentation.

Quote from: Vic99 on January 16, 2024, 07:56:58 PM
Thanks for the advice.

I have toyed with doing a re-release of the product updating it based on some of the suggestions that people have made.

I could damp down the parchment look a lot more or get rid of it entirely.

Indentation is tough.  I spent an enormous amount of time trying to be concise, avoiding hanging words.  Also wanted to make sure concepts stayed on one page and didn't leak over to another.

The reason the book is 40 pages is because I have pre-generated characters, larger printable player handouts, etc. all on a white background.

The guy from tenfootpole.org did a review of it.  I would use a few of his suggestions, others I don't agree with.

If Zelen thinks the artwork presentation

Quote from: Zelen on January 15, 2024, 09:27:53 PM
"the PDF itself looks a bit amateurish in terms of how the artwork is presented & the overall on-page look."

I wonder what could be done to improve the artwork presentation.

Sorry for the late reply, mostly what I'm referring to here relates to the way art is on the page. For most 5E products, the artwork has a kind of watercolor-esque border. Here's an example:

* https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cd/1a/45/cd1a455fa1c71481bfe674a30a68e9a2.jpg 
* https://i.pinimg.com/736x/dd/74/8b/dd748bfd351e55c730fac506d461a60f.jpg

This is a simple effect to achieve if you have Photoshop/equivalent software and use a mask. There are a lot of online resources freely available on achieving this and it'd be relatively easy to do with your existing artwork while also raising the quality bar a lot.

Hey Vic99 - sorry I'm late to this party, I just discovered this forum!!

I'm a publisher on Drivethru too and just wanted to encourage you. New product is the most significant thing that drives sales for me - I have about a year and a half of not putting anything new out to absolutely confirm that... Sales dribble in from time to time and there's an uptick when somebody mentions one of the old adventures or the product line (Rosethrone Publishing) - happened on Reddit a while back. Bryce at tenfootpole just reviewed an old adventure (I'd say he gave it a "C") which garnered a little interest in the line, but, honestly, not much. What it DID reveal is that there are people (in the comments) who would like to see some new adventures (that was nice to hear).

BTW - his review of Murk's Curse is far from a B-/C+ - a "No Regerts" is a solid B, and, as yours was a first time effort, I'd call his review an A-. The critiques he lays out are personal biases, but they are shared with many (especially those who read the blog, of course). He tends to want to be longer and more detailed with "good but not great in his view" adventures, especially new writers, to be encouraging. I've had maybe 8 or so adventures reviewed, a few "The Best" a few "No Regerts" and a few only tagged "Reviews" which means they're, at best, a "C". The first he reviewed was, as I look back now, a pretty rough work, but he was fair in his critiques. So, over the years, I've listened to what he has said, and what the commenters have said, and incorporated what works for me and moved on to the next thing. I'm still too wordy when I write. I  sometimes have wonky layouts. I sometimes make complicated adventures and don't include enough guidance on how to run them. It's who I am.

Regarding layout and organization - look at what you like, what accomplishes what you want to accomplish - and be inspired by that. Murk's Curse is for OSE - which has some of the easiest to reference and clearest layout in any products being published right now. I wouldn't copy the trade dress, but I'd absolutely take the concepts of laying out the page (bullet points can be your friend). Page backgrounds are tricky - if you don't do it exactly right, it becomes distracting (I'm looking at you, 90s TSR releases with the awful watermarked pages!). I think the 5e parchment-type backgrounds and color splotches and ragged art works for what they are doing - but they're paying somebody with tons of experience to make sure that all works together. Find a layout and a style that you like, is comfortable for you to write into, and just keep producing material. If you want to rework Murk's Curse, go for it. I struggle with rehashing material I've already finished. Somebody famous once said, "Art is never finished, it is simply abandoned."

Finally - just write and publish for you. If other people like it and use it, that's awesome. But if you can sit back with your own adventure in your hands and be pleased that you made this thing, who cares what anybody else thinks?

Quote from: wbeatty on February 09, 2024, 02:07:44 PM
Hey Vic99 - sorry I'm late to this party, I just discovered this forum!!

I'm a publisher on Drivethru too and just wanted to encourage you. New product is the most significant thing that drives sales for me - I have about a year and a half of not putting anything new out to absolutely confirm that... Sales dribble in from time to time and there's an uptick when somebody mentions one of the old adventures or the product line (Rosethrone Publishing) - happened on Reddit a while back. Bryce at tenfootpole just reviewed an old adventure (I'd say he gave it a "C") which garnered a little interest in the line, but, honestly, not much. What it DID reveal is that there are people (in the comments) who would like to see some new adventures (that was nice to hear).

BTW - his review of Murk's Curse is far from a B-/C+ - a "No Regerts" is a solid B, and, as yours was a first time effort, I'd call his review an A-. The critiques he lays out are personal biases, but they are shared with many (especially those who read the blog, of course). He tends to want to be longer and more detailed with "good but not great in his view" adventures, especially new writers, to be encouraging. I've had maybe 8 or so adventures reviewed, a few "The Best" a few "No Regerts" and a few only tagged "Reviews" which means they're, at best, a "C". The first he reviewed was, as I look back now, a pretty rough work, but he was fair in his critiques. So, over the years, I've listened to what he has said, and what the commenters have said, and incorporated what works for me and moved on to the next thing. I'm still too wordy when I write. I  sometimes have wonky layouts. I sometimes make complicated adventures and don't include enough guidance on how to run them. It's who I am. . . . . .

Hey wbeatty,  many thanks for the encouraging words.

I wasn't quite sure how to take the tenfootpole review of The Murk's Curse, but I tried to look at it objectively and consider both the positive and critical remarks made.  I'm happy to say that it made copper and is steadily moving toward silver!

I agree about writing what you want how you want.  I wrote a series of ten side quests, "Evocative One Page Fantasy Side Quests and Encounters I" that is now way past half way to copper.  I had so much fun writing that one.  If it makes copper, I'lll write another and begin a side quests series after I finish my latest two - I'm gearing up to go to Total Con at the end of the month and play test a modern horror on the Appalachian Trail and a Tiny d6 fantasy for kids that I wrote with my young son.  So I'll tweak those and publish those first.

If you made a purchase, thanks!  I noticed immediately after you published a reply to this thread, a sale posted.