Right, now the fact that TTL intends to offer warehousing and more traditional-style print runs instead of print-on-demand is very interesting. It may mean it's less user-friendly than OBS for the little guy to work out if their print proofs are working, and because it isn't print on demand it might not even be viable for very small publishers or very niche products to get a print run, but conversely they may be able to serve the retail market better, especially if they can get some sort of distribution arrangement going. This could get interesting.

Quote from: Warthur;885631Right, now the fact that TTL intends to offer warehousing and more traditional-style print runs instead of print-on-demand is very interesting. It may mean it's less user-friendly than OBS for the little guy to work out if their print proofs are working, and because it isn't print on demand it might not even be viable for very small publishers or very niche products to get a print run, but conversely they may be able to serve the retail market better, especially if they can get some sort of distribution arrangement going. This could get interesting.

I read somewhere that the reason they don't have PoD is that they don't have the volume yet to make a deal with one of the big PoD outfits to make special submission and ordering channel. Which makes sense considering they just started. So for now I will put it as the magic 8-ball saying the future is cloudy on PoD.

In the long run it may be a good thing as if they can always do PoD if they get some minimum volume of traffic however they will have warehousing which OBS doesn't have. Imagine they add PoD and along with the option of having the books being print on demand (like Lulu, OBS) the publisher can order a minimum quantity (20, 50, 100?) And have it deposited in their warehouse for normal distribution.

Now that just might get OBS scrambling. While the game stores certainly took a hit from Internet sales, my opinion is that the Internet is never going to supplant local retail. It might be dominate but the future will be some mix of the two. So by having both a distribution channel for physical product, and the digital/PoD setup. TabletopLibrary has more ways of generating sales than OBS.

Well, Bedrock Games just put Sertori and Arrows of Indra on there, and I did a blog post about it today.

And I just made a few orders for freebies just to check how the system is working:).

Needs a real search engine and all the searchable metadata (such as, rule book versus supplement) that DTRPG already has. Unless you're looking for a particular book from a particular publisher, and already know the name, the site is pretty useless to me.

I sure hope they get their act together. They totally blew a huge opportunity with the recent OBS Censorship crisis.

Quote from: RPGPundit;887079I sure hope they get their act together. They totally blew a huge opportunity with the recent OBS Censorship crisis.

IPR has existed for much longer, and OBS isn't in much danger of losing it leading position;).

Quote from: AsenRG;888051IPR has existed for much longer, and OBS isn't in much danger of losing it leading position;).

Sure, but the IPR has always been intentionally exclusive, ideologically-driven, and fundamentally anti-RPG.

Quote from: RPGPundit;888445Sure, but the IPR has always been intentionally exclusive, ideologically-driven, and fundamentally anti-RPG.

No idea what you mean by "intentionally exclusive and ideologically-driven". But how exactly is it "anti-RPG" when the first titles I see when opening it are Demon the Descent, Vampire v20 and their ilk?

Besides, the point is that IPR's continued existence hasn't really dethroned OBS.

Well this is disappointing. They don't seem to have any idea what they're doing. And I say this as someone with experience in having no idea what they're doing.

Just from the Sell Here page:

   "Preserve your Intellectual Property: When you sell through TableTopLibrary, there is no agreement to allow others to use your intellectual property. You are publishing under your own name, and important features of your products remain your own."

That's pure fucking FUD. Name me one RPG store which either requires you to allow others to use your IP or doesn't allow you to publish under your own name. Unless TTL is saying they will not use your IP in the promotion of their business and will eventually allow you to brand your storefront as you see fit.

And I'm getting the strangest case of deja vu...

   "I bring this up not to combat or criticize IPR or its policies, but to strike hard at the possibility among new publishers of perceiving that any non-publisher means of distribution is the indispensable gatekeeper of successful publishing, or that it has any role as a policy-maker regarding the content, format, marketing, or printing decisions for games. That perception, if present now or if it arises in the future about any such service, is my enemy,"

...so it seems these guys and Ron Edwards are on the same wavelength...

   "If it becomes primary, typically the fulfillment service turns into a store of its own. When that happens, it is now no longer a commissions-based service subordinate to the publisher, but a profit-making venture which the book sales are supposed to be supporting in a growth model in addition to supporting the profits expected or desired by the publisher.

...or maybe not.

So if they're trying to be the OSR equivalent of IPR then they're on the right track, if not mission accomplished. But they'll eventually have to adapt to the same forces OBS did if they expect to grow beyond that.

Quote from: CRKrueger;884951Shopify is an Ecommerce platform, a core piece of software expandable with plug-ins and that allows you to customize and add your own code, or allows you to plug-in apps you purchase from other vendors.  Webkul is a company that makes and sells Shopify plug-ins.

Then it's likely TTL will never have the features I want as a potential publisher, which I've stated briefly before but in detail below:

   At the end of a Kickstarter, I want the distributor to:

• take the cash and spreadsheets and fulfill everything automatically
• send out the backer surveys and fulfill on reception
• add new items to a backer's library and sent them out automatically
• or better yet just integrate what little functionality Kickstarter offers directly, as the current piecemeal way crowdsourcing operates is a pain in the ass

I want to be able to give out single use item specific gift certificates with QR codes (like iTunes):

• single use so each customer can get a unique one they can use at any time
  
• item specific so it can only be used to purchase the item(s) I specified
  
• QR code so I can hand out physical cards and customers can scan them and immediately get the page necessary to acquire the item and create an account.
  
• and it would be nice if the distributor was able to print up these cards for me

I want to sell through my site, have complete control over its branding, and have the distributor handle invoicing and fulfillment. In return I'm willing to provide the distributor sales data, and my customers relevant browsing opportunities for other items carried through the distributor.

The state of electronic/POD publishing has only gotten worse both practically and politically over the last decade, and sadly all I see here is a politically motivated consortium with little vision or technical expertise. If however they did offer these features, not only would TTL acquire existing publishers who are concerned or dissatisfied with the current environment, but new publishers who would never have existed otherwise, which is where the real market opportunity is.

Quote from: Tod13;886404Needs a real search engine and all the searchable metadata (such as, rule book versus supplement) that DTRPG already has. Unless you're looking for a particular book from a particular publisher, and already know the name, the site is pretty useless to me.

It's likely they're limited to what Shopify has to offer.

Quote from: estar;885727I read somewhere that the reason they don't have PoD is that they don't have the volume yet...

But the whole reason for going PoD in the first place is because you don't have the volume!

Quote from: estar;885727however they will have warehousing which OBS doesn't have.

And why should I trust them to warehouse my products? What guarantee do I have that they won't be plagued by the same problems as Wizard's Attic?

#DejaVuAllOverAgain

Obviously Shopify as software costs money, as will most of the apps.  As a result, it's focused more towards retail and while a small-time RPG publisher might be able to get plug-ins to do everything you want to do, you probably couldn't afford the software licensing costs for the platform unless you were fairly successful already.

I still suspect that OBS will have real concurrence when Amazon decides to set up a subsidiary;).

Quote from: Snowman0147;884613My thoughts are the same.  We need more competition in general.

agreed

Quote from: RPGPundit;886092Well, Bedrock Games just put Sertori and Arrows of Indra on there, and I did a blog post about it today.

good every little bit helps

Yeah, I'm not convinced these guys are the answer to OBS, especially since they crucially failed to even bother to show up during the recent OBS Censorship incident (Venger Satanis tried to contact them, and they didn't even answer).

But I guess it's a start.

Quote from: RPGPundit;889856Yeah, I'm not convinced these guys are the answer to OBS, especially since they crucially failed to even bother to show up during the recent OBS Censorship incident (Venger Satanis tried to contact them, and they didn't even answer).

But I guess it's a start.

Everyone freaking out because OBS followed the procedure it published, culminating with approving the book and doing some stuff to try and make it up to the publisher that the book got pulled for review is not a "censorship incident".

If there was any incident it was the "Freaking Out and Misrepresenting the Events" Incident with the mini-event of "Falsely Marking Other Books for Review 'To Show Them'" Mini-Incidents.

From some of the feedback from the False Marking Mini-Incidents, it sounds like OBS actually makes you explain specifically what makes the book inappropriate before doing anything, which is good news.