So now are PDF prices gonna go up?

The Evil DM · October 26, 2006, 06:16:43 PM

Richard Johnson over at rattrap productions just posted this to a message board for his miniature game:

"Now that RPGNow has officially announced their merger
with Drive Thru RPG I can discuss PDF sales and my
reasons for how I will be doing things going forward.

I stated this over on the Gloire Yahoo Group and I am
repeating it here. In cases where a printed book is
created, I am holding off on PDF sales until after a
physical book has reached the local stores and they
have had a chance to sell it. This time frame will be
two weeks. So, if a book is released on Nov. 1st on
Nov. 15th the PDF will go on sale. I encourage
everyone to support their store of choice and pick it
up from them. The local stores (and even the internet
stores) are what make it possible for you to find
opponents. If they sell and promote the game it
reaches more people than what I can do alone.

For the first approximately 45 days of the PDF sales,
you will only be able to get the PDF directly from me.
This means you will need to be able to accept an
e-mail with an approximatyely 4Mb attachment in order
to get the PDF and that the delay before you receive
it may be up to 24 hours. The reason for this change
is that RPGNow will be raising the amount they take
off each sale by about 30% from current levels (about
17% if I sign an exclusive agreement with them).
Either way is a large hit to what I would get.
At the end of the second month following the book
release, the PDF will be available through the two RPG
download sites (RPGNow and DriveThruRPG) until they
merge to just one site. This will be more for the
promotional aspects of the sites than actual sales and
I may still offer it through my site directly.

PDF prices will increase after the 45 day sales period
that I sell it exclusively. The price increase will
depend on the cost of the title."

It sounds to like prices for PDF's are about to go up huh?

Silverlion · October 26, 2006, 06:22:55 PM

Likely considering that Drivethru offers less return to publishers than RPGnow...

J Arcane · October 26, 2006, 06:29:15 PM

He should just go through LuLu. They offer PDF hosting now, in addition to the POD stuff.

flyingmice · October 26, 2006, 06:33:27 PM

What do you want us to do, take the increase ourselves? Margins are slim enough. I'm seriously thinking of an across the board price increase.

-clash

Mr. Analytical · October 26, 2006, 06:35:23 PM

What do our friendly local game designers who use RPGnow think?

How anti-competitive is this? CLASSIC monopolistic thinking. Eliminate the competition then jack up prices. Are there any alternative sites?

Mcrow · October 26, 2006, 06:35:26 PM

here's the press release for those who don't wan to look for it:

QuoteRPGNow and DriveThruRPG Merge

Atlanta, GA, Thursday, October 25, 2006 — RPGNow and DriveThruRPG announced today that the two leaders in the digital delivery of electronic roleplaying games have merged together to form a new company called OneBookShelf.

OneBookShelf will continue to operate both the RPGNow and DriveThru websites while a new, fully integrated site is developed that will replace the existing sites. Publishers and titles that were once exclusive to one site will now conveniently be displayed on both sites so rpg fans can find all of their favorite titles on their preferred site.

Steve Wieck explained DriveThruRPG's desire to merge, "Our goal from day one has been to offer consumers their choice of any roleplaying game ever published available for instant download 24/7 world-wide. We will be able to meet that goal sooner by combining forces with RPGNow."

The merger is being treated as a merger of equals with all employees and owners of both companies carrying on with the new OneBookShelf company. DriveThru's latest digital delivery site DriveThruComics is also now part of OneBookShelf.

"The focus of the merger is providing the best experience for rpg fans. Combined with DriveThruRPG, we will now offer consumers over 9,000 titles from over 500 different publishers. Many of the titles have never been available in print or are no longer available in print," said James Mathe at RPGNow.

Both RPGNow and DriveThru will be down for a few hours tomorrow as the content of the sites is cross-listed.

OneBookShelf also announced that it has formed partnerships with the two largest rpg community sites, RPGnet and EN World to operate download stores connected to those community sites. Fans can support their favorite community site by purchasing from the new EN World and RPGnet download stores.

Shannon Appelcline of RPGnet said :"I think it's great for the rpg community that RPGNow and DriveThruRPG are joining forces. Once the new RPGnet download store is unveiled, it will give the RPGnet community even more convenient access to instantly get the best top brand and indie rpg titles available, while supporting RPGnet at the same time".

Russ Morrissey, owner of EN World described the new partnership with OneBookShelf: "This is a winning situation for everyone involved - customers, publishers, OneBookShelf and EN World. We should have done this years ago! Now EN World's members can support their favourite publishers and EN World at the same time! And EN World can support those publishers without worrying about who's buying what where. In addition, we at EN World get to concentrate on what we do best - D&D news, and a fun community.

"EN World has been a fundamental part of growing the RPG PDF industry from the outset, as a great source of information and reviews for the customers and a fantastic source of marketing for the publishers. We've decided to partner with OneBookShelf for the operation of the EN World download store because they can provide our community more title choices, from Wizards of the Coast to EN Publishing, to the newest independent publishers, and they can provide the level of customer support to which we feel this wonderful community is entitled."

"We are in discussion with more potential partners as well," said James Mathe of OneBookShelf. "Our goal is to allow all publishers to load their titles with us and be assured that they are reaching every corner of the rpg community world-wide. Publishers can devote their time to creating great content and communicating with their fans."

One consequence of the affiliate stores is that the RPGNow site which had been divided into a main site and an RPGEdge site devoted to small press rpgs will now combine all publishers into a single RPGNow site.

Mcrow · October 26, 2006, 06:39:34 PM

Quote from: J ArcaneHe should just go through LuLu. They offer PDF hosting now, in addition to the POD stuff.

thr problem is ( I think) that Lulu does not get anywhere near the traffic specificlly for RPGs that Drivethru or RPGnow get.

Quote from: flyingmiceWhat do you want us to do, take the increase ourselves? Margins are slim enough. I'm seriously thinking of an across the board price increase.

-clash

I don't blame anyone for raising prices if they are being charged more by RPGnow/Drivethru. Crap, RPG publisher don't make all that much so every buck that comes out of your profits hurt.

Gabriel · October 26, 2006, 06:40:30 PM

So, more or less, DriveThruRPG and RPGNow/Edge are now one and the same, and RPGNow will be raising prices to match those of DTRPG?

And, since they now hold a virtual monopoly on PDF RPGs, I'm guessing a further price increase on top of that may be in order?

Wow, talk about killing any interest in the stuff I may have been forming.

Mcrow · October 26, 2006, 06:44:14 PM

Quote from: GabrielSo, more or less, DriveThruRPG and RPGNow/Edge are now one and the same, and RPGNow will be raising prices to match those of DTRPG?

And, since they now hold a virtual monopoly on PDF RPGs, I'm guessing a further price increase on top of that may be in order?

Wow, talk about killing any interest in the stuff I may have been forming.

yup, that pretty much sums it up.

The one good thing is I think they might over estimate their monopoly and the other smaller PDF vendors will see growth by offering lower fees to publishers and thus lower prices.

Maddman · October 26, 2006, 07:49:36 PM

Quote from: Mcrowyup, that pretty much sums it up.

The one good thing is I think they might over estimate their monopoly and the other smaller PDF vendors will see growth by offering lower fees to publishers and thus lower prices.

Hell, I'm thinking of a service that works over bittorrent and makes money off google ads and offer publishers the service for free. I'll have to think about it some more, but it would seem to be doable.

HinterWelt · October 26, 2006, 08:01:34 PM

There are alternatives. Most of them are not great.
1. Paizo
2. e23 SJG site
3. Digital Book Booth...meh.
4. LULU...meh.
5. Arima - in Italy

And a lot of smaller less well known stores. In the end, if you want to continue to do business as a PDF publisher you will find a way to make the merger work for you. I would suggest anyone looking for PDFs at their current price purchase them before December 1st.

I just keep feeling like Lando on the cloud city and James and Steve (especially Steve) are Darth Vader.

Bill

J Arcane · October 26, 2006, 08:04:25 PM

Quotethr problem is ( I think) that Lulu does not get anywhere near the traffic specificlly for RPGs that Drivethru or RPGnow get.

I think if an author is looking at being gouged that much, then it behooves them to just do a little extra promotion to make for that fact then.

Lulu is like Amazon, it's just a big site that carries all kinds of stuff. So you have to let people know your book is there.

I'd rather take the little bit of extra effort, if it means I make more money in the end.

blakkie · October 26, 2006, 08:22:25 PM

Quote from: HinterWeltI would suggest anyone looking for PDFs at their current price purchase them before December 1st.

Thanks for the heads-up.

QuoteI just keep feeling like Lando on the cloud city and James and Steve (especially Steve) are Darth Vader.

That really sucks.

flyingmice · October 26, 2006, 08:45:57 PM

Quote from: GabrielSo, more or less, DriveThruRPG and RPGNow/Edge are now one and the same, and RPGNow will be raising prices to match those of DTRPG?

And, since they now hold a virtual monopoly on PDF RPGs, I'm guessing a further price increase on top of that may be in order?

Wow, talk about killing any interest in the stuff I may have been forming.

Um, a lot of Publishers on DTRPG are big publiahers who charge almost as much for pdfs as for print. Us small, primarily pdf, guys are not raising prices that much. I may be raising prices 5%, less than the increase, which is 10-15% more. Hopefully the wider exposure makes up for the difference. That's 5 cents on the dollar. Some of the smaller companies may have to raise prices the whole 15%, but I can absorb some of that.

-clash

blakkie · October 26, 2006, 08:51:19 PM

Quote from: The Evil DMRichard Johnson over at rattrap productions just posted this to a message board for his miniature game:

BTW do you have a link to the actual message board post?

So now are PDF prices gonna go up?

Mr. Analytical

Gabriel