Quote from: Corolinth on July 28, 2023, 03:43:44 AM
I don't publish anything. I'm just a guy with money trying to make a decision about whether he wants to give you some of that money in exchange for your book.

When I see "pay what you want" it comes across to me like the merchant is asking for charity. It's like your book is $15, but you're hoping I will pay you $25 because I'm feeling magnanimous that day. This sours me in the product. It doesn't immediately put me off, but we are off to a bad start.

I don't know what your book is worth, and I won't know that until I get a chance to read it. You put in the work to write your book. You know how much time you spent and what that time is worth. You should be the one setting the price. I still won't know if your book is worth that price until I read it, but that's at least a risk I'm familiar with and comfortable accepting.

I'm not going to pay you above your asking price. That's obviously what you think the book is worth. I'm not paying you extra, and I'm certainly not doing it blind. I'm also not going to pay you below your asking price, because that's too much like theft. It isn't exactly theft, because the agreement was to pay what I wanted, but it's theft-like and I'm not going to do that.

As a publisher my feeling is the suggested price is the ideal amount, but 0 is fine (otherwise I wouldn't have made it PWYW). The number of people who exceed the suggested price is extremely small in my experience and I don't suggest going over the suggested amount.

Plenty of people pay lower amounts too. One reason I like PWYW is it is also a pay what you can. If someone can afford the full amount, great, but if it is more affordable for them to pay 1.99 or 2.99, that is good too. But I think where it really shines, as mentioned in my earlier post, is enabling GMs to buy it at the suggested price and then having their players pick it up for 0.

The thread was a little heavy on merchants discussing the merits of PWYW, and light on what the customer thinks of the practice. That's all I'm doing here.

Quote from: Corolinth on July 28, 2023, 07:55:09 AM
The thread was a little heavy on merchants discussing the merits of PWYW, and light on what the customer thinks of the practice. That's all I'm doing here.

Sorry Corolinth. I wasn't knocking your points, just wanted to explain some of my reasons for selecting PWYW on the publisher side

Quote from: Corolinth on July 28, 2023, 07:55:09 AM
The thread was a little heavy on merchants discussing the merits of PWYW, and light on what the customer thinks of the practice. That's all I'm doing here.

I think the merchants were giving their opinions based on their experiences with the customers using PWYW (or not doing so).

As a consumer, I like

1. Free versions, either a quickstart or unformatted/artless/no-example SRD, to let me find out if I'm interested in the writing and system at all.
2. Books on the inexpensive side - with very few base books running around $10 and other books around $5.

It's also helpful if the preview covers actual game material. RPGPundit increased (or shifted) the preview on Arrows of Indra on my request on DTRPG, so I could see more of the game system before buying.

I've never done money for PWYW. But I have used zero for PWYW or free versions to evaluate and then gone on to spend $50 or more on PDFs. I did this with Stellagama. Oh, we also play tested Barbaric! 2nd which is a Quantum 2d6 (very light, no career chargen, just pick simple options). I'd never bought one because there was no full free preview. Once we played Barbaric! 2nd, I ended up buying most of their Quantum products. (Another $50.)

I won't buy Mongoose stuff that's not on sale for half off or more. $30 for a PDF is just too much for me. (Obviously most others disagree there.)

ETA: Oh, and yes, to me, PWYW kind of signals that you're not sure if the work is any good. It try to remember some publishers use it as "free sample", but always in the back of my mind is the other. So, when/if we ever ever publish games, we'll have free, cheap, and then less cheap. But no PWYW.

As a customer, I view PWYW like the old shareware video games.  You are offering it for free (whether or not there is a suggested price) and leaving it up to me to send you money if I use/enjoy it.  I've gone back a few times and gave some money, but that's only when I've used the material in some way other than just reading it.

Ditto, I kind of use PWYW like a library.  Free to browse, but will pay if I use.