Three Sixteen has done the following by month...

Jul: 93 PDFs, 5 Books. Total = 98
Aug: 134 PDFs, 242 Books. Total = 376
Sep: 62 PDFs, 84 Books. Total = 146

For 620 total to end of September.

October has been pretty good too actually, and the remaining print copies have sold out at IPR, with 22+ sales at OBS. So Q4 should be quite strong I hope.

Solipsist
Solipsist had another strong quarter with sales of:
40 Books
24 PDFs

IPR was 15 Books and 14 PDFs (4 were bundles) and it got a good review in Knights of the Dinner Table too.

I make that Lifetime Sales to date of...
123 Books
66 PDFs
...for 189 sales in total.

Really a great showing by David's first book.

OK, lets tease these out a little.

I can understand the success of 3:16 - established author with good presence in the community across a number of sites, previously released game-stub which has won awards, highly accessible game material with a nice primal gamer-geek vein running through it, more AP praise than you can shake a bolt gun at. Thats cool

Solipsist? Can you explain the reasons that you and David think that has done so well - and I consider those numbers doing bloody well? Where has it shared the promotions of Box Ninja products and where has it done its own thing? What have you done, David, to get it in people's faces.

I ask, apart from professional curiosity, because I think that Solipsist has a very high-end game concept to buy into, which I have normally associated with a difficult to move game. For it to have done so well would mean that I am either (a) dead wrong or (b) you have done something special or (c) you were just the right guy with the right green book at the right time.

Neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/

Those Solipsist numbers are pretty much what I'd expect of any half-decent smallpress title in its first year, especially one launched from a known publisher (if not author).

Seriously, if you can't sell 100 copies I'd be very surprised (or your product genuinely sucks).

That said, I think the Conpulsion launch is a sweet window. It's between the other big cons, so gives a book time to get momentum and garner AP when there isn't much else new turning up.

I also actually think Solipsist is a fairly easy RPG concept to buy into, people have been playing Mage and similar for nearly a decade. It may have different rules, but the concept has an existing solid demographic, who'll probably buy to "see what it does differently".

-Matt

Realms Publishing

I think David's presence online really helps. He's about and posting on topics. He might feel that no one comments on threads about his book or posts APs, but the fact that Guy Shalev will pop up on a thread out of the blue and mention Solipsist in a passing manner shows that people have, at least, heard of it.

Being associated with BoxNinja opened doors and eyes to the book. I certainly feel that. Sure.

I also think that I did a pretty good job on making a nice book. Frieda and Kurt, especially, and me and David did a good job with the illos. David writing is really fun, actually, and I think that helps cement the book once we've got you to look at it and buy it.

Also, no one has bad-mouthed the book after buying it. It's not a bait and switch.

So, all those things have helped.

I also saw the Andy Kitkowski effect in operation on it. Andy K picked up Solipsist at GenCon US -- it grabbed his attention. He didn't pick up 3:16 (Andy doesn't follow the herd or leap on something like that). That says a lot about the awareness and grabiness of Solipsist to peope who like Amber, Mage and so on.

And while the game itself might not be what they want, it's less of a disappointment from the idea that they've been sold than, say, Mage was to those folk. Seriously.

It's not a big market, but it is a market.

I'm very pleased with the Solipsist numbers. Yes, as Matt says, those numbers are not out of the envelope for the first three quarters of a game in that price range (like 3:16 is out of the envelope), but it's by no means at the bottom of the acceptable range either, so I'm smiling.

My feeling is that the key to the games sales so far is the perception that the game keys into the same market as Mage. That was not something I aimed at, but it's been suggested time and again by people on multiple forums, and I think there are ex-Mage players who've bought the game entirely on that perception.

On the advertising side I've covered the usual bases, I have a website, a forum presence, a mailing list, but to be honest I don't think those have really been driving sales nearly as much as the game's eye catching cover and it's availability at multiple conventions. It really does seem to sell when people see it in person (we've had quite a number of store re-orders, which suggest it moves off FLGS shelves easily). Hopefully some people like my pictures too :)

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/ - http://cubicle-7.com/starblazer/