Guys,
I've been thinking about the PDF versus Print question lately, particularly on the following aspects of it. As publishers do you find that:
1): People who buy the PDF will buy the print version when it is later released (for example, could PDF sales help supplement payment for a print version).
2): People will buy a PDF after the print version has been released.
Also, do you find much crossover between the customers? I personally will buy a PDF first to acquire a game. If the game lives up to my expectations, I'll follow up with a print purchase when available.
With only two exceptions have I ever picked up a print version and purchased the PDF afterwards. The times I did solely rested in the fact that the game was used "a lot" during the games and risked early ruin.
Rock On!
Todd
I find there's very little
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Sat, 28/07/2007 - 10:48.
I find there's very little crossover, in general - customers who buy pdfs just buy pdfs, and vice versa. The exception to this are bundles of pdf + print - people seem to like those.
That said, this is an observation from the d20 side of my business only, as Dead of Night isn't out in pdf (yet). What do the rest of you find?
I think 1 is much more
Submitted by Tim Gray on Mon, 30/07/2007 - 19:12.
I think 1 is much more likely than 2. But in general I tend to agree with Andrew. In the world of online sales, only a few people want print but those people really want it. Actually I probably mean "RPGNow" there. The audience at IPR is probably much more conditioned to print.
Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk
Sales
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Thu, 02/08/2007 - 12:12.
I was about to write that my PDF sales are so minimal as to not constitute a decent sample... when RPGnow sent me a payment that indicates I've shifted a few more copies on RPGnow and DTRPG than I had thought.
From my experience the PDF buyers have been of two types for me:
(i) Those that were au fait with PDFs and didn't pick up print much for games.
(ii) Those that picked up PDF to sate their lust for the game before they could get their hands on print. Or those that picked it up then converted to buying print too.
I don't think I've had anyone buy print then PDF.
So, Todd, I would count you as case (ii) as I have experienced it. You potentially would buy print after PDF if it was good enough.
The only kink would be people who bought "bundles" of print and PDF. So far that has only happened at conventions where I've had CDs burnt, arted and available. All the 8 bundles available sold.