The ePublisher Guide has finally been released! Thanks to everyone for their help! Hope to see/hear some feedback (good and/or bad) so we can update before the POD version goes to the printer.
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1668
Enjoy!
James
Hey James,
Got my copy today and I couldn't be happier. Nice work you guys did there. It's definitely I'm going to be reading over and over, for the next couple of years especially.
However, there are a bunch of typos, a couple places where part of the text is cut off or missing, and some tables that I don't understand. Are you interested in this kind of stuff, or more general comments on how the information is useful and what else we'd like to see?
Yes, I'm very interested in editorial comments like that. We've fixed many so far. We want to release an update by Monday when we ship it to the POD printers. So please, if you have noticed things, email me directly at james@rpgnow.com and I'll pass them to the layout guy.
Please leave your general comments about the book under the product itself at RPGNow :) That helps others get over the "high" price tag. Though many have come out and said how much of a real value it is. You're buying information here, not page count or a typical e-book.
Enjoy
James
I am wondering who has bought this book and what did they think?
Worth every penny. Monte Cook made a comment like "if they'd had this when I was first starting out, I would have payed $50 for it" and I have the same sentiment now. Much of the info in it you can learn by cruising the archives of the Publishing forum here, but the e-PG has it all collected in one place, which makes it extremely useful to anyone interested in indie publishing.
Got my copy in the mail today and read it throughly. it's amazing how little of the advice in this book I'd been following, yet somehow I survive.
Nothing quite like having someone else make all your mistakes for you....
I'm about half way through the guide. I have notes scribbled everywhere now with new plans and several entries highlighted. My system is in what I call the "Alpha" phase and the guide has been a great help to get me on the right track. It's well worth the money if you are making plans to epublish.
My main objection is that I bought this right before things got too busy for me to read it -- but my initial skim through the book already has my brain buzzing in positive ways. So, on the surface, here's another recommendation. :)
Thanks for the positive comments guys (though I wish more people would use the COMMENT button on RPGNow or RPGMall... speaking of the Mall, you can now get a free Guildcraft book from Bastion Press with every order at www.RPGMall.com so go pick up your printed version of the ePublisher today!
James
P.S. Still have more copies of Darwin's World RPG if you'd prefer that just let us know. Next week is some Gold Rush stuff, the following is SSDC or Seraphim Guard.
James. With regards to the comment button.
I've yet in my browsing of the multiple sites seen any comments have been left.
Perhaps, you should seed each new product with commentary by soliciting it from the first couple of buyers. I think its an inertial thing. A comment thread at rest tends to stay at rest. A comment thread with posts tends to attract more posts. Perhaps kickstarting the comment thread will increase their useage.
Problem is we don't want comments till they've actually read it. A Gold Vendor can "Beg" for comments by adding a THANK YOU text message when the product is sold that is emailed to the user. That's the best we can do. When people do leave comments its usually when the Publisher bribes them to do so with some sort of free add-on.
Anyway, forcing them to leave a comment during checkout doens't make sense. I can't force them to come back and leave a comment either.
Oh, and I'm not sure we're talking the same thing here... I'm not talking about any message forum threads. I'm talking about the COMMENT button under the product when you buy it. When you buy a product you can leave a short comment and a scroe from 1-5. If you don't buy the product you're just left with a FORUM button which takes you to our forums for general comments.
James
I'm aware of the comment button. And I don't believe "solicit" has any connotations of "forcing" anything, so your reply has me confused.
My thought was to kick start people leaving commentary by proactively asking them to do so. A button at the bottom of a page where no one else has said anything is easy to ignore. A follow up email a week or two later thanking the customer for their purchase and encouraging them to leave comments about the item on the page (with a convenient link included) may get things started.
Quote from: rpghostProblem is we don't want comments till they've actually read it. A Gold Vendor can "Beg" for comments by adding a THANK YOU text message when the product is sold that is emailed to the user. That's the best we can do. When people do leave comments its usually when the Publisher bribes them to do so with some sort of free add-on.
Publishers could encourage comments by using the "post it" note feature of PDF files; I put a "Thanks for reading - please drop by $url and leave comments!" note on the first and last page of several issues of The Shadowrun Supplemental, and comments went up by a marked amount.
Best,
Adam
Quote from: ValamirA follow up email a week or two later thanking the customer for their purchase and encouraging them to leave comments about the item on the page (with a convenient link included) may get things started.
Maybe I'm just confused as this is something that all publishers on RPGNow can do and should do and is not something that RPGNow as a site should be nagging it's customers for.
James
Umm...You were the one saying how you wished more people were using the comment button. I merely pointed out one way to encourage that use.
It is of course up to you to decide what is best for the site.
Couldn't help myself not making a point overhere. These guys offer a book with their advice on epublishing and they have a doupt or confusion 2 days later about ecomments.
I don't know but this could form a doupt in my mind too.
You're making no sense. Cause there was a misunderstanding as to what was meant, why does that have any bearing on the quality of a book helping people get published online?
The simple fact was that the comments on RPGNow were being very much abused. Co-workers were leaving comments, people who didn't ever see a product where bashing other publishers, etc. It was a mess. The only way to fix that was to only allow the comments system to be used by people who have purchased a book. All the rest of the comments are set to the forums.
The publisher has the ability to nag the customers for comments. They have the ability to add an automatic thank you note that can nag for them too. It is not RPGNow's job to spam the customer base to leave more comments.
Sure we WISH people used comments more, but we're not going to try to pull them from them. That kind of presure is left up the the publisher which usually comes in some form of bribe (extra materials).
James
You said:
There was a mess in RPGnow: "The simple fact was that the comments on RPGNow were being very much abused. Co-workers were leaving comments, people who didn't ever see a product where bashing other publishers, etc. It was a mess"
and right afterwards you said that the mess you limited it to the forums: " All the rest of the comments are set to the forums."
and now you act like you didn't know.
Well that shows somehow immaturity to me so I am asking myself if I could trust your "seniority" in this educative matter of professionalism.
Why do you ask to the forums about comments and not directly in the book?
You said that you know that in the forums can be a mess. This post of mine for example seems to be one. And propably this mess won't help you out because there are so much books and products one can buy out there: this means advertising in every way is not sure to help you.
Today, a product to appeal for being bought has to seem interesting in its launching or advertising but yet not making a fussy campaign. And this counts more the more expensive is the product and the more it is destined for a community with a nature of collectionism.
And your product is really expensive for an ebook towards the rpg community.
Last words: It never gave me a good impression for an rpg product when I saw the producer or developer replying to forum messages about it ( and your product is propably about making impressions to your market and heck it sort of fails to me propably there): but of course this is just me.
And what would I do?: 1)Personally advertise it only on my web site and 2)offer copies to playtesters and reviewers of the major zines and review sites and hope for a good conclusion.
Hello,
This isn't the place for this discussion, folks. Take it to another venue.
Best,
Ron