The Forge Archives

Regarding the planned publisher rate increase by OBS (formed by the merger of RPGNow.com and DTRPG) - "With the possibility of price hikes, I believe that both vendors and consumers have a stake in this.  Perhaps, just a joint request from those two groups for the rescindment of the rate increase will have some effect.  Remember, this rate increase to publishers is bound to impact prices of products, both PDF and print, as well as lower rates and wages that publishers can pay hard-working freelance writers, artists, editors, etc.  To that end, I see no reason why a petition can't be started to get the simple message across."

http://www.petitiononline.com/obsrates/petition.html

Thank you for your time.

As always,
Mark Clover
CreativeMountainGames.com

I think, in order for people to make an informed descision, some information about how much the rate increase will be, what the previous rate was and what the average rate is, is nessasary.

People actually in the publishing business could probably think of more questions.

Might be best to popint here -

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=178624

Where a number of repsected publishers have weighed in and both sides are given equal chance to express their sides.

Key point is possibility, and it depends on the vendor (my own rates won't be changing at all). The rate increase is in what OBS takes out of the payments, so any product price hike is instituted by the publisher, not by OBS directly.
The actual numbers: original rates, back when, were 25%. Some vendors were grandfathered in at that rate when later changes were made. Then it went to 25% for normal, 30% for "Gold", where we have access to special features. Now, its 30% for exclusive publishers, 35% for non-exclusive publishers, everyone has access to the same promotional and tracking features. Rates change over December 1st.
Older publishers could see a hike from 25% to 35% without being exclusive, which is a 10% jump in cost. Others, who sign, will see a 5% increase. Some, like myself, are already at the 30% rate and plan on signing the exclusivity agreement, myself because A) I don't do PDF sales anywhere else (Key20 handles all of my print sales), and B) with the merger, there are few other PDF storefronts in the first place, so where *would* I go?

Hi!
  Nate, I have a question about all of this:
  What does RPGNow/DTRPG offer besides the storefront (meaning the file hosting and eCommerce solution)? You mentioned tracking tools and special features, but what marketing/promotional tools do they offer?
  Also, the one thing that kind of rubs me the wrong way as an objective outsider (I am still not too close to offering my book for sale yet), is that if there really was going to be an increase in sales, then wouldn't OBS make more money without changing the rate? I guess I don't know/understand what is being added in exchange for the 10% rate hike (technically, its like a 40% increase over the old "normal" 25% membership rate). And, in the end, once they get everything consolidated into a single site, their overhead will go down.
  For instance, if all you need is file hosting married to eCommerce, you can host your PDF on lulu.com and they only charge 20%. Of course, lulu.com won't generate any sales for you, you will have to market/promote/drive traffic to that site. But, if you already have that happening, it could be a huge improvement over OBS. But, OBS could offer some incidental sales from people browsing the site. Though I do imagine that the combination of both catalogs might create a signal to noise ratio such that people may not be able to find your product unless they already know about it...
  But, if they are offering something more than potential increase in sale, maybe that needs to be highlighted...

WHY they're doing it, can't say. Course, with everything thats happened over the last three days the guys heading it up haven't had much of a chance to elaborate, its turned into a nasty clusterfuck of sorts. Really though, you get the walk-through exposure (I make about $20 a month on that alone, which is decent for me), plus the mailing lists of about 700+ people. RPGNow was also doing a lot of advertising in trade mags and the like, so the mainstream groups are making their way to the site.

Hi!
  OK, thanks. That is good to know. So, you do get "something" for th extra %. Then it's just up to the individual publisher to decide if the benefit matches the added cost. I appreciate the quick reply.