Marketing

[Paganini]

So, the publisher for my cinematic action game was the same as Sidhain's and I've got a bunch of comments and reports and an unedited manuscript sitting around on my hard drive, with no future.

Assuming I decide to finish it, get someone to edit and PDF it, what's the best way to market it? Should I sell it right off of my website, or through the RPG.net store, or what? How do I advertise it?

[Ron Edwards]

Hey Nathan,

I don't get it. No one can answer the "should" question except you.

Can you isolate a specific question or two about the various processes, which (a) people can answer fairly and (b) would help you decide?

Best,
Ron

[Paganini]

I don't get it. No one can answer the "should" question except you.

Can you isolate a specific question or two about the various processes, which (a) people can answer fairly and (b) would help you decide?

I meant "should" in an objective sense, as in "which way will sell the most copies?" :)

I really don't know what it would involve to start selling the game on RPG.net mall. Cartoon Action Hour seems to be doing well there, but I don't know what sort of adverts Cindi took out. :)

For putting it up on my own site, no problem, I can write HTML, etc. But, if I do that, how do I advertise it?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Nathan,

Objective or not, "should" is still your call, for all the same reasons. No one knows what will end up selling more copies.

Is that your goal, anyway? "More" copies, regardless of all else? And what do you mean by "selling"? Moving to distributors' warehouses? (That's what most publishers mean.)

To pick one of your phrases. "More copies" hits a practical limit, for two reasons. The first is print cost - printing more is cheaper, but only if you are assured of moving them all; printing few is more expensive per copy, but more likely to sell out; your interest is served well by finding the "sweet spot" between these end-constraints. The second reason is the market itself - selling "more copies" presupposes that "more customers" actually want the bleedin' thing, which is an emphatically dangerous assumption.

I'm not hammering you with this in order to play semantics. I'm talking about some severe, critical elements of RPG publishing that you, yourself, must evaluate. I stand by my point: no one can tell you what to you with any degree of reliability. For instance, there is no "Ron's rules of how to publish your game." I can only offer accounts of my experiences and point you toward others who can tell you stuff too.

As for specifics about web-publishing, non-distributed publishing, promotion and marketing, and tons of others, this very forum is full of - essentially - nothing but. You'll have to sift through it and decide which issues are most relevant to you, and whether the discussions so far provide you with enough basis to make decisions.

Self-publish, or not? (sounds like this one is settled - is it?)
Format: electronic or paper, or combination?
Distribution: self only, or through the three-tier?
Format II: production cost? capital?
Business: storage? fulfilment? accounting? legalities?

When you do some background reading on this, and if (when) further questions or comparisons arise, then you can start threads with specific inquiries. Then, and only then, can people help you.

Best,
Ron

[Paganini]

Self-publish, or not? (sounds like this one is settled - is it?)

Not really, no. I'm just exploring my options. I may just shelve it for a while.

Format: electronic or paper, or combination?

Definately electronic. I don't have the cash to finance an actual print run. I'm a po' musician. :)

Distribution: self only, or through the three-tier?

Well, definately not the normal three-tier, but I wouldn't mind also selling it at Hyperbooks, or RPG.net Mall (I don't think I would, anyway, see below), and so on. Two tier?

When you do some background reading on this, and if (when) further questions or comparisons arise, then you can start threads with specific inquiries. Then, and only then, can people help you.

You know, I think I may have misrepresented myself in this thread. Reading back, I see I did just exactly that. My only excuse is that I hadn't been out of bed long. Let me try again:

I have a nearly complete movie-style action game that I may e-publish (meaning PDF format). Assuming I finish it, A - how do I advertise it? and B - what are the advantages / disadvanteges of the different marketing venues like RPG.net mall, Hyperbooks, and so on when compared to selling it right off of my website?

If these things have been discussed before, feel free to post links to old threads. I certainly don't want to rehash ground already covered.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I have a nearly complete movie-style action game that I may e-publish (meaning PDF format). Assuming I finish it, A - how do I advertise it? and B - what are the advantages / disadvanteges of the different marketing venues like RPG.net mall, Hyperbooks, and so on when compared to selling it right off of my website?

Advertising it means either making a pest of yourself on message boards, making recip[rocal deals with other publishers, or spending the money to buy ad space in low-cost venues. Knights of the Dinner Table has a classified ad sectiont that is a great value -- as little as $40 to reach 10,000 circulation in a month.

The main disadvantage of selling through RPGNet Mall and Hyperbooks, as well as competitors like RPGNow, is that they will want their cut. It could be as little as 20% or as much as 50% depending on the etailer. If you sell off your own website you keep it all. In their defense, though, they do earn their money by keeping your product on a  secure server and preventing unauthorized free downloads.

It all depends on how much of the sales price you want to keep and how technically savvy you want to get.  None of the etailers will do much to promote your ebook -- you'll have to do that yourself by building a decent website and getting onto the right search engines.

[Ron Edwards]

Nathan,

Side comment: the right search engines are the ones that you do not have to submit information to.

Best,
Ron