PDF Publishing Strategy: Looking for Advice

[jdagna]

Hey all,

I've been a little disappointed by the presales of my latest supplement, which isn't even back from the printer yet, but isn't generating the level of interest from distributors that I'd been expecting.  Perhaps this will turn around - it is a weird time of the year, and they may be waiting until I have then in hand - but perhaps not.  It's got me exploring publishing strategies in any event.

The two books I have in progress could be published as PDFs.  Additionally, I have an earlier campaign book that I've almost sold out of and probably won't reprint, so it may also go into PDF.  All three of these books have sections that are highly independent from each other.  For example, the campaign book has the campaign section (about 40 pages) and then a section of extra rules, equipment, and character specialties (about 20 pages).   The map supplement will consist of six locations that are all independent from each other.  And the military supplement will cover four basically independent branches (police, CDF, military, intel) plus a section of equipment and rules.

Would it be smarter to split these up if I choose to sell them as PDFs?  Essentially turn three books into 13 PDF publications?  I could price each section in the $3 to $5 range and still make the same total income per book (which would normally be in the $15 to $25 range).  Each section would be at least 15 pages, up to about 40 for the largest.

Also, what kind of release schedule would you recommend?  13 sections could give me one release a month for the entire year if I spread them out.  Or every two weeks for six months?  Or release two or three at a time every couple of months?

[philreed]

I would recommend releasing both the individual sections and collections at the same time. Price the individual sections about $0.50-$1.00 higher (each) than you're currently planning. This builds an incentive for people to order the collections.

I've had some very good experiences with both short PDFs and collections.

[madelf]

Listen to Phil. He is the PDF master.
;)

Offering both individual pieces and collections will likely broaden the appeal, for those who like the pick and choose option of short pdfs and those who are beginning to grumble about how they're paying too much for only a few pages of content and want larger (more economical) books for their money.

There is also at least one publisher who has set up subscription plans for each of his on-going product lines. This seems to have gone over well with some of the very people who were irritated by the small pdf model (which they were seeing as the publisher trying to milk limited content for maximum money & making them pay more for the content than print books, if they bought all of the individual pieces), yet still lets those who like the chinese menu options of all the little pdfs have things their way. (I suspect he went with the subscription method because of a lack of ready-to-go product, though. With everything already complete, a compilation would probably make more sense).

Either way...if you can please more of the people, more of the time...

[GMSkarka]

(I suspect he went with the subscription method because of a lack of ready-to-go product, though. With everything already complete, a compilation would probably make more sense)..

Your suspicions are incorrect, Calvin.  :)

[madelf]

Your suspicions are incorrect, Calvin.  :)

Ah, well.... can't win them all.
At least I labeled them as my suspicions.

So if they're done, where's my GM's Guide, darn it? I've been waiting patiently on that one since you announced it. I don't know how long I can hold out.
;)

So I'm guessing your plan is more in the nature of spreading out the releases to maximize visibilty & such, then? That would also make sense, I'd think. (and there I go thinking again - I should probably know better by now)

[jdagna]

As I see it, the advantage to spreading out releases or using a subscription policy is that people get things in smaller chunks, and there's always something new... it keeps you in people's thoughts more often.  A subscription also has the advantage of getting people to pay for things up front (done or not, it's always nice to get the money).  Watching my own forums, I know that activity tends to peak in the 2-3 months after a release, and the higher the activity there, the higher my online sales tend to be, so one thing a month would help keep activity up in general.

But I like the idea of multiple releases, with a collected version and individual pieces.  I particularly like that people can buy a small piece if that's all they want, but that the piece acts as a preview/teaser for the other material they didn't buy.  I'll have to keep mulling over the ideas, and see what distributors do over the next couple of months.

Thanks for the input guys... and if there are any other ideas out there, I'm still open to suggestions!