Price Point for PDFs

[Rob Donoghue]

So, looking at the whole "Write More/Write Less" thread leaves me with a question: are pdf prices based on anything more than a guess?

That may sound flip, but I admit, were I to release a product for sale, the guidelines for how I would price it woudl be based on the very scientific approach of "looking around and seeing what's similar."

Sure, there's not a huge amount of data out there yet, and I don't want to bug anyone for specific sales figures, but has anyone seen any patterns correlating pricing, size, sales and any other factors?

-Rob D.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

When I started selling Sorcerer as a PDF, which was ... ummm, in 1997-8, I think ... there were very few available money-handling services on the internet. All of them were credit-card based, and all of them required substantial service charges.

All of them also included a $10 minimum order requirement.

Hence, $10 for Sorcerer the PDF. $10 for Elfs. $10 for each Sorcerer supplement in PDF form. Therefore, after Paypal, due to what I perceive to be a historical policy constraint, $10 for Trollbabe.

If the order minimum had been $5, all the above numbers would be $5 to $8.

Best,
Ron

[Rob Donoghue]

All of them also included a $10 minimum order requirement.

I hadn't even thought of that, but it puts a huge amount into perspective.

-Rob D.

[Mike Holmes]

Huh, I just did a search on this topic, and came up with much less than I rememeber. Did all those huge debates about PDF price occur over at GO? I remember a couple of doozies.

Y'know, Contra arguing that the price should be a dollar?

Mike

[Sidhain]

My price points for unreleased as yet games are based on :A)The Market--what is selling for what. B) What would be competitive /for/ that price to make someone consider a PDF to a book format game.

[Bankuei]

There is a few issues folks need to be clear on though:

-What is competitive for the market(what will sell well)
-What will keep the business afloat
-What will make the customer happy

Granted, they overlap, intermix and such, but not all of them work the way folks think they do.

You can, in fact, underprice your product, and lose sales by pricing it too low.  "Oh, look, it's a cheapie, must not be selling that well, must not be any good!".  

Of course, there's lots of ways things work out...I'm just saying that effort to price to sales to customer satisfaction do not always act in logical or proportional manners.

Chris

[Trevis Martin]

As a bit of information on PDF pricing, because I've been buying a bunch of fellow Forgites PDF's recently.  I bought SOAP about a month ago at 2.95 I think.  For what I got and how much fun that game has been I would have easily paid more for it.

for the record I've recently purchased Inspectres, Dust Devils, SOAP, as well as Sorcerer and the available supplements (those being books, of course) and so far have not been at all disappointed.

regards

Trevis

[Gold Rush Games]

FWIW, my rule of thumb is to price a PDF version (generally enhanced, with color, hyperlinks, etc.) at one half the price of the printed version.

  That allows us to cover expenses and still saves the consumer money. Arguably, the largest expense in publishing books is the printing and then the distribution discount. With PDFs, you cut out both, so the PDF products should be priced accordingly.

  Of course, there are still authors and artists who shuld be compensated, not to mention the designer/layout person, and (in some cases) the licensor, which is why we settled on "1/2 paper price" as a standard.

[Jason E. Roberts]

Arguably, the largest expense in publishing books is the printing and then the distribution discount.

I agree with Mark's logic, but I would reverse the order for those two expenses.

[Piratecat]

There was a fairly interesting discussion of pdf publishing and price points over at EN World's Publisher's forum, right here.  It's pretty long, so you'll have a lot to wade through, and the game systems discussed aren't especially independent.  On the other hand, quite a few pdf publishers weigh in on sales and pricing. It might be interesting for some folks.

- Kevin Kulp