RPGMall.com Indie/POD Sales?

[Sylus Thane]

I have a short, but very important question.

What POD option could RPGMall offer me as a designer?

Sylus

[rpghost]

What POD option could RPGMall offer me as a designer?

I'm not sure I understand the question, but it would be the same thing as what you can find here:

http://www.rpgnow.com/pod.php

But with slightly higher pricing so that you can print and keep as many as you like regardless of being listed/stocked on RPGMall.com

The RPGNow.com pricing is cost as we require publishers to sell through us only.

If we did heavy POD on RPGMall.com we'd probably slide the POD service over to there completly and not do it on RPGNow at all as it's confusing there anyway.

James

[Sylus Thane]

To be a little clearer.

1. What sort of binding options would be available if I wished my game to be available as a POD product at RPGMall. I know everyone has their preferences. For example, what if I wish to not have my game bound but instead three holed punched, and placed in a binder with my logo on it. Could RPGMall do this?

2. The RPGNow site you linked does list printing prices. What would say 100pg book cost to be printed and in what amounts? How much extra would color pages cost?

3. Would RPGMall be doing the printing or have it outsourced to a different company?

4. What sources of advertising could I expect to be done by RPGMall on behalf of my game? How much may this advertising cost me?

5. What forms of promotional products could I expect to be available from RPGMall that promote my game? Would these products be arranged in house or outsourced?

Hope these questions are a little more specific and help you some.

Sylus

[rpghost]

This probably isn't the thread to have this discussion and it's to early for some of the answers. Look closely on that page- there is a worksheet you can download with pricing and options. But if I do this there would be a few more options added. Anyway...

1) 3 ring binder isn't a standard option, but the printer we work with is very flexable, I'm sure they can do something like that. We'd have to check. But we do offer saddle stitch and perfect bound.

2) It depends on your paper choices and some other things, but a 100 page perfect bound book with color cover and back cover would be about $5 a copy. We like to work with 10 copies min.

3) It's outsourced to a company we have a volume deal with. So they have great equipment, full staff, and experience.

4) As for advertising- too early to tell. But I suspect we'd have some convention presence. You'd have to pay for (at discount) banner ads and links on RPGHost network. For example RPGNow Gold Vendors can by 100k impressions for only $25. We have run ads in Dungeon (check out our RPGNow.com ad in the the last 2 and upcoming Dungeon) and the like in the past, not sure if there is enough profit for this to support that.

5) By promotional products do you mean the t-shirt and mugs idea? That can certainly be investigated (and would be outsourced) but it's not for sure right now.

Again, I'm just thinking out loud and asking for input... I'm not settled on anything specific yet- but the indie support site seems to be the best of 3 major options.

James

[Sylus Thane]

I totally understand about thinking out loud. I just hope these questions help you out. They're all ones I had to ask myself and research into to find the answers. I'm looking forward to seeing how all this works out. I've considered doing it myself several times.

Sylus

[Jared A. Sorensen]

We also have situations where individually, Indie Publishers DO manage to get their product on the shelves in select stores.  Jared's done this with a couple stores for OctaNe I believe.  Usually, this involves individual negotiation and individual ordering directly between the store and the publisher.  While there are a handful of stores out there that are willing to do this because they groove on the indie-vibe, by and large...it ain't going to happen.  Huge investment of time for little volume.

It's less about groovin' on the indie-vibe and more to do with groovin' on the Jared-vibe. I'm only bothering to get octaNe into stores that a) I like a lot, b) am on a first-name basis with the owner/manager. Simple as that. It's less a business arrangement and more of a, "Hey, this guy is cool so sure, I'll sell his game at my store."

[Luke]

Cut to: One Month Later!

So after much good discussion here, James went ahead and launched RPGmall.com as a storefront dealing exclusively with indie games.

The numbers? Well for my printed and bound game that I ship to his warehouse for him to then sell and ship to customers I get 60% of cover price and he gets 40%. It's really not bad.

I've been working with James for a couple of months now selling my game on RPGshop.com.  I have to admit I am a bit excited with what he is shooting for at RPGmall.com.

There has been a lot of talk of money and other business type stuff in this thread, but as a (small indie) publisher I just want two things: Exposure and to be treated fairly. Through RPGmall James has given indies a venue to exploit. You get your thumbnail, you get nifty stats and stuff, you even get to post free buttons, but most importantly you get access to the thousands of kids who surf RPGshop and RPGnow. For a small (small small) game publisher that is far more important than money.

People I don't know, people I have never directly solicited--never even spoken to in my life--have found my game through James and bought it. This excites me.

Did I mention that james pays promptly? it's lovely! He seems to understand the perils of indie game publishing.

So, my testimonial: RPGmall.com, so far so good. Give it a shot, you never know what gamer kid in northern idaho is going to buy your game!

ahem.
-luke

[rpghost]

Thanks for the kind words. We do appreciate the support.

Also, starting this weekend, EVERY order at RPGMall.com will go out with a full print version of Darwin's World from RPGObjects! The following week we send out a full print version of Guildcraft from Bastion Press. The following week some products from Gold Rush Games, after that SSDC has some donations...

In short, people will be coming to RPGMall just to get free products buy picking up one of yours!

Get started today!
James

[Gold Rush Games]

The following week some products from Gold Rush Publishing...

  I think he means Gold Rush Games.

  Sheesh. Work out a promotional deal with a guy and he screws up your company name in a PR blurb. ;)