Beyond Drive Thru

[Certified]

So, it's been a while since I posted but I'm finally gearing up for the launch of Fractured Kingdom (http://www.fk.housedok.com/) and 'm wondering what the pros and cons of going with just Drive Thru RPG are. Lightning press has been mentioned as well and I'm not sure if that's really necessary unless I can get physical locations to carry the books.

Thoughts? 

[Eero Tuovinen]

The common wisdom seems to be that having multiple points of sale in the Internet actually increases your sales with little discernible downside. By "common wisdom" I mean that I remember at least three Forge testimonies over the years where people have reported increased, non-overlapping sales when they've contracted multiple digital storefronts. So in that regard it seems that the only potential downfall is that you might lose higher-quality customers to a lower-quality storefront if you sell via multiple venues. That and the bother of managing several points of sale, of course.

(What I mean by the higher-lower quality stuff is that you usually want to sell as much as you can with as low a storefront fee as possible so as to maximize your profits. The problem is that the most popular storefronts will generally be more expensive for you as well, which means that while the popular storefront will get you more customers, it will also attract the more committed customers who would otherwise have gone to the trouble of buying eg. directly from you to buy from the storefront instead, losing you profit. In the extreme case this might mean that you'll actually lose sales by using a popular storefront, if all the sales you get that way are from your close acquaintances who'd have been quite happy to pay you directly for the game. This effect has caused some publishers to intentionally stop selling through retail - if you're small enough, anybody who wants your game will be motivated enough to buy it directly from you, tripling your profits.)

As for having a printed version of the game available, I would recommend that as yet - there is still a considerable market for print books (pure digital publications don't usually even register on my own radar, for example), and the few retailers who are willing to stock POD-printed indies will provide valuable exposure to an indie company that probably doesn't do much in the way of marketing otherwise. Also, you can't do convention appearances very credibly without a print product. If you do POD printing then there's not even that much capital outlay. All in all, difficult to see a downside, except the amount of work involved in producing a print-worthy product.

This is totally a single data point, but after quickly checking out your site I can say that if you'll decide to create a print book and sell it at a retailer discount, I'll take six copies for my itty-bitty retail sideline Good-looking stuff, the writing seems fine and the topic and flavour perk my interest. Even the hints at the game mechanics I saw on a quick skim seemed promising.

[Certified]

This is totally a single data point, but after quickly checking out your site I can say that if you'll decide to create a print book and sell it at a retailer discount, I'll take six copies for my itty-bitty retail sideline Good-looking stuff, the writing seems fine and the topic and flavour perk my interest. Even the hints at the game mechanics I saw on a quick skim seemed promising.

While that may be a single data point it's one that's certainly good and encouraging to read.

Are there any preferred store fronts or PODs? Also, has anyone tried to put together a list of locations willing to carry POD games?