To the Group,

It looks like I'm going to be selling some PDF's of my game at a local con next month. The problem is that I'm in new territory when it comes to this and not even sure of what questions I need to get answered to do this successfully.

The game is a planetary romance or sword & planet type as typlified by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lin Carter, Otis Alberth Kline and others.  My target is older gamers who are returning to gaming but I certainly won't turn away younger ones who are curious.

The marketing challenge is this area, which is conservative when it comes to new venues and technology. I'll have to convince them a cd of a game is worth buying. So the first question is:

How have you successfully presented PDF cds as a desirable commodity to gamers who weren't used to them? I'm trying to get ideas for a sales pitch for the people who are hesitant.

The next several questions are more technical. I have access to InDesign 2 and a full version of Adobe Acrobat. So what features are smart to put into a PDF? I have already planned to put 2 books on the cd. A players handbook the purchaser can print out for his players and a full book that can be printed out by the referee: Players section, Referee's section, Zardoon, Moon of Mysteries, plus Superscience and Artifacts; along with associated Tables, Table of Contents, Index, print out sheets, ect.

The question is how should I structure this? A searchable PDF? Several different files to use for the purchaser. (Yes, I plan on the referee being the purchaser.) The whole book is just under 200 pages long without artwork so I don't want to get into something complex which will chew large amounts of time per page or section.

I'm looking for hints of how to do this well and efficiently and avoid the common pitfalls/time wasters.

The next thing I'm asking for is some feedback on how I plan to demo the game to potential buyers. In the past I have tried to run 4 hour then 2 hour games and have had everyone ignore me to jump from one RPGA event to the next. I've decided to try the Forge's template here and do a demo that takes 10-15 minutes so I can catch people at the end of their games or between sessions.  I have observed that people are attracted to miniatures or props and plan on using this as a lure to the booth.

Since the game's name is: "Planets of Peril", this quick scenario will be called: "Peak of Peril." I plan on doing this slightly overblown as the books this game is based on quite often are written in purple prose. I'm going to build an arena roughly 18" x 24" and have three stages of challenges: man versus beast, man versus man and finally man versus Archon technology to demo out both combat and mental challenges. The scenario will be simple. Rescue the princess at the end of a gauntlet and they fly off in a skyship. It should be easy to comprehend the goal. (I'll also have Rescue the Prince if some female gamers wish to play it.)

Any comments or suggestions on this quick demo will be welcome.

Then I plan on running one evening session per night that should take roughly 4 hours for people who are curious about how the game feels. 

That's all for now, I'm sure I'll have other questions as you share information with me.

Thanks in Advance,

Keith B. Vaughn

I don't know how to sell PDF-CDs.  It's a lot easier to put a book into someone's hands.  Is there a reason you don't want to run off some printed editions?

As for your demo:  First, I don't think it should be a little overblown.  I think it should be totally, pull-out-the-stops, over the top.  If you can make up a first line ("Can you defeat the Purple Menace in time to rescue the virtuous and beautiful Princess Voluptua?" or some such purple-prose nonsense) that will immediately make people think of the parts of the genre that are (at once) most beloved and most open to mockery then you're in good shape.  By delivering that line straight, you say to your audience "Hey, I love this genre too, flaws and all.  We're not going to mock the genre for where it falls down, we're going to celebrate it for where it shines."

Structurally, I think you're aiming for an awful lot.  Three different modes of conflict, started and resolved in ten to fifteen minutes?  If you can do it that's great.  Just make sure that you actually spend some time demoing to your friends while on a stopwatch.  Sense of time gets a bit wonky.  You wouldn't be the first to learn that your "ten minute demo" was actually running closer to an hour.

The obvious: slap a label on the CDs that you do up in Illustrator (or InDesign) and print up on those self-adhesive CD label things.

A little more effort: either get the see-through plastic cases (trimpaks) or create a trap-in case liner.

What you really shouldn't be doing is offering people hand-labeled CDs in jewel cases.  You aren't offering them books, which means you need to try five times harder to make the product look professional.

I'd suggest, pdf-wise, what you most need is a pdf document that does not correspond to a print product, a splash screen that provides links to the different documents that are supposed to be printed, and offers the search function front and center.  If you can get it to autorun when you put in the CD, even better.  I would further suggest going through all the materials and turning any cross-references into hyperlinks.  Basic idea being: you don't want to be selling "a book on a CD."  You want to be selling "a game on a CD that has reference materials you can print."

If that sounds like a lot of work... use Lulu to order a dozen copies of your book and sell those.

A couple of suggestions:

First off, unless your book is really huge, or has a lot of support material, you can probably get by with using a mini cd or "business card" cd. Typically, they hold 50 - 200mb, which should be more than enough for your book. And, because of their small size (and odd shape, in the case of the business card sized cds), they'll hopefully be more memorable, and have a bit of "ooohh! Neat!" factor.

Hand labeling, as mentioned before, is not the way to go. The cds should have bright, eye-catching labels so that they are harder to lose later on.

Since this is going to be a pdf document, take advantage of the format. The table of contents of the book should be linked to the relevant pages, as well as the index (if you have one). if you can incorporate it, put a small link on every page to the game's website...especially if you have a discussion forum set up for the game.

Another "neato" thing you could do would be to include a electronic version of the character sheet. If you set it up as a pdf form, the players can enter in their info and print out nice, clean copies of their characters. You could even have the sheet do some of the calculations (hit points, skills, etc), or include a built in dice roller. I've done sheets like this before, so PM me if you need help.

That's all I can think of for now.

Oh, the character sheet is a good idea.  You can also add a non-printing button that allows them to save the form data on their hard drive so they can pull them back up, edit, and print revised copies.

I'd recommend against the novelty CD format, however.  Not all CD drives can take those CDs without problems -- a lot of the auto front-loading drives are among these.

Joshua wrote:
Oh, the character sheet is a good idea.  You can also add a non-printing button that allows them to save the form data on their hard drive so they can pull them back up, edit, and print revised copies.

I'd recommend against the novelty CD format, however.  Not all CD drives can take those CDs without problems -- a lot of the auto front-loading drives are among these.

Docbrown wrote:
And, I'll agree on the mini-cds. I've never seen a front-loading cd player on a computer, but I assume the exist, and they wont work with the small cds.

I have a number of CDs that I bring with me to conventions. They contain the package you get if you download the PDF version of Timestream. I include one with every purchase of a print book, if the customer wants it, and they are also available for standalone sale.

At Dreamation, they generated some interest ("What is this?"), but they didn't sell, and only a few print customers wanted one. So there's one data-point for you, though in a different context than you're going for.

I have full-color printed labels on them, and they're in clear plastic sticky-back sleeves. The one's out on the table are stuck to a cardstock square with the Timestream cover art and info on it, and I also bring extra sleeves, so that if a customer wants they get stuck right in the back of the book, like with the CDs that come with programming textbooks. The CDs, sticky labels and clear sleeves are all really cheap to get in bulk, I can post the links to the places I got them if you want. The main cost is time - printing out nice-quality images on my deskjet takes a good amount of hours for the 20 or so units that I originally made.

Also, Keith, you can get physical books printed cheaply in small quantities these days by using a POD (print on demand) printer. For a list of those, check out this thread.

What I've usually done is to bring a laptop, and burn CD's as needed. I've got about 20 titles, so I just burn what people want. If you have only one product, pre-burned CD's may be an option. I also have a nice, printed copy of the product for people to look through, and have the pdf product on-screen for people to look at.

I use custom mini-CD's (round), which fit in everything except slot-loading drives, and I have some regular-size CD's for people who have slot-loading drives.

A handful of pre-printed labels to put on the CD's, and I'm set.

Greg Porter
BTRC