Inspired by Fred Hicks, I've established a program which allows retailers to give PDFs to their customers, both of existing products and at the pre-order stage. Technically, it's very easy to set up - as a publisher, you just set up a Dropbox account with yout PDFs in and give the retailer access to it. This has a number of advantages for the publisher:

1. It builds up pre-orders and buzz on forthcoming products and even gives you feedback on your PDFs before the hardcopy is published.
2. It creates a level playing field for proactive retailers who really look after your customers, while leaving the uninvolved retailers no worse off.
3. It allows you to sell pre-orders with PDFs directly without upsetting retailers, because if they can be bothered, they can do the same thing.
4. It reduces the burden of giving out PDFs to customers.

It relies entirely on trust, but let's face it - pirates are no more than two clicks away from complete torrents of your products in any case.

That is nifty.

What are your program's terms, or details, or whatever we call them? I am thinking of two spheres of interest.

First, by "give access," do you mean "give" in the sense of free, for the retailer? And then, free from the retailer to the customer? I'm not saying this is bad or good either way, merely trying to get a clear picture of what you're doing.

Also, by "program" I am inferring that this is something you are making available to others rather than solely a thing for your own company. Is that right?

Best, Ron

Ron wrote:
That is nifty.

What are your program's terms, or details, or whatever we call them? I am thinking of two spheres of interest.

First, by "give access," do you mean "give" in the sense of free, for the retailer? And then, free from the retailer to the customer? I'm not saying this is bad or good either way, merely trying to get a clear picture of what you're doing.

Also, by "program" I am inferring that this is something you are making available to others rather than solely a thing for your own company. Is that right?

Best, Ron

We've done this on request, too, and as a special promotion with EndGame Oakland. We've also had queries from print customers asking if they can get a free copy of the pdf, having bought it in a retail store. It is slowly becoming the expectation, I think, and that's not a bad thing.

I assume that you have seen this before, but it's worth posting for the knowledge of the indie community.  I am in the process of joining the coalition, though they are currently prototyping and probably won't be ready for new companies until early next year.

(August 9, 2010 — Indianapolis, IN) The past several years have seen growth in consumer acceptance of PDFs and eBooks. With an eye on using this to drive customers to their friendly local game stores, a coalition of publishers have formed Bits and Mortar, a pro-retailer, pro-brick-and-mortar, pro-PDF, pro-eBook initiative.

Bits and Mortar uses simple methods and existing technology to allow retailers the ability to quickly and easily offer their customers PDF versions of the physical games they purchase in store at no additional charge.

The Bits and Mortar publisher coalition includes Arc Dream Publishing, Cellar Games, Cubicle 7, Evil Hat Productions, Pelgrane Press and Rogue Games.

“We love real, physical brick and mortar game stores, and we want to see them survive — and thrive — even as the digital content options for gaming become more prevalent,” said Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions.

“Today’s game-buying customers want the best of both worlds: the portability of an e-book, and the lasting durability of one made out of paper, glue, and ink. They want to be able to support their favorite local game stores, and they want to be able to support their favorite publishers,” Hicks said.  “The Bits and Mortar initiative is all about making sure they don’t have to choose one or the other. We want them to choose both, every time.”

Richard Iorio of Rogue Games added, “By offering free PDFs together with the books sold in game stores, Bits and Mortar publishers are giving retailers a free value-add that keeps customers coming to the store, and in turn keeps that store in business. Everybody wins.”

Yes, this is the program. We intend it to be non-profit making. We are just ironing out any problems and speccing up a retailer- and publisher friendly portal ready for a hard launch.
--
Simon

Retailers are now joining the Bits and Mortar program, and once the beta program is finished, new publishers will be joined up. You can register your interest here.