...and I mean *low* sales of PDFs compared to print. It's like 9 to 1 in favour of print.

The model that works well in PDF is a steady stream of serial publishing (kits, classes and adventure ideas), which pretty much runs against the general model of publishing that we have.

For more traditionally minded games (like a|state and Cold City) their PDF sales are quite strong (they have a host of Silver Products, 100 sales or more, on RPGnow).

Where our games might pick up PDF sales is in the impulse buy in response to a thread on a forum or a need for a game *right now*. These sales are probably quite low at our end of the market.

So, yeah, PDF isn't a great place for us to have our *only* product. I do think it's goo dto have as an option, but it's not worth putting in a lot of effort IMHO since the reward is pretty poor.

Another point is that a lot of PDF sales (from what I hear, might be bollocks but sounds reasonable and came from fairly decent sources) come from people who live somewhere they can't cheaply get the print version. Publishers who offer print and PDF often sell PDFs to customers in Europe if they only distribute through IPR. This is less of an issue now that both IPR and Lulu have got their act together for sales outside the US and now charge much more reasonable postage rates, but a year ago their shipping rates pretty much killed a lot of UK hardcopy sales.

Hardcopy is still much more desireable. Cost is an issue too, I mean Best Friends is still only $15 in print and IPR's US customers get free shipping if they order that and pretty much anything else. So is $7 (or whatever) worth saving not to have the hardcopy?

PDF is not a marketplace, it's a format. A format that tends to be sold through certain channels, eg RPGNow/Drivethru. Those channels tend to have their own customer bases, distinct but overlapping. So really we're talking about the attitudes and behaviour of those customer bases, which will have differences.

For instance, if you sell to the OBS customer base, you can do well out of PDF because that's what those customers are primed for. I can tell you that with PDF sales on the OBS sites (and a small number of PODs when they were doing it) I got up to around £100/month take at one point - but that has since tailed off as I haven't kept up new releases.

If you pitch to the IPR customer base, they're conditioned to expect print versions so I'd guess PDFs are slower sellers.

Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk

When I say 'the PDF marketplace', it is these channels that I am refering to, not PDF as a format.

Ash

From my own point of view, I'd have to say that the PDF marketplace is an effective one. As of today, PDF sales represent 27% of total Cold City sales, 30% of Cold City Companion sales and 20% of Mob Justice sales. The vast majority of these have been through the OBS sites. A significant minority of these sales also represent bundled products where the purchaser has either bought the print and PDF version at the same time or has bought a PDF bundle of many different products at the same time.

I think that financial considerations have an impact on this. Sometimes it's expensive for someone to get the print version of a game where they are (exchange rates, extra import taxes, shipping costs and other 'hidden' charges). It's something I've seen here in New Zealand during my stay. There have been quite a number of people who have a wide range of indie/small press games, only in PDF format. It's a valid, valued means of them getting their hands on the product.

Our PDF sales are a valuable cash flow trickle. They aren't as substantial as an equivalent volume of hardcopy when it comes to money made, but they do sit out there, getting bought. That monthly payment from OBS is always handy.

Cheers
Malcolm

Contested Ground Studios

I sell through OBS and once you take off the set-up fee it's not had much of an impact for me. For example, I spent more money on Champagne at the supermarket tonight than I've made from OBS since June. Probably.

It probably doesn't help that my book doesn't "sit" in a designated genre for OBS.

Ah, but you're designing games that are innovative and interesting. I'm just a hackneyed old traditionalist at heart! ;-)

Cheers
Malc

Contested Ground Studios

Basically I can't fund my bohemian games-designing ways (Champagne, Absinthe, visceral pleasures of the flesh) from PDFs, which is a shame. The PDFs don't even pay for a bottle in a case of Veuve Clicquot. Oh, woe!

For games with a fan base and worldwide appeal, they do seem to generate an ongoing income. Ghostfighter for a|state stilll turns over more PDF sales a month than Best Friends for example, and was out a year and a half earlier.

Have you considered downscaling to a bottle of Asti Spumante? I realise it would be a hideous drop in standards, but sometimes sacrifices do have to me made.

I'd be very interested to hear some concrete sales figures from other publishers when it comes to PDF. Ash: I know you sell through PDF outlets, how have you sales been in terms of numbers? Anyone else also got some figures they don't mind bandying about?

Cheers
Malc

Contested Ground Studios

Just to add something from a punter's perspective (as BITS, as yet doesn't do PDF except for freebies)...

I tend to buy PDFs for two reasons - either if I am not sure that I want the book enough to pay for a print copy (or it takes too long to get a copy in the UK) or I want a searchable copy to use on my Mac.

It's fair to say that a fair few books I bought on PDF have had the print copies bought later on. Cold City and the A|State material that is in both are good examples of this, as is Conspiracy of Shadows. If I like it, PDF will often get you two sales rather than one.

Of course, it could be that I'm an odd-ball.

Dom

I've bought into things like Burning Empires (and my friends SotC) because we got pdf's with the main book by pre-ordering. Having a searchable copy is well useful (and handy for reading at work onr on palm pilots if you're so inclined), but I wouldn't sacrifice having the hardcopy. Having a mechanism for getting both is a strong selling point where me and the boys are concerned.

But maybe we're weird like Dom. Or in a different way.

Gaz

Have I told you recently that I love you?

Jon Hodgson
www.jonhodgson.com

Ah, the excesses of the indie RPG world. Did I mention that I spend more on hookers and crack in a month than the entire annual turnover of IPR?*

*this might not actually be true. Palladium on the other hand...

Gold-digger.
;)

Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk