Now, I must say that I was always reluctant to do a few things in public, like show where I was with my current games or talk about sales.
But, hey, it's a New Year and I'll give anything a try once.
So, sales figures for 2006 for Best Friends (and you might want to look at these in light of The Spirit of The Century's sales of just over 700...).
Anyway, here we go:
GenCon, Indy (Aug): 37 books, 2 swaps*
Dragonmeet, London (Dec): 23 books, 7 PDFs, 3 swaps
IPR: 12 books (3rd Quarter), 22 books (4th Quarter)
Local Shops: 25 books
Direct Sales: 8 books
RPGNow: 15 PDFs
DriveThruRPG: 0 PDFs
Total (book + PDF): 154 sales
And you can add to that a number of complimentary copies to reviewers, family, etc. and people like Graham who ran a game at Dragonmeet.
Oh, and one to the GaelCon charity auction that sold for €500 (i.e. about $650).
So, what can I read into it?
Clearly, I am selling very few PDFs and while it has covered the cost of setting up with RPGNow/DTRPG it is a pitiful trickle of sales. I think I'll make more sales of PDFs at cons this year! I've dropped the PDF to $7, with no noticeable effect and I simply don't believe that the merger of the two vendors has increased my profile or sales at all. Sales of CDs do work for me, it seems.
Cons, that's the big one. I'm hitting pretty well at the cons I've attended and demo'd the game at.
It's worth noting that I was starved of copies here in the UK for much of the 4th Quarter, but I am flush with copies now. It should see me through Conflagration and Conpulsion. I should probably get a new printing for Games Expo and GenCon 2007. I expect sales of ~20 at GenCon this year.
I have a very small number of First Printings, about 10 Second Printings and a good number of Third Printings here in my house. IPR have a decent number of Second Printings, so it's in stock if you want to buy it!
*Where I exchanged a copy of Best Friends for another book rather than us buying each other's book.
Thanks for posting that
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Sat, 20/01/2007 - 17:52.
Thanks for posting that Gregor. I used to be sheepish about disclosing business type stuff (including playtesting, but that's another story), but I'm converted to the merits of airing your business in public now! I'll post my sales figures sometime this week too, for the sake of completeness and comparison.
For a sense of scale...
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Sat, 20/01/2007 - 22:23.
Thanks Andrew.
It may be only be about 150-odd copies sold in 6 months, but that probably means people spent about $1500 on the book. That's not bad for a side line.
Of course, the money goes back in to making sure I can afford to print 3:16 and buy my booth presence at GenCon, etc. this year.
So, I'm not losing money on this at all. And the next book will be bigger and cost more, so while it will cost more to produce it should (in theory) cover its costs quicker.
Interesting reading
Submitted by Matt on Sat, 20/01/2007 - 23:27.
Your numbers are fairly comparable with mine (which I'll post too in the near future).
I tend to do more via IPR and have no PDF yet (I plan to launch one). Cons really are the place to sell your game though. Get a copy in front of people and show them how it works, and they will buy, it really is that simple. It generates buzz too, which 'net sales don't to the same degree.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
I still haven't released a
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 12:52.
I still haven't released a pdf of Dead of Night, for various reasons. But, I think I will put a cdrom together in time for Conception containing all the adventures released so far.
How much do you sell your cds for?
Cheers for the stats Gregor,
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 18:54.
Cheers for the stats Gregor, I'll get mine done soon.
I believe the Best Friends CDs were £2.50 each at Dragonmeet. That's a freakin bargain actually - but perfect for the BF upsell from 7.50 to a tenner. I think I sold a couple like that at Dragonmeet.
+++
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....
SotC
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 18:56.
700 copies!
Jesus.
Mind you Rob and Fred are posting machines, I wonder if that's what's done it for Evil Hat.
+++
JoE
+++
Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....
CGS CDs
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 23:47.
CDs of the CGS web stuff retail for £15 a time, and I think we sold a few of those at Conpulsion last year. They give stuff to people without an internet connection or that can't be bothered to go online to RPGnow or whatever. If it's there and they can buy it _right now_ then it seems that they will.
I think they get a good deal, and it's money that we normally wouldn't have seen. It doesn't cannibalize books sales, put it that way.
For me, as Joe says it was £2.50 and made a nice bundle at £10 for book and CD.
I'm now retailing the PDF for $7 (i.e. about £3.50) and after RPGnow take their cut I make less than £2.50 that way. :-/ So I make more from the CD, but it does look quite cute and unique (and features original artwork!).
Fred!
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Mon, 22/01/2007 - 00:16.
He sure does a great job of promoting his stuff and getting people enthused, and Rob has a great online presence too. Both of them are such great guys in person too.
Anyway, from here:
SOTC: 707 (On preorder/sale since September)
DRYH: 516 (On sale since, uh, May-ish?)
OBS
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 00:23.
And I sold my first one through DTRPG. I might go out and buy a latte with the profits. A small one, though.