Green Ronin is a well respected and loved RPG publisher. Their staff is top notch and some of the best minds in the RPG industry and publishing business. Fans have supported their various gaming line in local retail stores for years. They have won awards in the field of RPGs and proved themselves to be a great RPG publisher and a top company to retail stores. And that is why Green Ronin is not a PDF publisher.Green Ronin is a RPG Publisher who makes PDFs, but they are not PDF publisher. They do love PDF sales, but they are not it core focus of their business. The problem that most people seem to forget that there is a distinct difference between what a RPG Publisher is, and what a RPG PDF Publisher is. While they are very similar in just about every fashion, but here are some points that specially separates them:
- RPG Publishers what to sell to retail locations who in turn sell to consumers. RPG PDF Publishers want to sell direct to the customer. Simply put, RPG Publishers is Barnes & Nobles; PDF Publishers are Amazon.com.
- RPG Publishers put together manuscripts that are sent layout then to printers who print them. The RPG company pays for the print run, the printers sends them to the RPG warehouse that ships the product out to their distributor for sale. PDF publishers put together manuscripts that are sent layout then PDFed and uploaded to sell online. In some cases the create of the PDF can be done for free by the use of free PDF creation programs like CutePDF or PDF 995.
- Due to printing cost, RPG Publishers need to do larger page count products to make the product cost effective, since the large the book the more you can charge. While PDF Publishers can do this also, they can also take a larger book and separate it in into smaller individuals PDF products. Green Ronin seemed to do this with their Advanced Race Codex series.
- Pricing is normally the real difference between RPG Publisher and PDF Publishers. Often RPG Publisher will use the guide of 50% of the printed cost and that is the price PDF version. Originally the “accept” pricing structure for PDF was 10 per page, but that has changed over the years but pricing for PDF fall in the range of $2 - $8 each.
Now with all this said, Green Ronin has release M&M Caper #1: Little League, the comments of Marcus King during the WOTC PDF fiasco more than proves they are fans of the format and see it future potential to help them become a stronger company. Adamant Entertainment, Malhavoc Press, Rite Publishing even LPJ Design are PDF Publishers. Green Ronin is a RPG Publisher who makes PDFs. Remember, there is a difference. Talk to you later…
Sorry, but I fail to see your point entirely, just a lot of split hairs.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just me being thick today.....
I don't know if there was a point. I think it was just stating of fact, but while what was stated is mostly true, I'm of the idea that there need not be a distinction unless you make one.
ReplyDeleteAs a publisher, I'm dedicated to getting the games out to the fans no matter how, be it print, pdf, or any new type of format that may come out later on. So, if you're a print company that does PDF or a PDF company that does print, i think everyone sees the merit in both formats.
Can't we all just get along? :-D
2 things come to mind:
ReplyDelete1: Point one is a flawed analogy. Both are taking product created by others directly to the consumer. If Amazon created all their own works and sold them directly to the consumer, then the comparison would be valid.
2: Like greywulf above, I seem to be missing the point. Aside from the fact that I don't see why anyone should care whether they are calld a RPG publisher or a PDF publisher, the fact is that they are both - they are not mutually exclusive terms.
I get the feeling something is missing. That there's some context needed here that I am not aware of...
It's only clear to me because I've read your other blog posts. Most of what you do, seems to be targeted, small page count PDF products with a very small sales level. As you said, 100 sales is pretty standard. That's a pretty distinct business model that precludes a print product, unless you come up with regular print compilations.
ReplyDeletePrint publishers are obviously restrained in their creativity by the needs of the physical marketplace. Could Green Ronin, or another publisher, make PDF "style" products? Sure, and they do on occasion, but it's not the focus of their business. That they *sell* a product as a PDF doesn't make them a PDF publisher (as in the business model). It's just their current distribution method.
So we have PDF publisher as business model, vs. publishing PDFs as a means to gaining access to the marketplace.
And I would say now that Rite Publishing is a PDF and PoD publisher.
ReplyDeleteAnd it ain't my day job :)
Thanks for mentioning us
Steve
Rite Publishing