Sunday, May 31, 2009

More Dub FX before I go to Orlando..

Dub FX 'Step on my Trip' (video remix) from Ben Dowden on Vimeo.

Hot Artist of the Week - David Grier

A very good friend of mind showed me David Grier's artwork with the cover of the Infinity miniatures games. I liked what I saw and continued following his career and works. Very much influuenced by the Japanese Anime and manga, but a powerful colorist as you can see in this picture. Take a look at his port folio and tell him, Louis Porter Jr. sent you. You will be glad you did. Talk to you later...

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Friday, May 29, 2009

Should the Obsidian Twilight RPG be 100% OGL/D20 Open Content?

While working on Obsidian Twilight recently I have had in the back of my mind, “Why don’t I make this 100% completely OGL/D20 Open Content?” For some reason it keeps popping back in the front of my mind over and over. When I first created Obsidian Twilight I wanted it to be a LPJ Design project with some open content. But now, the more I think about it I think it might be better to make it completely 100% completely OGL/D20 Open Content. I like the concept of doing Obsidian Twilight as a one-off campaign setting RPG, but I really don’t want to build and support it as a completely new product line. That would take up a lot of time that I really don’t have. Plus, I am sure there are a lot of Ravenloft and Dark Sun fans would love to have a D20 / OGL setting readily available so they could place their material into and even better sell products for it. If you have an opinion on this either for or against, comment directly to this post. Thanks for all your help! Talk to you later…

Haven: COV graphic novel is one of 50 pieces for the Illustrators Australia 20 Years of Illustration...

Rowan Dodds, who did the artwork for the cover and graphic novel in the original and D20 version of Haven: City of Violence, wrote me this little e-mail:

"I just thought you'd like to know that the graphic novel from the Haven:COV core rulebook has been selected as one of 50 pieces for the Illustrators Australia 20 Years of Illustration exhibition in Melbourne."

Bad Ass! What a great way to start the day! Talk to you later...

Thursday, May 28, 2009

iPhone Application Developer Needed!!!

I put this on Twitter, but I need as many people as possible to see this one. If you know any one who fits the prifle, send them to the link. Thanks!

iPhone Application Developer Needed!!! @ http://bit.ly/LS8GF.

Introducing the LPJ Design Subscription Drive…

I want more people to know about that I am doing here so I am having a LPJ Design Subscription Drive. Simply put, if you like the information I am placing up OR you think I should put a different type of information up OR what to support us directly; then do me a favor and follow me via Twitter or with Google Friend Connect (see the section on the right side to join up). I am looking to get the message out, so do me a favor and help me out. Thanks! Talk to you later…

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Real street music hotness for your ears and eyes!!!!

Dub FX 10/10/2008 Part 2 from Ben Dowden on Vimeo. Enjoy!

Buying Smaller companies and add their products to yours…

In the past I have found a few smaller companies that I thought had interesting products and I thought they would work well with one of my product lines. Many times these companies had only 3 to 10 products and I though instead of purchasing one or two of their product I thought it would be best to buy them out completely and just reveamp all the product to fit with my company’s look and design. The formula that I found works the best is the following:
  1. Determine the average monthly income created by the company over the previous 12 month. You can have the company you are attempting to purchase to give you this information then verify this by a second source. If the company is hosted at RPGNow, for example, you can confirm the info the small company told you by asking them.
  2. Then I would offer them a payment equal to nine months worth of the average monthly income as a lump sum. So if a company made an average monthly income of $500 a month, I would offer them $4,500 for the company. Many are asking why only nine months and not a year? Because realistically sales over time decrease as more of the customer base purchases the products, which also mean less sales. This is a fair and realistic view of what you will generate over the 1st year having these products for sale under your new banner.
  3. You break the payment of the business over an allotted amount of time that is no more than 6 months to pay it off completely. If you have the money readily available, then pay if off when you make the deal. Breaking the payments into smaller ones make it easier for you to come up with the money (especially if you are having a cashflow issue) plus it gives the seller that their business is still making them money (even though you now own it).
This is simple, effective and fair way about doing it. The biggest problem that I kept running into was that many people unrealistically valued their companies for more than it was worth. One small RPG company I was interested in buying off me his company for $500. But after doing the due diligence on the company (checking with RPGNow) I found it was only worth $52 dollars. He told me his company was of worth well more than that and I was attempting to cheat him. He did not want to deal with the reality of his company so I walked away from the deal. Years later, his company went out of business. Too bad really. If he had let me buy him out, I would have been open to help make him into a popular writer in the RPG industry using his new products as a “springboard” for him. Kind of what Brett Boyd did with Tricky Owlbear did with the Behind the Spell series. Welcome to the world of business. Talk to you later…

Now selling through Amazon.com by way of Lulu.com...

For some reason, I received a letter from Lulu.com telling me that my product were now on sale at Amazon.com, but it did not cost me anthing to get them on Amazon. Not one thin dime! I don't know why Lulu.com did it, but I don't care. I like knowing I have products for sale at Amazon.com. For all you other PDF RPG publisher out this is something you might want to check out. Talk to you later...

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The First Five Minutes of Blood: The Last Vampire

Increasing sales and spreading out the percentages...

RPGNow is the largest PDF site on the market; roughly 80-85% of my income comes from them. The remaining 15-20% comes from the other sites like Paizo, e23, and Lulu. I think this precent is MORE THAN unevenly lop-sided. Putting that much "trust" in one company is a bad thing for business. The reason being that if something goes wrong at RPGNow, then there goes my income. And this is the same thing that many other RPG companies have done. With the introduction of the Paizo Publishing, LLC Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility License, this gives publisher a reason to get additional sales from the Paizo website, which in turn increase your cash flow and speads out the percentage.

With the Paizo Publishing, LLC Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility License, I believe there is a potential money generating opportunity is equal to to what Green Ronin's M&M Superlink (before they had to release a 2nd version of Mutants & Masterminds because Osseum ran off with all the money, over $100K, from the first print run and they had to pay the bill quickly or go under. Bet you didn't know about that, did you?) was. If Paizo Publishing, LLC Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility License does just half as well as the M&M Superlink license did for me (I sold 189 copies of Power Corrupts in 3 days, not like now where most does sell 100 copies in a lifetime of the product) it could be a nice source of income for me (In addition to the money I am already making from it). Personally I am looking to change my percentage to 35% RPGNow / 35% Paizo / 30% other various sites, with an increase of cashflow of 50%. It is going to be like 2004 alo over again (My sales in 2004 jumped over 400% from the previous year, in 2003 sales were only up 350% from the previous year). So it looks like time will tell in August. Talk to you later...

Monday, May 25, 2009

Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009 - Mike Masnick keynote address, 3/25/09

Gareth placed this up at the private forum for RPGNow.com and I though some of you might be interested to see this for ideas for business. Enjoy! Talk to you later...

Home from vacation and back to work...

I have not left the US since 1985 (in which I traveled to France with my 9th grade French class), so this vacation trip to Trinidad & Tobego was very special (since I was going to meet the rest of my wife's family). I was a great trip! Trinidad & Tobego was beautiful, relaxing and Maracas Beach was very cool and make sure you get the Bake and Shark from Richard's when you are there. It is SOOOO GOOOODDDD!!! Now since the vacation is over, well it is back to work...

Over the vacation I read and finished The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferris. For those in the field of creating content like we are in, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!! The amount of ideas that you get reading this book will be massive. Using this book I have finally decided how I can get LPJ Digital off the ground and make sure it is an amazing sucess. Plus the tons of great sources of online materials that will help you save money are AMAZING! so do yourself a favor and go get this book now. The massive amount of sales you make will thank you for it. Talk to you later...

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Hot Artist of the Week - Stanley Lau

I have seen some of Stanley Lau's artwork on a lot of different projects and genres and I have been very impressed in what I had seen. So now is a chance for you to take a look and enjoy. Talk to you later...



Thursday, May 14, 2009

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead...


This video is something that I though you might enjoy, since I am going to be gone until May 24th. During this vacation, I will be writing up buisness plans for LPJ Digital (iPhone apps I am developing with people on eLance.com) LPJ Games (Finishing up the last cards for Grammar: The Sentence Creation Card game) and a Independent film & production company for web based content (No name for it yet). So I will see you in when I get back. Talk to you later...

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Image Porfolio Platinum Edition 1...Coming Soon

Coming soon to a PDF online store near you. This is the sketch of the final artwork. Stay tuned for the artwork. Talk to you later..

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Updating the website

Since I am going away for roughly 2 weeks, I thought it might be best to get all the business stuff in order before I go. I just made a few changes to the LPJ Design website and add some new links here. I like where the blog is going business and information wise and I hope if I am missing anything any of you would like to see or know you will let me know so I can put it up here. Like I said in the Manifesto I want this to be a place for people to get and trade information. If you want to keep up to date all everything going on up here follow LPJ Design on Twitter or join directly to follow (See Followers on the side). Lots of good stuff is going on here and even more will be expanded in the near future. Don't miss out. Talk to you later...

Friday, May 8, 2009

$100 a day at RPGNow.com…

$100 is not really that much money in the scheme of things. But if you could do this daily at RPGNow.com you would be considered a Platinum Level Vendor. Now a $100 can be an easy day OR a hard day depending who you are. I think it is a good number to strive to. If you pull it off your business will then generate over $36,000 a year. And that is not bad no matter who you are. I did some research when WOTC was still on RPGNow and I have “guess estimated” that they sold between $20K to $25K a month. With a back list of over 800 products with an average revenue of $3.71 each (That is 75% of 4.95 with RPGNow taking 25%. I never really believed WOTC was at the same rate as the other PDF vendors which RPGNow takes 30% or 35%) you would only need to sell between 7 to 8 copies of each product in your catalog to get the $20 to $25K amount. Better yet that number they need to sell gets lower each time WOTC put out a new product. You are using the theory of dollar cost averaging combined with Metcalfe's Law. The more products you have, the more opportunity you have to sell something. So if you want to sell more products and make more money, you have to make more products. Pretty simple isn’t it. So the next question is why are you doing it? Talk to you later…

Thursday, May 7, 2009

New Orleans then Trinidad…

I looks like from 5/11 until 5/24 I will be traveling first to New Orleans (for business) and then to the Island of Trinidad (for business and vacation) so Don’t expect to hear a lot from the blog at those time. Just giving you the head’s up. Talk to you later…

PS: Any one in New Orleans who can suggest a good place to eat downtown (The French Quarter) Let me know.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Mercury Men and LPJ Design…


Garth happened to mention this in an update he did at his site and I was so interested in I decided to look up the writer / director Chris Preksta. After speaking to a few contacts I know, I got in touch with him directly as we spoke over the phone about his series, what it took to product it (not as expensive as I thought) and would they be interested in doing other material in various genres (which they are). What made this call even better was I found out most of the people who worked on this project are also RPG gamers. So I told him a little be about Haven: City of Violence and NeoExodus: A House Divided. It looks like we will be meeting up with each other mostly during San Diego Comic Con to meet face to face and see what happens. It is always good to meet with nice creative people who want to do cool things. I can’t wait to talk to him again.

PS: I almost forgot, Chris is also a great cartographer and we might even do a side project of e-tile for sale at RPGNow.com. Keep your fingers crossed. Talk to you later…

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

RPG Publishing Gauntlet…in video!!!

Just in case if you might of missed it, I found my set of old RPG Publishing Gauntlet series in video. This was the sequel to my original audio RPG Publishing Gauntlet series that I did so if you were interested to see where this blog got its start, go check them out. The stuff I said then is still relevant to today. Good knowledge is always relevant. Talk to you later…

Monday, May 4, 2009

Tell us why you love Paizo!!!

Tell us why you like Paizo in 140 words or less on Twitter. The winner gets a free copy of LPJ Design's upcoming Adventure Planner. Read about it on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lpjdesign. Good Luck!!!

Books You Need to Read – How to Make Webcomics

I have talked about this book in the past and now that I am going to do a weekly “Books You Need to Read” section I thought I would start off with one of the most useful book that I have picked up over the last year. How to Make Webcomics was written by by Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar. Each one of these writer has build their own online presence from the ground up and understand what you need to do to attach interest in what you are doing. While some of you are saying, “This book is for webcomics and I do RPGs. They are not the same thing and why would I buy it?” I can say that 905 of the material you find in this book will be useful for RPG publisher also. One of the easiest ideas that this book gave me was joining Project Wonderful. A very simple concept, I think, works a whole lot better than Goggle Adwords. Also they have a whole chapter of “Going to Conventions” (pg 158) which is the most informative section I have ever read about going to cons. This chapter alone is worth the price of getting of this book. So if you are serious about getting into this business (either the business of comics, webcomics or RPGs) then seriously pick this book up. Talk to you later…

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Hot Artist of the Week - Jeff Wamester

Here is an artist I like so much I have used some of his character design work as inspiration of a the look and style I want on certain projects. Jeff Wamester understand what quality should be and does it with every line that he draws. While I like his color work, I think his Black & White work is even better. If you need an artist that will come through with the work done right, you should contact Jeff Wamester. Talk to you later...

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Really want to get into the RPG Publishing business? Then take this little test to see if your qualified…

A lot of people ask me about getting into the business or how to start their own RPG company, so I came up with a little test that I think can really help you decide if you are qualified to get into the business. This is the same test I give to people who want to be project manager on product we create. Enjoy!

Project Manager Position
For those interested in this position, we would like to give you a real work project to work on and see if you can accomplish it in the stated time frame and on budget. This will determine who we think is best working with Louis Porter Jr. Design and our imprints.

PROJECT EXPECTATIONS
We are looking for at least 1,500 to a maximum of 2,000-word project that can focus on any one of the following areas of interest:
  • D20 Modern (Generic): New Class, New Equipment, New Rule set
  • D20 Future (Generic): New Class, New Equipment, New Starship, New Planet, New Rules set
  • D20 Fantasy (Generic): New Class, New Magic Item or Equipment, New Spells, New Rule set
This project will also need for you to acquire at least one (1) original piece of artwork at least 8.5 inches in height by 5.5 inches in width for this project. (Any and all clip art or stock artwork is excluded)

RULES OF THE PROJECT
  • The total budget for this project is $50 US. With this money you will acquire at least one (1) original piece of artwork for this project (Any and all clip art or stock artwork is excluded) and a writer for this project and they will be paid from this amount.
  • No individual who have worked for Louis Porter Jr. Design or any of its imprints at any time are eligible to be used on this project. Also, the project manager on this test is not eligible to be the writer or the artist on this project.
  • These following questions must be answered about the product, in 50 words or less:
  • 1) Why would someone purchase this product versus our opposition?
  • 2) How does this project fit in with Louis Porter Jr. Design overall business strategy?
  • 3) How does this product compare to what Louis Porter Jr. Design’s competitor similar products?
  • The project will blind CC Louis Porter Jr. on all the e-mail on recruiting of artist and writers.
  • Also the project manager cannot say what company (Louis Porter Jr, Design and imprints) they are working for, to the writers and artists they are looking to recruit. All that can be said or referred to is that “they are a well known respected PDF publisher”.
  • The project must be completed with seven (7) days of receiving this e-mail.
  • Louis Porter Jr. will personally look over all work submitted then it will be accepted, sent back for revision, reject pieces of the project or reject the product in full. The project manager, artist and writer will be paid on completion of the project by Louis Porter Jr. directly.

PAYMENT
Louis Porter Jr. will pay the project manager 20% of the total budget for this project. All payment of writers will be handled by directly by Louis Porter Jr. Thank you again for your interest in this position and good luck.

Now after reading this, if you became worried and though to yourself, that doing this test is impossible, then you WILL NOT make a good RPG publisher. I am being 100% serious here. You will not be a good RPG publisher and you should do something else. Don’t waste your time or money. For everybody else, get to it. You have work to do. Talk to you later…

Friday, May 1, 2009

Better marketing of Living Arcanis / Pathfinder Society /Massive Multiplayer RPGs to RPG Fans...

Sometime things don’t make sense to me. One of the greatest ideas that really does not make sense to me is the Living Campaign concept for RPGs that have developed into MMO. I mean I understand what they are, but I do not understand why they are so popular. The best way it was describe to me was “Kill monster, get treasure.” Simple and to the point. And when I played in them they were, kill monster, get treasure. Simple right? But if it was so simple, why don’t more people play in Living Campaigns? From a business sense it is an example of Seth Godin book, Tribes. OK I get that but why is it not marketed better to get more people involved?

The guys at Paradigm Concepts are friends of mine and I have had the pleasure to ask a lot of behind the scene questions about Living Arcanis. The one thing that always kind of got me “confused” (This really isn’t the right word, but it is the only one I can think of at the time) is how things are broken up game-wise. Paradigm Concepts has two big events at Gen Con and Origins which they run called a “Battle Interactive”. The Battle Interactive events have done very well for them. During the year they have adventure that people can download and play at their home games and have a great time. The guys at Paradigm Concepts are following the same game plan that every other company has been using when creating their own Living Campaign, including Paizo with the Pathfinder Society. The system works well and people are happy with the status quo.

But what if you tried something slightly different? What if you changed it up a little? What if you shook up the status quo? What if:
  • You had a one year long adventure storyline that ran from August through July. The year-long adventure / storyline would start at Gen Con with a big event and have its climatic end in Origins with a big event. The reason for doing this is it gives you roughly six weeks between Origins and Gen Con where you can build interest in the new year’s campaign by using what happened in the year ending event as the “spring board”. This basic market strategy has worked well for comic book companies for years (The Darkness Night and the Secret Invasion are prime examples of this.)
  • Instead of giving away the adventures for free like many Living Campaign game companies do, sell your adventures and a low and reasonable price. When you place a value on a product they are considered to be valuable. Paizo has done this with its Pathfinder Society materials.
  • During the six week period between Origins and Gen Con you release a free adventure / sourcebook that connects the previous year’s adventures and this upcoming year’s adventures. An even better to joint , you can connect the two conventions by the ending event being the lynchpin that starts the new year’s campaign at Gen Con. Paizo has done very well with this with their Pathfinder Companion and Player’s Guides lines.
  • You create a mid-point event that is held at a very special convention. This event is the “Empire Strike Back Moment” in the year long event. You would like to create a convention like Winter Fantasy or the D&D Experience where all the hard core support and fans of your adventure games series and company come out to play, then go back home to talk up it up to more people. If you want to take this one step farther and cause some business disruption and attack the position of the leader in this field (WOTC), I would have my event in the same hotel/location on the same day that the Winter Fantasy/D&D Experience is having their event. This is guerilla marketing and Business Judo at its finest.
  • When the previous year is over complete, you collect all the adventure into a HUGE book that you do as a Print-On-Demand Book and sell. Why POD instead of traditional printing? Because you save on having to put down upfront money for the printing cost. Lulu.com is a great choice for this.
  • In addition to the year long story line at Gen Con and Origins, at both conventions I would have “Contest of Champions” event. At this event, groups of four PCs/Players are put up against other groups of four PCs/Players in dangerous location (a la Tomb of Horrors) where they fight it out to gain points and the people with the highest point value go into the “Elite Grand Round” where they face off with some kind of super thingamabob for cash and game product reward. Everyone who plays gets a cool copy of an exclusive product that you can only get from playing in the con. Douglas Atkin’s The Culting of Brands was great for understanding this.
Simple tactics that can have a powerful effect on your sales by making your fans even more connected to what you do. Hope it works for you. Talk to you later…