People always seem to complain about the price of PDFs. I don’t understand why, since most of them are relatively VERY cheap. Modern Warfare 2 has a price of $59.99 and then you have to pay more to get all the online bells and whistles. People complain, but Modern Warfare 2 went on to sell 7 million copies in one day. So shelling out $5 for a PDF doesn’t really seem that bad. Let’s just face it, gamers are cheap and we all know it. No need at trying to sugar coat it, we like the cheap stuff. Price has been and will be an issue for life.
$50 rulebooks don’t help but you can
get the PDF for only $9.99 that is a nice trade off. But since this is an issue, I have been thinking of ways to handle this and I think I may have come up with an answer.
The most reasonable idea that I have come up with is doing a “No Frills” version of the PDF. And when I say “No Frills” I mean “No Frills”. No Artwork at all. No fancy border design on the page. No fancy type faces. The cover has the logo and the words “No Frills Edition” under it. Nothing to make the product look what I would consider to be “graphical exciting”. Just black ink on a white page. And best of all the product would be only 4.99. That is “No Frills”. I think this is a good idea and would work on some customers of you who just want the info and don’t care about the design elements. So tell me what you think. Is this a good idea or any I just crazy? Talk to you later…
Not sure... I like having art, it livens up the narratives. Sure it would be cheaper but it would feel incomplete.
ReplyDeleteI only have issues when the PDF costs as much as the print version of the same book like Wizards was doing. I understand that getting books printed costs money, but so does producing the books. As long as the PDFs are priced reasonably then I'm ok with it. Don't cut out your production value to lower the prices.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest looking into Epub or Kindle formats though. A lot of people In know are getting new e-readers this year. I can read PDFs on my Android Tablet but it's more difficult then Kindle or Epub format.
If you do decide to do cut back versions of your products on PDF then make them part of a bundle, a print and screen version. That way the limitations I have on some PDFs doesn't crop up.
The real no frills products would be html text on a wiki like web site for free. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAs a publisher I'd wonder... is it worth the effort? If you are making the nice edition, why do extra work to make the cheap one and make less per copy sold?
ReplyDeleteI suppose it depends on how much work it is to make one that is no frills and how consumers feel if there are formatting issues of the like in the page breaks and so on.
I do think that there is wisdom in having multiple price points for a product. Some gamers have green and some don't and with no reproduction cost, you really want to sell to all of them. My gut tells me time based fluctuation is better. Sell premium for a time, then as the product slopes down in sales, run a sale on it and pick up those interested but where full price was an issue. I often buy games this way, not because I plan to wait, but I just don't bite at price A, but will take the bait at price B once it comes around.
The no frills edition would be GREAT for my Kindle... =D
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I'd like to see a lot more 'no-frills' publications. Not to save money on their purchase (I can pretty easily handle that part), but to reduce cost and effort when I print them out... and I miss having margins I can scribble in.
ReplyDeleteMaking it ebook-reader friendly as well and printer friendly just makes it better.
'Pretty' can be nice, but I prefer something that better suits how I want to use the material.
Look like I might be testing this idea sooner than I thought.
ReplyDelete