Louis Porter Jr: OK I
have to ask as a Kickstarter publisher: Since you say "my" (I am
talking in small publisher terms here) product will not sell in our store so
you don't order it. But some of your customers seem to want to pick it up and
fund my kickstarter. Better yet, I offer retailers a way to pick up my kickstarter
project so you can have exclusive item at our location over your competition. But
still you think I am "stealing" customers? I am confused...
Jim Crocker: Louis, I think it's reasonable to say you're
'stealing' the front-end excitement and heat that otherwise comes from a new
product release in our stores. I am a little (a lot?) more forgiving than Gary
on the long-tail value of KS product, but it's definitely not a 'win-win' for
retailers. It's a compromise with the new model. (And by 'you'. I mean any
publisher who uses KS as an end-run around the channel but expects their stuff
to be carried there post-KS, not just you personally!)
Gareth Skarka: Now, now, Louis. Don't expect logic.
Louis Porter Jr: But here is the issue, we don't have to
give you all the option as kickstarter. We could just leave you out completely
AND just "take" your customers leaving you in the cold. But we are
NOT doing that. We are being inclusive, and for some reason you are getting mad
at us? I am sorry, WHAT?
Dusty Deal: Louis, you may be being inclusive, but the
majority of Kickstarter projects I've seen lately have not been retailer
friendly.
Gary Ray: I've never really carried your products so the
point is moot. They haven't even been offered to me through standard channels.
What we now see are many, if not most, small publishers who we used to be able
to support, no longer work for us, and new ones, no longer rewarding us for
taking chances on them.
Gareth Skarka: " I've never really carried your
products so the point is moot. " And yet they wonder why retailers are
being "cut out." Incredible.
Dusty Deal is the owner of MythPlaced Treasures. Since she is near Denver, I am going to have JP go over there and run some
NeoExodus Legacies games to help build a customer base of those who might be
interested in NeoExodus. Jim Crocker is the owner and operator of Modern Myths, Inc.
And with this I realized what the retailers want: They want
to make ALL the money, they want to take no risk, the want to complain when
they can’t get a product and they want to tell you it will not sell in their
stores.
I am sorry, but no.
Gary, I think you are a smart business man and understand your business
well, but I hate to break it to you on this one, you are on the wrong side of
history.
Kickstarter is the disruptive technology that retail AND
distributors fear. It completely removes them from the Manufacture > Distributor
> Retailer > Customer system. With kickstarter is just Manufacture to Customer
and best of all, you can raise more money than you asked for and have an actual
profit on a products. I used to support
the distributor & retailer model because that is the way it was done. But
now as a publisher I have MORE options: online digital sales, Print on Demand
services and crowdsource funding to name a few.
Any retailer who thinks and acts like Gary, I am sorry but the future is
going to get tougher and tougher for you.
I am sorry you see this as a point of conflict instead of a place for
innovation, since this is going to be a LONG and painful road for you if
crowdfunding continues to explode in success, like everyone suggests it is
going to. Talk to you later…
