Transparency Agenda Daily September 1st 2016 - Adamant Entertainment ret...

Transparency Agenda Daily August 9th 2016 - 3PP Breakdown Failed Kicksta...

Is Kickstarter.com concept the venture capitalist business model for small publishers?

While looking over the AMAZING job Gareth is doing with Far West (Good work and I am professionally jealous. Got to give credit when credit is due), reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, I was thinking about what I would define Kickstarter.com as being.  Kickstarter defines it self as a new way to Fund and Follow Creativity. But if you look further you might say their business model is that of venture capitalist. Venture capital is defined in wikipedia as financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as biotechnology, IT, software, etc.  While this is not exactly what Kickstarter does, you can see a relationship between the ideas of a venture capitalist and a kickstarter project supporter. So the question is, Is Kickstarter.com concept the venture capitalist business model for small publishers?  What do you think.  Talk to you later...

Gareth-Michael Skarka's bass-ackward comment about my Kickstarter project...

Last week I made a post about how I was planning to do a Kickstarter project but I had not decided what to do it on. Gareth made a comment to it and referred to it as being "bass-ackward". Now some of you are expecting this to be a tirade again Gareth and his comments.  It's not. Who this is an interesting teaching lesson moment on two different side of business thought.  OK what is more important, the product OR the delivery system that delivers the product? Based on Gareth comment I would think he fall under the camp of "the product"; I, on the other hand would fall under the side of the "delivery system".  Let me explain this one real quick with a few questions: How many people think they can make a better burger than McDonalds? How many of you think McDonalds burgers are "bad to poor quality"? How many people think McDonalds has a better delivery system to get their burgers to the customer? If you make a better burger than McDondalds, why haven't you put them out of business?  If McDonalds burgers are of "bad to poor quality" why haven't they gone out of business?

Because it has nothing to do with the quality of the product, but everything to do with the delivery system of that product.  I think we all can agree McDonalds burgers and not that great (Their french fries are another thing completely) and you could make a better on then their at your home.  McDonalds has build a system where they can deliver burgers consistently of a certain quality of burger to all their customers in all their locations.  Best of all their system is so simple 16 year kids (abundant cheap labor) can operate the system with easy by following directions.  The system is what is important.

Let's make it easier for those who might just say McDonalds is completely different then a RPG. Gareth sells at RPGNow.com and I think he sell at his own site too. Which one of these websites do you think he sell more at, his personal website where customer could get his personal touch with each and every sale that he might make or at RPGNow.com where they get thousands of customers a day who get a constant buying experience with each and every sale? I am going to have to say I think RPGNow.com is the winner.  RPGNow has build the correct system that hundreds of vendors have used to sell to tens of thousands of customers. Kickstarter follows that same model. So Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, AMC Movies theaters and Disney. They have built a great system where what you are "selling" does matter, the delivery system is what is important.  You might have the best product in the would, but what does it matter if no one or not enough people can get access to it to keep your business going?  Just a thought.  Talk to you later...

[LPJ Design] $1.99 Everyday Value Pricing from LPJ Design

LPJ Design has always had good pricing with our One Day Sales but now with the current economic events going on, we have decided to give our customer a better deal with our PDF lines and we have created our “Everyday Vale Pricing”.  Inspired from of the ideas from many forward thing business minds including Gareth Skarka, we at LPJ Design have decided to lower the price of roughly 80% of our product line to the low price of $1.99 each.  While every product isn’t $1.99, we feel there is enough products there to keep you interested. The full line of LPJ Design is nearly 500 products, so we are sure you will find a few products that will keep you interested. So come out to RPGNow and take advantage of our 1.99 Everyday Value Pricing exclusively at RPGNow.com!

See us here: http://lpjdesign.rpgnow.com

Why do Podcast when you can do Videocast...

My comments to Gareth's Tabletopocalypse Now

Controlling cost and what things are worth…

When I started in the PDF publishing business back in 2001 there was an unwritten rule that PDFs cost roughly 10 cents a page.  A decade later that price is 18 cents to 25 cents per page.  Now have PDFs improved over this period of time? Oh yes, the quality of PDF publishing has grown into its own with many people trying and doing thing that 10 years ago would be business suicide.  Most PDF publishers have been doing PDF publishing about four years. There are very few people who have been at this for a decade. The only two I know are Gareth and me.  Monte Cook was only at it for eight years. 

Pricing is a touchy subject due to the fact that it is an individual choice for each publisher and due to the flexibility of the market has not really been able to get it under some control.  The market normally finds some way to control pricing but there is always some type of elasticity to make pricing flexible. The PDF market is similar to what the iTunes apps market must be like: lots of small to medium sized players and few major players and pricing that is everywhere all over the board.  eBook publishing is starting to see the same issue of pricing.  With the cost of pixels coming down each and every day the issue of pricing will become more and more important over time.  What should things cost? What people are willing to pay for them.  And if you don’t like that, then you shouldn't purchase the product. And yes I am talking to you.  Talk to you later…

Transmedia is the future of business, EXCEPT for these two huge issues…

Last week, Gareth had three excellent posts on Transmedia (see post 1, post 2, and post 3) and if you are thinking of ways to expand what you do and how you do it, YOU MUST READ THEM!!! (Yes they are that good).

BUT……….while I do agree with 95% of what he said, I do have a few things that need to be covered to really make this what I would consider “fair and balanced”.  So here are my two issues that may stop your transmedia empire:

MONEY: This is the biggest one.  To do a lot of the things that were suggested, you need to have money.  And sometimes you are going to need A LOT OF MONEY to do some of these ideas.  So if you got the money, then go for it.  If you don’t, well instead of thinking about the next fantasy world or setting you are going to create, you might what to think about that.  I would also suggest you pick up a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s book: Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cashflow Quadrent and Rich Dad’s Success Stories.

TRAFFIC AND CONNECTIONS: People have to know about you.  And not a few people, A LOT OF PEOPLE! CWF+RTB=$$$ (Connection With Fans plus Reason To Buy equals Business Model) is the basis of the argument of doing transmedia and making a lot of money.  This formula sounds great as long as you use a well known artist LIKE Trent Reznor and show what here did. See the video here:

But here is the problem for all you starting from zero or in some cases less than zero: No one knows of you.  No one.  So first you have to build fans and how long will that take?  Who knows.  Even worst, you might do everything right and still get NO FANS. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great Trent Reznor did so well with this, but if his was Trent Reznor of Jacksonhole, Wyoming playing music in his garage with no major record label contracts would he have done so well and made so much money? I going to say no.  The formula really should be CWF/APF+RTB-POCWFI=$$$ (Connection With Fans divided by Amount of Potential Fans plus Reason To Buy minus the Popularity of Other Connection With Fans Items equals Business Model).  Sometimes one plus one doesn’t equal two. 

Now after all this is said, if you are ever confused about Transmedia and what you company should “look like” when you are successful and done, just look at George Lucas and his Star War franchise. Now that is REAL transmedia.  Talk to you later…

DARK VOID Final Cinematic Trailer

Since Gareth was nice enought to share the new Buck Rogers trailer with everyone. I thought you might show you the pulp insired goodness of Dark Void.  Enjoy!

LPJ Design teaming up with Adamant Entertainment…maybe

This is something I have wanted to do for a while since I buried the hatchet with Gareth almost a year ago. With both of us supporting Paizo’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game it seemed an naturally good idea. The real issue I think for both of us was time and money. Whatever we agree to work on would have to take a little bit of time and make money to be worth our time to focus on. So I kicked a around a few ideas in my head and nothing really came. Then something came to my mind that I thought would be great for both of us. But before I announce this idea I need to check two more facts but after that I should be good to go. So if you are a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game you might be in for a treat. Talk to later…

Table Top RPGs are NOT future "IP Prototyping" and here is why…

I read this on Saturday at Gareth’s post Rough Beasts Starting To Slouch.... with Malcolm Sheppard about what it all means for the future of the business and I started to laugh. The reason that I laughed it that Table Top RPGs are NOT future "IP Prototyping". This a very simple reason, to the video game market table top RPG don’t exist and that is because most table top RPGs companies and setting (roughly 99% of them) don’t have a large enough audience. Think about it, if WOTC is the king of the market and they have only 1 million of active players that is really NOT a lot of people. The Halo franchise is one of the best-selling video game franchises of the last decade. Wired Magazine said during the two months following Halo: Combat Evolved's release, it sold alongside more than fifty percent of Xbox consoles and then sold a million units in four months. Halo 2's is quoted in generating $125 million on its premiere day. Halo & Halo 2 sold 14.8 million units BEFORE the release of Halo 3. Table top RPGs don’t sell anywhere near that. Hell, if you sell 100 copies on RPGNow.com you are considered to be a top seller. 100 copies. Top seller.

I worked for a small video game developer and manufacture in from 2001 – 02 called Xicat Interactive, where I got a chance to see how the video game industry really works behind the scenes. Hell, I even have credits on video games where I did quality insurance and development. Their best seller when I was there was X-Plane and it sold just over a 100,000 copies. For a table top RPG to get noticed by anyone slightly important, it would have to sell t least 25,000 which is the equivalent selling equal to Solomon Grundy #7 from DC Comics (25,905 units) or Outsiders #22 from DC Comics (22,756 units) or Incredible Hercules #134 from Marvel (25,359 units) or Guardians of Galaxy #18 from Marvel (24,875 units) or even Nova 29 from Marvel (23,904 units). And you are considered a success if you sell 5,000 copies of a RPG to a game store.

The numbers are not there. Sorry. I wish they were but they are not. So you might have to accept that the table top RPG you are working on will not be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Find a way to increase the numbers then this will all change but until then…

Talk to you later…

Burying the hatchet with Gareth…

Gareth made a comment to my latest PDF Business Wednesday and the topic I brought up about Free products. It was a quick comment from him. I don’t know why he did it. Maybe he thought it would be something I would be interested in knowing. Maybe he wanted to show me that other people were talking about this and this was a timely topic. The reason is not important and it got me thinking. So I have decided that I am going to something that needs to be done.

I am going to bury the hatchet with Gareth. Completely and absolutely. No strings attached. What happened in the past is the past. Forgive and forget.

For a long time I have thinking about doing this. When I first started in the PDF business it was a crazy time. Basically the Wild West. I was lucky enough to do well enough to do well enough to expand my business. During this time, I stepped on some people’s toes and rubbed some people the wrong way for whatever reason. But now in nearly 2009, the PDF market is a different place and so am I. Happily married and in the best place I could possibly be at. My life is just about perfect. I have made it my personal goal now to “Do No Harm” to anyone. Hurting people, not asking for forgiveness and not forgiving people only brings down you own personal spirit / karma / whatever you call it and I don’t want that. I want to be helpful not hurtful.

So I hope Gareth will accept my sincere apology to anything I have done in the past to him and I hope we can bury the hatchet and start anew with a clean slate. Talk to you later…

Nothing up my sleeve...

Look What I found on Gareth's log:

<<Just marking this down so that it's on the public record.....Today, Louis Porter bought the following products from Adamant Entertainment:
Imperial Age Magick
Imperial Age: Advanced Class - Alienist
Imperial Age: Advanced Class - Monster Hunter
Imperial Age: Spiritualism
The GameMaster's Guidebook to Victorian AdventureI expect that we'll be seeing copycat products from him on those topics within the next few months. Remember, you heard it here first.>>

I actually don't plan to copy it. (But since most your material is Open Content, how do you copy? Whatever.) I have something more interesting in planning. I think this will make you REAL happy! Don't worry you will see soon. Remember what I said Gareth...

A Stupid RPG Publisher and the ego he has...

Well once again someone is trying to stir the shit up again. Gareth Skarka is trying to start some shit up with me AGAIN!!! Jesus this boy doesn't know what he is getting himself into. Anyone who reads this blog know that I take business serious and MOST RPG publisher barely can spell "business" so they have this idea that we are all "good buddies" and if they do something in a genre no one else can. What kind of stupidity is that? That is like saying since McDonalds makes hamburgers, no one else can. No Burger King, No Wendy's, No Carl's and No Jack in the Box. Could you imagine a world like that?

These publishers are all about having their ego stroked and being told "how great they are". I don't give a damn about that, I am in business. I am in it to make money. Never get that confused. Now it seems I am going to have to teach Gareth a lesson that is going to cost him a whole hell of a lot more than he thinks. Now I will finally get to use all those fun business tactics I have always wanted to but I thought they might be too harsh. Well I guess that time is over. I feel sorry for him; he ready doesn't understand what I am going to do to him. Talk to you later...

I found a new enemy...

On my old podcast series, the RPG Publishing Gauntlet, I told you if you are a RPG Publishing company, it is best that you find an "enemy" that is your "opposite" that you can used to help focus yourself as a company and rally yourself around with your fans. For a long time my "enemy" was Adamant Entertainment. He made a perfect foil for me and with our attitudes and personal dislike for each other it make it "oh so easy". But now since Adamant Entertainment basically a poor weak shell of its former self (I think being release as the Customer Service guy from RPGNow after the unification with DriveThruRPG really effected everything for them), I have decided to find a new "enemy" for me to take on, and focus my attention to. I think I have finally found them.

With their newly announced highly aggressive D20 publishing schedule, their high level of notoriety and influence in the RPG industry, their previous direct connection to WOTC and their upcoming RPG setting going to hit the shelves in 2008, I think I have found the company that will be perfect and out new "enemy. And that enemy is....

Paizo Publishing!!!!

This is going to be A LOT OF FUN. Talk to you later...

Picking fights

It always interests me when people pick a fight with me. I am not really into bullies so I have no problem being complete at absolutely down in the gutter dirty with them. And I dig conflict and a way to improve one's self (I am totally a Babylon 5 Shadow follower) but most people aren't really into conflict. They are not big on fighting. Gareth is one of those types. Sure he talks big, but He is the first one "to cry" in these situations when things go against him. Basically, I think Tay Lee said it best to me when he described the RPG industry very much like the Rap Music industry. A lot of people get in conflict with each other to "prove that they are the top dog". What it really is is a marketing ploy to sell more CDs. And Gareth is one who needs to sell more products. Or at least finish the ones he starts. Talk to you later...