Transparency Agenda Daily August 8th 2016 - Pricing RPG products and wha...

[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

[LPJ Design] Obsidian Twilight Campaign Setting (PFRPG) now only $9.99!

A dark star fell from the sky bringing with it the end of all things! The sanctity of the world known as Abaddon was shattered when a global apocalyptic event of a meteor impacting the planet causing a destructive ecological and eldritch change. Evil dominates the world to be challenged by noble heroes fighting to take back a world that should belong to them. Are you willing to take up the fight? The top selling Obsidian Twilight Campaign Setting (PFRPG) has now a new reduced price of $9.99! So if you have bben holding off and waiting to see if this is the Pathfinder setting you want to add to you home game, NOW is the time!  Get you copy here at RPGNow! Full color and black and white Print-On-Demand version coming soon!

Want to be considered a serious RPG publisher? Then you have to print products…

Now I have said for YEARS that you don’t have to go into print. You can do very well just being a PDF publisher and making a good amount of money. This statement is completely 100% TRUE! You can make a few thousands of dollars doing this. That is not bad money in any way shape of form. But if you want to be larger than a one- or two-person business and be taken serious, you need to go to print. I am not talking about Print-On-Demand (POD); I mean actual printed books to sell at retail gaming locations. You have to find a printer who does this work, get a quote, find out how you are going to get the money to get this product printed, get the product actually printed and sent to you, get distributors to carry you, get retailers to carry your product and get customers to purchase it. Print is RISKY! Lots of money eating risk. Taking the PDF route is less risky BUT is a good way to “test the waters” to see if people are interested in your product.

Most large RPG companies sell PDF versions of their product to help keep their cost down recouping some of their money they initially put out for writers, artists, editors and such. You sell a PDF for $10.00, you take 70% of the sale (RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, e23 or Paizo will take the remaining 30%. This percentage number is different for each one of these websites. This is just an example) which is $7. If you could sell 200 of the product, that’s an EXTRA $1,400 you just generated money. At three cents a word for a writer that is a little over 46,000 words you paid for OR a nice down payment on a Wayne Reynold’s cover (If the quote Wayne gave me for the NeoExodus: A House Divided is still valid). If you have already done the writing or art on the cheap (shameless plug for Image Portfolio) or by yourself this could be used on that printing bill you will get taking this product to print. I just got a quote from several printers on a 48 page book that is roughly $1.10 a book (including shipping) for 3,000 units for a total of $3,300. Now that $1,400 you sold as a PDF now comes in handy. And you only need to find $1,900 to cover the rest. Some of you are thinking that $1,900 might as well be one million dollars. So what do you do? Let me tell you what to do…

First got to this web site, Prosper.com. Read what they do (I’m not telling you what they do, If you are too lazy to read then you don’t deserve to get the money) and act accordingly. Why am I suggesting them over another site? I have gotten and paid off two loans with them already. I also have loaned out money using Prosper.com on over 20 different loans and made over 13% on the money I invested. I know Prosper.com actually works. The interest percentage you pay through Prosper.com will be less than what you pay if you put it on a credit card (as long as you have decent credit rating). If you need a loan for $3,600 and you paid 15% interest, your pay a monthly payments for $124.80 for 36 months at Prosper.com. If you print the 3,000 units with a $12.99 retail price (which mean you sell at 55% off for $5.84) you only need to sell 617 to pay for the print cost/loan off. That would leave you with 2383 to sell and if you sell all of the remaining units you would make $13,916.72. But the real tough question is can you sell the 617 units to break even? If you can’t, forget running a RPG company you aren’t build for this. Go do something else as a business. But if you can, then the next question is, what are you waiting for? Talk to you later…

DC COMICS DROPS PRICES ON $3.99 TITLES; MOVES TO $2.99 PRICE POINT FOR ONGOING COMIC BOOK SERIES ...wait read the fine print...

OK I saw this: DC COMICS DROPS PRICES ON $3.99 TITLES; MOVES TO $2.99 PRICE POINT FOR ONGOING COMIC BOOK SERIES and I though, FINALLY some one is listening to be after my rant about comic book pricing.  Then I read this part:

As of January, the following titles standard length ongoing titles, previously priced at $3.99 for 32 pages/22 story pages, will be priced at $2.99 with 32 pages/20 story pages:

Did you see that?  That subtle change from 22 pages of story to 20 pages.  You just LOST 10% of story/content in this price reduction.  But here is the sad point, do you notice the cover of the Teen Titans issue # 1 (November 1980) right here.  That is right! They say 25 Pages for 50 CENTS!!!!  So in the last 30 years, the 32 page comic books have lost 5 pages of content so now you have a comic book with 37.5% full of it with paid ads.  In 1980, it was 21.8% full of paid ads and it cost 1/6 the price. I have said is over and over, comic books need to be 99 cents printed on color newsprint.  Forget the slick fancy paper, it cost TOO much.  If it is good enough for Diamond's Previews it is good enough for the comics they sell. Well at least DC kind of got it right.

Now they need to work on the 50 cent digital comic instead of the silly subscription.  Talk to you later...

The Cost of doing a Comic Book - READ THIS!!!

You read it and you decide.  Talk to you later...

Labor Day and the Cost Of Doing Business in Comics

Money makes the world go ’round: The bottom line of comics creation

Money makes the world go ’round 2: Khepri’s tough times

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…

DC COMICS Jumps Into $3.99 Regular Length Comic Pricing ... AKA better known as the kiss of death!

Just read this over at Newsarama, and I will be quick about this and say, this is a DUMB ASS idea.  32 pages for $3.99 (23 of them are actual story the rest are ads) NOT a good comic book price point.  I have said this a million times, "How is a mother of 3 kids going to think spending $12 on three comic books is a good thing?" Just plain stupid.  Talk to you later...

What ONE thing would you do to change the Comic and/or RPG industry?

This one is a tough one for other people, but for me it is very easy.  On the comics side I would create three tiers/level for comic books that would focus on three specific areas. Tier/Level One would be for kids ages 6 to 10 and cost only 99 cents to purchase; Tier/Level Two would be for the ages of 12 to 18 and cost only $1.99; Tier/Level Three would be for 18 and up and cost $2.99 and up. Three different types of books for three different types of customers and cost that are reasonable to those willing to purchase.  On the gaming side it would be the maximum cost on RPG core books and sourcebooks.  Core rule books couldn't cost more than $25 and sourcebooks could cast more than $20. Rising retail cost on both comics and RPGs are going to do MORE HARM to the industry as a whole then anything else.  Products have be affordable to those who want to purchase them. With retail cost $3.99 for 22 - 23 pages of comic story OR $29.99 for 160 pages for RPGs it is no wonder people are leaving to find something else to entertain them.  Don't you make the same mistake as a business.  The movie, Glengarry Glenross said it best: "They're sitting out there waiting to give you their money. Are you gonna take it? Are you man enough to take it?"  Talk to you later...

Save money when printing Transcontinental after you join Webcomics.com

This one is simple, join Webcomics.com and you will get a 10% discount on orders from Transcontinental.  This one is simple, $30 to get TONS of great info to help your business AND and extra 10% off printing.  Talk to you later...

How much should a RPG PDF cost?

Normally I don't comment directly on this, but this one made have to look twice when I saw it. I was over at RPGNOW.com and saw this new product for sale. When I looked closer I saw the price of the PDF and their page count. After some quick math in my head I came up with 43 cents per page for this product. Then to add insult to injury, the publisher disabled the cut & paste feature AND the print feature. Basically these guys want someone to pay the $20 for something they can only look at. WTF?!?!?!?!?!

When I first got into RPG PDF publishing, the accepted retail cost of a RPG PDF was 10 cents a page. I have seen this number creep up over time to reach as high as 18 to 25 cents per page on average. I never really worry about pricing issues; because I know the "market" will judge what prices is "reasonable" and adjusts itself accordingly. This happens everywhere in the world so this is not an issue. But there is a slight price creep that has happened over the last decade in RPG PDFs. I like, Chris Anderson, believe free is a price point that we have to embrace as business people to get people interesting in our products. With so many other things vying for our interest, cost does become an issue that we need to realize will affect our buying choice. So instead of trying to "grab all the money you can", think about how you can best service your customer and how can you do that for free. After you do that, THEN and only then think and find a way you can make a profit from your product. This will make you a better business person which in turn will make you more money. How much should a RPG PDF cost? How much are you willing satisfy your customers needs? Talk to you later...