Complying to the will of Lightning Source with a product redesign

This weekend I spent a fair amount of time relaying out Obsidian Twilight to get it ready for print on demand usingthe  RPGNow.com POD system, which is really Lightning Source. I've been doing layout for nearly 20 years and I have built a system of layout that works so well that I normally cam submit work to any printer and there is usually NOT a problem from print on demand or traditional printers. But Lightning Source has what I call a "CRAZY ASS" set up for printing.  When I submit things to them, there is ALWAYS some kind of issue.  I have never sent so many things to one printer and had so many issues.  No one else I print with do I have this issue. Only Lightning Source. Normally I would say "forget you" to Lightning Source and just use someone else like Lulu.com but the real issue comes down to printing cost.  Lightning Source's price cost for making their book is VERY low when compared to all the others. like half the cost.  So with numbers like that it is hard for me NOT to work with them. So I do what I have to do.  I resubmitted the new Obsidian Twilight files to RPGNow and hope to hear something back from them by the end of the week about my files. From there, if everything is OK, I will get a POD test version and if all is great it will be on sale online a few days later.  If not, back to square one. Wish me luck, we might need it on this one.  Talk to you later...

52 Product to release for NeoExodus from August 2011 - July 2012. Pathfinder fans rejoice!!!

Sounds crazy right? But it isn't.  I have done it before when I was doing M&M Superlink with Mutants & Masterminds (back when it was good) and it was crazy back then. We released products at a rate of one a week for two years!  And with that sale shoot through the roof.  It was a great time to be a PDF publisher.  Now EVERYONE is in the PDF game, but no one is really doing the weekly release schedule (except Super Genius Games) like we used to do back in the day.  So that is why I decided to go back to that.  As a way to get people excited about the 3PP Pathfinder material we are doing here with NeoExodus: A House Divided.

We have hired several new writers, assigned a LOT of work to them and have our artists in order for work. 52 PDF release this year AND roughly 10 Print on Demand releases too.  Come on with all the PDF content we are making you had to figure we would convert some of it to the print on demand market through RPGNow or Lulu at the least, didn't you?. But best of all we have made it a business wide goal for LPJ Design for the upcoming year to get picked up by Cubicle 7, to act as our print broker and distributor of our gaming material to retail locations.  We talked to them in the past and Angus Abranson seemed interested. I guess we are going to have to prove why they should be working with us.  Time to step up our game.  Start saving your money NOW, and get ready for August.  Forget those other campaigns you were thinking about playing, NeoExodus is taking over your gaming table.  Talk to you later...

[LPJ Design] A Place Beyond Hell available in Print (On Demand)

With the magic of Lulu.com, A Place Beyond Hell is now available in print on demend.  If you enjoyed Obsidian Twilight, and wanted more material to add to your local game, then this is the sourcebook for you.  Here is the full write up of A Place Beyond Hell:

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. But what really was the meteor that hit the planet of Abaddon. The H’Laqu were not present on Abaddon until the disaster happened. They came with it, were the progenitors of it, were part of the meteor itself. They were – and are – the engineers of Abaddon’s destruction. Now they’re found, increasingly, all over the world. Insinuating themselves into air, stone, flesh and plants, subverting and spreading, wandering far and wide and engaging in strange and unnatural behaviours that nobody can understand. They’re not of this world, not of this dimension, not of this reality in any way. Inscrutable, inimical to the very existence of this world, perhaps even insane, the H’Laqu are a growing presence, a growing influence and a growing concern to all the forces at work across Abaddon. A threat that can’t be understood, controlled or even directed, beyond the schemes and plans of man and undead alike. Inside this book you will find you’ll need to embark on adventures using A Place Beyond Hell sourcebook including:

• The History of the H’Laqu
• Over 20 all new feats including Black Blood, Horrific Countenance and Withering Stare.
• Over 20 all new spells including Antilife Bolt, Immaculate Dissection, Mind Trap and Void of Despair.
• Ten all new monsters and NPCs including Abyssal Arm, Infected Land and Nyxsus the Surgeon.
• Background of the Cult of Black Glass
• Rules for the Breaching Points of H’Laqu

Coming Soon - NeoExodus Chronicles-Hostile Environment

Coming Soon in both PDF (available at RPGNow & Paizo) and Print-On-Demand (Lulu and Paizo) format.  Start saving your money.  Talk to you later...

The Brick & Mortar PDF Guarantee by Evil Hat and Rogue Games is a bad idea and here is why…

I have been reading a lot of forums of late of people talking about how Evil Hat’s Brick & Mortar PDF Guarantee  and Rogue Games Brick & Mortar PDF Guarantee is a great idea. Retailers love it.  The first thought that came to my mind was, “Of course they love it! You are providing a free service to their customers that they can’t and in most cases don’t want to do.” Retail stores don’t want their customers to go digital with PDFs.  That scares most of them to death.  The mantra I hear the most from retailers is, “If they buy PDfs, then they won’t by from my store.” Well if you give them a reason to buy may be they will buy from you.  For all you retailers that don’t understand what I mean and know what to do, let me direct you to Tates Comics in Lauderhill, FL winner of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing award.  They might give you some ideas how to do you business better.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the idea of offering the PDF for free if you buy the hard copy is a good idea.  I just think you don’t need to do that on a retailer level.  You could do the same thing by using Lulu.com to do you printing, placing a code on the table of content page, keep a bigger percentage of each sale (by not having to split the money with the distributor and/or retailer) and gaining even more fan loyalty.  If the product is good, people will hear about it.

But back to the digital arena, As a PDF publisher, follower of Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Robert Kiyosaki. I think a PDF company needs to service their customers directly and not through a third part source like a retailer.  They are your customers; you should provide them the best service yourself.  To me, Evil Hat and Rogue Games look at the PDFs as an afterthought, something they can toss to the fans as a “nice gesture” as a RPG publisher.  They think their “big money” is with the retailers.  I, of course, don’t think it is the case.  PDF publishing has proven itself not just to be viable but an actual way to build your successful business from the grass roots level.  You need to build your customer base.  Malhavoc Press proved that. Open Design proved that. Paizo proved that. Green Ronin even proved that. Stop looking for retailers to do your work, and sell yourself to your customers. Talk to you later…

The financial mathematic of making a profitable RPG product for FREE…

So a few weeks ago I spoke about Monte Cook’ DungeonADay.com site and How to do it if it was free.  So I  have been crunching the actual numbers and this is what I have come up with to do my own version of DungeonADay.com with a little spin on it:

Writing focus & Writing Cost: Unlike DungeonADay.com which is a daily updated traffic site, we are looking to do updates to this website twice a week (Monday & Thursday) or three times a week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday).  Also unlike, DungeonADay.com we are using the Adventure Path structure as our focus and basis for this new website.  We plan for our Adventure Paths to last only for 13 weeks. Each day that we do and update will be an encounter that links into the larger story the website is telling. We are planning for each of the encounter updates to be 1,500 words in length with a one cent a word rate.  So that comes to either $30 or $45 a week for this project.  Figure it out for the full 13 weeks and you get a total price of either $390 or $585

The web hosting: SubHub is exactly what I would be looking for.  After joining DungeonADay.com and looking around it for all the great stuff it has inside for gaming fans (and there is a lot of great stuff inside) I think this will fit me nicely.  The price breakdown that SubHub provides is somewhat reasonable at $97 a month.  $97 a month comes out to $22.55 per week for a 13 week total of $293.15.

Artwork: Stock art which I have TONS of it so no issue there.

Cartography: After experimenting with my Fantasyscape line I decided that I will be handling that myself so I save cost on that.

So the total to do this little project for 13 weeks would be $683.15 (for twice a week) or $878.15 (for three times a week). 

Now, the BIG difference between this site and DungeonADay.com is that we are giving this site and content away COMPLETELY FOR FREE.  If I am doing this for free, how will this site make any money?  Now it is time to think like our friends at Webcomics.com and what I have read in How To Make Webcomics. 

First off, I have to know what is the minimum amount of money I need to generate per day to make this whole idea profitable.  So for twice a week version we will need to make $7.51 a day; while the three time a week version we will need to make $9.65 a day.  When you break it down like that it does not really seem like a lot of money.  How will I be making that money?  Let’s see…

Advertising: There will be ads from Project Wonderful where I will do a two skyscraper ads (160 x600 pixels) that will cost $1.50 a day to advertise on each ($3 total); one letterbox ad (728 x 90 pixels) that will cost $2 a day; six half banner ads (234 x 60 pixels) that will cost $0.50 a day to advertise on each ($3 total)

RPGNow Affiliate Store: I have an affiliate store that was created by RPGNow.com and I am able to sell my products (and other RPG companies products).  RPGNow.com gives me 10% of whatever I sales that I generate at that site. So if I wanted to make $4 a day from the affiliate site I would need to sell $40 worth of product a day.  With all the traffic I would be generating from the interest in this site, I do think that would be an issue. 

And with those two little things I could generate a whopping $12 a day which would come out over 13 weeks to be $1,092.  Subtract the $683.15 (for twice a week) or $878.15 (for three times a week) and you get $408.85 (twice a week) or $213.85 (three times a week). Proving this could be a profitable venture. 

Now here is the fun part that many of you have not even thought of yet.  I could collect all the content we have written (39K words for twice a week or 59K words for three times a week) and make a PDF version and sell it at RPGNow.com for $7 or $9 each.  Better yet, I can go Print on Demand with Lulu.com and sell them for $18.99 or $21.99 each. Since we covered the cost of the site with the advertising and affiliate store, all the rest is PURE PROFIT!!!!  Once again, all of it is PURE PROFIT!!!!!  Who would have thought you could make all that money giving stuff away for free?  Looks like I have some work to do.  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...

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…

Espionage Genre Toolkit now in Print!!!

Louis Porter Jr. Design, in association with Devil’s Workshop, has announced that the best selling series, Espionage Genre Toolkit is now available in bookshelf format from their Online Print-On-Demans service, Lulu.com. This book is a collected print version of the Espionage Genre Toolkit five part PDF series. Here is information on this product:

This essential modern OGL aid presents hundreds of new options for players and contains a unique new system taking the game in brand new directions. With the Espionage Genre Toolkit sourcebook, players have the ability to design an all-new espionage genres to their liking — tailor made for their players and their specific needs! Coupled with a new set of gaming mechanics — that an entire group of players uses individually or in tandem to much greater effect — this invaluable rules volume is a must-have for all modern-day OGL fans and players!

This sourcebook covers the following genres:

• Cold War Games
• Funkadelic Streets
• Corporate Raiders
• Cybermillennium
• New World Disorder

This sourcebook includes:

• All New Feats including Alien Abductee, Asylum, Burnout, Catchphrase, Clean Slate, Corrupt, Cutting Edge, New Age Lunatic, Programming Aptitude, Rim Runner, Rogue Factional, Sex Appeal, Slap on the Wrist, Thuggery
• All New Advanced Classes: Anti-Corporate Anarchist, Man In Black, Playboy Spy, Superfly Mack, and Wire Rider
• All New Allegiances including Atavists, Anti-Authority, Anti-Corporate, Arms Manufacturer, Conspiracy Theory, Environmentalist, Financial Institution, Grizzled Loner, Hedonists, Megacorp and Pharmaceutical Giant, Militia, Rowdies, Survivalists, Technocracy, The Man, The Truth, Underworlder

Available Here!!!

[LPJDesign] Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2 Present: The Undead Chronicles Bookself Edition Now Available

Finally it is here!!!! Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2 Present: The Undead Chronicles Bookself Edition is now ready for purchase at our Lulu.com Store. Get your copy today!!!

The True Arcane Story available at Lulu.com

Louis Porter Jr. Design, in association with Devil’s Workshop, has released The True Arcane Story at Lulu.com. Here is information on this product:

This sourcebook collects this top selling PDF series, The True Arcane Story, in one edition that contains nearly the 30 editions of the series. If you are a fan of magical items for OGL fantasy games setting and wish you could get a great sense of understanding of the classic magic items and where they came from, then this sourcebook is for you. From a Cloak of Elvenkind to Crystal Ball to Ioun Stones to Ring of X-Ray Vision to Staff of Power, this sourcebook holds all of the classic magic items in one in one place with the history and background of each item. This sourcebook also includes variant items, new spells and feats that are connected to these classic magical items expanding them even further. This is the ultimate source of classic magical items. Written by Jason Black, Christine M. Doering, Chris McCoy and Leland Schaidle. Available at Lulu.com.

State of LPJ Design: 2008

2007 was a great year for us. We returned to RPGNow stronger than ever, regaining our position in the 15 top sellers at the site. We released NeoExodus: A House Divided and it became a hit seller especially do to the NeoExodus: World of Exodus free campaign primer we put together helping to drive sales. We released nearly 140 products last year; that is roughly one new product every 2.5 days. We had our largest one day sale amount ever; well over 100 times our normal daily sales volume.

Well now that 2007 is gone, I guess now is the time to announce our plans for 2008, with a lot of radical changes to our business. So here it goes:

Less Smaller Projects, More Larger Project: LPJ Design has cornered the market on making small, beautiful looking, highly profitable PDFs. No one can beat us at that. But to bring LPJ Design to the next level of business, we have to do bigger things and with that we have decided to reduce the amount of small PDFs we create. We will still produce small PDFs for our Monsters of NeoExodus and Polymecha lines, but not as many. We have also decided to start making larger PDFs, starting at 32 pages in length and up from there, and release them on a regular month schedule across our gaming lines. We are starting with NeoExodus: A House Divided gaming line first with the upcoming releases of Enemies of NeoExodus: The Folding Circle, Lexicon Chronicles: Arcane Intelligence, Lexicon Chronicles: Lazarus Brand and Feats of NeoExodus. Our fans have been asking about this and we have listened to what they have said.

Alliances and Partnerships: In 2008, LPJ Design will be partnering with several different RPG and gaming publishers and manufactures to bring you the best quality games possible. We have already enlisted of the services of Greg Oppedisano; member of WereCabbage Publishing and writer for Paizo’s Dungeon Magazine and Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics; was hired as Line Editor for Devil’s Workshop. We have also been in contact with WereCabbage Publishing spokesperson, Ed Healy and have been in discussions acquiring several writers including:

• Louis Argesta: Writer for Goodman Games’ GM Gems and 0one Games’ The Great City
• B. Matthew Conklin III: Writer of Paizo’s Dungeon Magazine and Silven Publishing’s Horrendous Habitats (http://www.werecabbages.com/members.php?id=8)
• Tim Hitchcock: Writer for Paizo’s Gamemastery Modules and Wizards of the Coast’s Eberron Adventure: Eyes of Lich Queen
• Rob Manning: Writer for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics and 12 to Midnight’s Marsh of the Wild Things
• Ted Reed: Writer for Writer of Paizo’s Dungeon Magazine, Artist of Fantasy Flight Games’ Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game, Eldritch Expansion

We also are looking to speak with other members of WereCabbage Publishing including Wolfgang Baur, Tim & Eileen Connors, Stephen S. Greer, Nicolas Logue, Greg A. Vaughan, and various other of other projects we have planned. LPJ Design is commented to being you the best writers & artists on the market to make its products.

More Printed / POD Products: In 2007 we started back up with print / POD products. In 2008, we are looking to grow that even more. With our business relationship with Lulu.com and other POD printers, we are looking to get more of LPJ Design content from your computer screen into your actual hands. We have had a lot of success with PDFs that have become printed books like Prestige Class Creation Cookbook, and Race Creation Cookbook, 2008 we are looking to do a lot more product fro the print side. So get ready.

So if you never have tried anything form LPJ Design, now is your chance. If you have purchased our products and you liked what you have seen, well it only getting better now. Thanks to all the people that supported us up to now, and all the people that will be supporting us in the future.

Christmas is over, back to work...

Well now that Christmas is over, we have to focus on the upcoming projects we have planned for 2008. While 2007 has been a great improvement over 2006, we are looking to expand is several different ways to raise LPJ Design into being in the Top 5 PDF companies. With our renewed business relationship with Paizo and e23, we fell that this will only help increase our over all sales. Also with this our expanding focus on Print On Demand materials with the use of Lulu will only help to raise awareness. On top of all this, our upcoming business partnership with Wolfgang Baur and Kobold Quarterly is going to open up all new avenues of success for us. So once again 2008 looks to be even busier for us. Talk to you later...