On PDF Downloads & e23
Nov. 7th, 2005 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalI've got to wonder what Steve Jackson is going to say about e23, SJGame's online pdf store, when he does his annual "Report to the Stakeholders" at the beginning of the year. Because, while I'm no expert at the online retail game, I'm not sure if the profits they're making can justify it.
Forex: Let's take GURPS Casey and Andy, a supplement for GURPS 3ed that has had moderately successful sales, keeping it firmly in the mid-range of e23's "Top Ten Downloads, All Time". It's a 34 page pdf file, which e23 charges US$8.95 to download. Like most GURPS products it's mostly text, though there are more than the usual number of illustrations for an e23 product, given it's based on popular webcomic, with the only original art needed coming from a set of exclusive comic pages done by Andy Weir. Total sales have amounted to 118 downloads, with e23 earning a little over $1000.
Sounds like pretty sweet sales for a book that has no "real" printing costs except for the ink and paper that the buyer uses, doesn't it? Except of course that while printing costs are avoided, other costs have remained. David Morgan-Mar, the book's creator, has to be paid either a flat fee or a royalty (I don't e23's policy on this). Andy Weir gets some sort of chunk (he's not going to let his intellectual property by used by SJGames for free after all, unless he's as stupid as his comic conterpart). And if the product is to measure up to SJGame's usual high editorial standards, that editor has to be paid as well, either as a flat one time fee, or out of his staff salary. And that won't be pittance, since SJGames has a good rep in the RPG industry for paying fair rates and paying them on time. Add in the overhead costs of maintaining e23's server and pipe, and I'm forced to wonder if Steve Jackson is willing to maintain e23 as essentially almost a hobby sideline compared to SJGame's print sales (which mostly revolve around GURPS 4ed and Munchkin nowadays).
There are brighter spots. GURPS Mysteries has racked up almost six hundred sales since it was released, at $12.95 a sale. But it's an exception rather than the rule. The nearest comparable product in terms of page count, Temple of the Lost Gods, costs a dollar less, and has less than one hundred sales.
I'm just wondering how long they can keep this up.
Forex: Let's take GURPS Casey and Andy, a supplement for GURPS 3ed that has had moderately successful sales, keeping it firmly in the mid-range of e23's "Top Ten Downloads, All Time". It's a 34 page pdf file, which e23 charges US$8.95 to download. Like most GURPS products it's mostly text, though there are more than the usual number of illustrations for an e23 product, given it's based on popular webcomic, with the only original art needed coming from a set of exclusive comic pages done by Andy Weir. Total sales have amounted to 118 downloads, with e23 earning a little over $1000.
Sounds like pretty sweet sales for a book that has no "real" printing costs except for the ink and paper that the buyer uses, doesn't it? Except of course that while printing costs are avoided, other costs have remained. David Morgan-Mar, the book's creator, has to be paid either a flat fee or a royalty (I don't e23's policy on this). Andy Weir gets some sort of chunk (he's not going to let his intellectual property by used by SJGames for free after all, unless he's as stupid as his comic conterpart). And if the product is to measure up to SJGame's usual high editorial standards, that editor has to be paid as well, either as a flat one time fee, or out of his staff salary. And that won't be pittance, since SJGames has a good rep in the RPG industry for paying fair rates and paying them on time. Add in the overhead costs of maintaining e23's server and pipe, and I'm forced to wonder if Steve Jackson is willing to maintain e23 as essentially almost a hobby sideline compared to SJGame's print sales (which mostly revolve around GURPS 4ed and Munchkin nowadays).
There are brighter spots. GURPS Mysteries has racked up almost six hundred sales since it was released, at $12.95 a sale. But it's an exception rather than the rule. The nearest comparable product in terms of page count, Temple of the Lost Gods, costs a dollar less, and has less than one hundred sales.
I'm just wondering how long they can keep this up.
