Back in April, I posted the following:
I’ve spent 6 years now in the electronic publishing field. I’ve learned a lot. Most of what I’ve learned, I’ve put into practice. Some things, however, I’m still too much of a coward to try full-time. For example: twice per year, in November and March, I hold one-week sales on the products that I release through Adamant Entertainment. I drop the prices of every PDF in our entire catalog to $1.00…. and here’s the thing: I make more in those two week-long sales than I do in 4 months of regular sales.
It’s something I’ve considered doing full-time — but it scares me. One, I’m worried that the phenomenal results of those sales are because of the narrow window, and that making it a constant would negate those results. Two (and this is the big one): If I’m wrong, I could end up not only killing my own income, but also devaluing the entire PDF segment of the RPG industry, killing other folks’ incomes as well. So I shy away from it….
Taking a look at what’s been going on in the latter half of 2010 — especially with the successes of self-published authors releasing their works for Kindle at impulse-purchase pricing — I decided to take the plunge. I’ve seen enough data, both from Adamant’s sales since 2004, and the data made public by other pioneers in the digital field, that I feel that it’s time to put theory into practice. You can read the announcement at Adamant’s website, but the upshot is that I’m moving the company to a flat pricing model — what I’m referring to as “app-pricing”. Everything we produce in PDF for the gaming field will be $1.00.
I’ve long held the opinion that the only positive response to unauthorized filesharing is cost and convenience — to make “piracy” redundant by making purchases painless and easy.
Either I’m right, and this will work, or I’m horribly, horribly wrong, in which case I’ll crash and burn.
Honestly, though?
I’m pretty sure I’m right.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to see if Crazy Eddie is available for promos….
Good luck! It’s a bold move, and I think it’s not just going to be a potential boon in sales, but also goodwill from consumers. That never hurts.
This is one of those VERY daring moves that I am proud to see someone make, but I am not crazy enough to do it myself. I do hope this goes well, we don’t need to see fewer good RPG publishers in an industry that needs more not less.
I think the problem is that App pricing works because you have tens of thousands of customers and millions of potential customers in thos markets and you may have just 11,000 potential customers at say One Bookshelf.
I also after a year of experimentation have seen no difference in the number of purchases between pricing a book at .99 vs. $2.99.
I wish you well, as I don’t want to see your income wreaked or see the industry devalued.
After over 6 years, I have definitely seen a difference in the number of purchases. Dramatically so. Hence, this move.
Dammit, it’s *eight* *hours* before I get home and start snaffling up the dollar product…how can you be so cruel? :)
IOW, you rock!