Exhibit 1, the Old School Renaissance publishers list:
Brave Halfling Publishing
Chris Gonnerman's Basic Fantasy RPG
Elf Lair Games
Expeditious Retreat Press
Fight On! Magazine
Geoffrey McKinney's CARCOSA
Goblinoid Games
Mythmere Games
Open Game Table
Otisville Productions
Prime Requisite Games
Randall Stukey's Microlite74
The Warlock's Home Brew
Ye Old RPG Items
The ZeFRS Collective
Zodiac Gods Publishing
Exhibits 2a, 2b, and 2c, the YourGamesNow publishers:
Not everyone on the OSR list sells through YourGamesNow. My off-the-cuff thinking is that everybody in OSR who sells pdf products should try be trying to get listed with YourGamesNow. I can't think of any advantage gained by letting Lulu serve as your sole PDF vendor and YGN's co-op structure seems like a good fit with the general tone of the OSR scene.
So, do any of the folks on the first list have a reason for not wanting to deal with YourGamesNow? I can see not being interested if, like Carcosa and Fight On!, the publisher has a preference for print sales. Any other factors I'm not considering?
And to the Gameblog readers in general, would it make a difference if a PDF you wanted was listed at one or the other of these options?
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"Any other factors I'm not considering?"
ReplyDeleteIgnorance. I didn't know about this until now. I'll be looking into it. Thanks for the tip, Captain!
I support YourGamesNow fully, because it is run by honest, ethical people. You do have to be voted in though, so if you don't have many products out it might be tough at first to get in.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, RPGnow is not a bad place for someone to start even if they have only one product so far (and your sales will be better there than RPGnow). I think you have to pay 50 bucks to get in, but its been a few years since I joined so I don't know if that's the same. The exciting new thing with RPGnow is that they are going to soon offer POD capability, and distribution for print products. So while I do have some reservations about how they run RPGnow from time to time, it might be a good idea to check them out. It might end up being a great way for us to reach hobby stores without the investment of a print run and other hassles. One important piece of advice I have though is not to put all your eggs in one basket. If you join RPGnow do not join as an exclusive member, because you are going to want the freedom to list your products anywhere you see fit.
"And to the Gameblog readers in general, would it make a difference if a PDF you wanted was listed at one or the other of these options?"
ReplyDeleteNot really, so long as you don't have to jump through hoops to by the product. (by which I mean that registering a customer account requires fewer than 16 steps, etc). I've been completely happy with lulu so far (and I've gotten pretty quick shipping to Oregon... I think I had Encounter Critical inside of a week).
If you put something out, I'm going to buy it no matter where I have to go for it. Of course, if that something is a print product, I'd be extra-stoked.
I have nothing against YGN or RPGnow, however I only have a couple products released and would like to produce a few more adventures before submitting them to YGN.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is that I give my adventures away for free and they have done very well on Lulu as well as Scribd and Issuu.
YGN and RPGnow are terrific avenues in which I plan to explore in the future, but I need to get a head start with my products first.
"I think you have to pay 50 bucks to get in, but its been a few years since I joined so I don't know if that's the same."
ReplyDeleteMaybe people with only one or two products could set up a joint account?
I doubt Chris Gonnerman would take Basic Fantasy RPG that route, because he is only on Lulu to offer print copies. Any PDFs he offered at RPGNow would be free, so why pay the $50 to offer a free product?
ReplyDeleteWe're not selling the PDF version of ZeFRS. If you're only after the PDF, you can get it gratis at the ZeFRS site. Lulu is just an easy way to get a nicely bound paper version of the text.
ReplyDelete