Sandy's Soapbox
So a product that sells 100 copies isn't a successful product, just a reward of diligence. Doesn't have to be an RPG or a book, this law works with any craft or creative product. Got something neat, go out and sell it. It's a lot of work and you'll likely not make back your costs plus labor, but you can do it.
But we don't just want to sell 100 copies of our life's work. We want to make a living at it. Most RPG products from 2nd (and lower) tier publishers sell in the 400s or so, the days of default 2000 copy print runs being a distant memory. So how can we jump from 100 to over 400? That's the stage where quality comes into the equation. A good product with decent marketing can reach the 400 mark.
For books and RPGs, the best way to find those 100 sales is to make a quality product, market it efficiently, and push it through an established channel. And that's the best way to sell 400+ copies as well. So if you can, through hard work and over much time, push 100 copies of your product, it'd be better if that same effort yielded you 400+ sales instead.
This is where the business of publishing enters into the mix. A publisher is not "someone who made a book and offers it to the public". Anyone can do that. A publisher is not "someone who sells a book", that's a store. A publisher is a business entity designed to efficiently sell books to consumers profitably.
First, it's a business that sells things. The act of creation is just one part of the publishing process. Next, it needs to be efficient. This means production, marketing, and distribution are set up so that selling 10 books or 1000 books involves the same level of effort. You can only sell big if you're efficient at it.
And it should be profitable. Efficiency makes it possible to sell large numbers of items to make money, but only actually having people buy your stuff will make you profitable. So there's a missing gap between knowing what to do and having a good business set up, and actually making money.
This is where luck, your company's existing base, your previous track record, the quality of the product, the ability to target the likeliest customers, and general business acumen come into play. Read past columns and stacks of business advice books to tackle that issue. Best yet, go out and work at selling 100 copies of your stuff the hard way-- it's a great way to learn by doing and cheaper than business school.
That said, there's still a leap to make-- a publisher that can steadily sell 400+ copies of multiple books and make a living. But as a creator, you can't live off a couple of books each year. You need either larger sales or more books.
How many more books? If you're getting at 3 cents/word and you want to make $24K/year, you can quit your day job to churn out one 128-page RPG book a month-- but most writers would have a hard time finding a publisher willing to publish them all. And if you're self-publishing, each month you're faced with the terrible choice: create new product or sell the stuff already written.
I suggest that larger sales are more efficient than having to generate additional product. Or, as put by author Philip K. Dick:
"I took amphetamines for years in order to get energy to write. I had to write so much in order to make a living because our pay rates were so low. In five years I wrote sixteen novels, which is incredible. I mean, nobody, I don't think anybody's ever done it before. And without amphetamines I couldn't have written that much. But as soon as I began to earn enough money so I didn't have to write so many books, I stopped taking amphetamines." [PKD]
So we have a gap between 'can sell a 400+ book' and 'earning a living as a creator'. Well, Kevin Kelly posits that you need to find 1,000 True Fans to make a living as a creator:
"A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans." [KK]
If you're a creator, then, your goal should be to go past just having RPG books that sell in today's market, up to the level where you have your own audience eager for your work. It's not enough that publishers print your stuff, you have to assess your strengths and build a career out of being you. An editor I met called it building your platform (or brand, for those who like 90s terminology). Your platform is the combination of reputation, uniqueness, existing audience, and performance that makes publishers come to you.
And if you'd like further details, feel free to order my most recent book. I still have 99 copies left.*
Until next month,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net
freelance
* just kidding about a recent book, but publishers interested in commissioning one can feel free to contact me.
