Time to present a way to bring the book back into RPGing. I've ranted on how I prefer books to PDFs. There's a lot of great stuff being released as PDFs. Looking at how a publisher can get me to buy more, the answer is, hey, "sell books, okay?" But let's try to sell lots of books with as little overhead and logistics as necessary.

Now, I'd complained because I had to pay full book rate to get a substandard print edition of a PDF. Actually, I'd pay extra for a print book if it included the PDF (queue pirate rants here), because the print book is what I want. I know I'm not the world, but I also know I'm not a 'Market of One'.

So POD+PDF=more money. It's a simple equation. And there's a dozen ways to cook it. Allow POD for anything. Have a subset that do POD. Set up a SF Bookclub-like "book of the month" deal to batch-POD a subset of popular titles.

Thus with little originality, we present the RPG Book of the Month Club.

Building the Concept

Back in the heyday of Technomancer Press, they ran their own printing rig to issue inexpensive (<$15) books. The quality was less than that of most printed books but much better than Kinkos, a sweet spot that they mined quite well until outside factors (jobs, etc) folded the company. Sales at Technomancer were good (200-400 copies/year typical for just about everything, as I recall). So there is a market for inexpensive RPG books, a market which a print-on-demand (POD) outfit attached to a PDF house could milk.

With Technomancer, covers were a pain, so 'one-off' POD has to work around that. We printed covers on heavy colored stock in bulk, and of course had to fold (and spindle and mutilate) the covers separately. Even when I published Metagame (the LARP mag), we did covers separate and only added them in during binding.

But then look at the SF Book Club. They have flat, blank monochrome covers with only the title and author embossed on the spine. Then they put flimsy full color wraparound covers on it and ship. So a DriveByPOD could pull that off-- have a single stock cover during binding, and optional wrap-around for gloss.

Platitudes

It's an idea I first wanted to try back around 2002, but sadly I got a real job and the dream remained just that. I've always been amazed that no one else has tried it yet-- though if someone did and it failed, let me know. Like any good startup, its success or failure is not a function of the idea, but the execution. Executed with competence and devotion, it will succeed; done half-assed or rushed to be first on the market, it will likely bubble then sink.

Method

Existing PDF shops take a long-tail approach because their delivery costs are flat. In contrast, I suggest there's a viable market niche in print that ditches the long tail by focusing on the best, brightest, and best-selling. You take the cream of the PDF crop and sell them in print form. Voila:

1. Buy a Xerox DocuTech or similar printing rig, a binding rig (glue strip), and a cover folder. Standardize your print editions-- same size, mono covers, simple spine embossing, full-color cover wraps to add some sizzle.
2. Build a list of PDF clients, willing to let you print their works for $1 profit per book sold. Have a members-only storefront carrying their PDF wares (heck, do it as a substore/affiliate of DriveBy/RPGNow). Add your Club printed edition to that.
3. Offer, oh, two dozen of their top long-form PDF RPGs in printed book form to start things off. This is your 'print catalog'. You are now offering something no one else does, a select group of highly rated long-form PDFs in book form.
4. Allow anyone to join your club, and they get 4 free PDFs as long as they promise to buy just 2 PDF or print editions during their first year.
5. Each month feature 2 new printed editions that you're making available, Your feature selections. If you like risks, autoship (as per book club chicanery) to all members who do not indicate 'no' during a 14-day decision period.
6. Also each month, send out your e-catalog listing the current available print copies and the 2 new features.

Yield

A quick estimate of your first year's revenue, presuming you sell 200 copies/book/yr at a profit of $1/book on a catalog of 24 books: a mere $10K. But you have no creation costs-- you're just selling already created material for publishers. And that's just for year 1, as a low minimum. Managed well, you can and will sell more and profit more.

Why 200 copies? Why assume $1/book profit? Well, first, remember anyone can sell 100 copies of anything. And second, Technomancer proved the market is happy to buy over 200 copies of a quality product sold in a 'minimalist' print edition. Technomancer did both reprint and original works and paid creators for both, and also managed to make at least $1/book after costs, so surely a reprint house can manage the same performance. And the advantages of the Club approach include:

1. Since people 'join' and not just 'buy', you're growing a client list over time.
2. You get marketing push from your PDF partners, since they also profit from your sales.
3. You're still able to control which titles you offer and who you partner with.

Note also that most orders will come in batches (shortly after your catalog comes out) and with no expectation of immediately shipping. This lets you better handle staffing and production, which in turn lowers cost. Having a predictable set of print/bind/ship cycles (versus 24-hour turnaround on POD) makes for a better work environment and higher efficiency. Trendy None of this is experimental or even high risk. It requires an entrepreneur with printing wisdom and time to commit to a start-up. And a bit of cash to get the gear (buy used, it has great resale). It's retro (print in the Web2.0 age?) and yet ahead of the curve (POD combined with social networking).

And as a side bonus, you have a POD press you can use for your own small press work, in and around the Book Club orders.

Hassles

From a production standpoint, you do have to massage all the different publisher works into a standard format. At Technomancer, we published the GameChef compilation, and fewer things scream 'different form factors' than a collection of prize-winning indie games. If we could do it, you can too. The keys are: define your layout requirements, remind publishers this means more sales for them, then take up the workload to do the conversion yourself.

Yep, you can't expect the publishers to buy into your plan and also do extra work for it, so the alternative is to come up with an efficient way to handle formatting in-house. Again drawing from my past, when putting together a magazine we would get submissions in all manner of program formats, all cheerfully ignoring our posted submission requirements. So be it. Be flexible and clever. Remember, once the work enters your door, the original publisher loses their say. If they want sales, they have to stick with the promised deal: give you their stuff and wait for their check.

But that's 'merely logistics'. Sure, it's the hard stuff, but it's a) solvable and b) your job, not mine. So let's get back to big concept stuff.

High End

The natural extension to this Club, of course, is to also offer Deluxe (or even Premiere) Editions. If you can manage the quality, the ability to do infrequent one-off high end runs-- full color covers, glossy stock, all-color interiors-- of specific books around holiday seasons and Conventions is a nice market to tap. You already have a customer list (your club members). The profit margin is higher on such editions, and you can base it on pre-orders since you have established your customer/billing system. Go fancy (fake leather covers, extra art, book plates) and the sky's the limit!

Steal My Idea

There is indeed money to be made in RPG books by taking a non-traditional approached rooted in the PDF industry. My money, even-- implement this, sign me up, take my money. Joy to all. Good luck!

Until next month,
Sandy