Pelgrane Annual Review
Last year was a very good year for Pelgrane Press Ltd business-wise. The total sales last year were greater than the previous six years combined. No surprise, really, with the release of Trail of Cthulhu, but it's still good, even without that. If you deduct all the Trail stuff (about two thirds), you still get the best year in the last seven years. Note that I've produced this in dollar terms - in GBP it's even more extreme. It was the release of Esoterrorists in 2007 which kicked things off again: I just kept things ticking over in 2005-2006.
These are gross sales figures. A chart with units sales would show a chart skewed towards trade sales, and net margin would show the mail order about the same size as the trade sales.
IPR has done impressively well for us this year. I was intending to shut down the mail order store because of IPR, but sales did not decline through mail order as I expected. OBS has also provided good additional sales, though their change in margin has stung badly.
Pelgrane has always been a very part-time business, but last year pushed that to the limit. I suspect that the success of Trail was a one-off, but that 2009 will still be better than 2007, with the release of new Trail supplements by Robin and Ken, Mutant City Blues and other yet-to-be announced projects. It's a peculiar (though not doubt enviable) situation to be in. If it starts taking too much time, I then have to consider whether I really want to continue this aggressive release schedule. I have to work for ProFantasy full time (which is as enjoyable, though different). I'll rethink later in the year. Of course, if every release sold as many copies as Trail, of course, I wouldn't have to worry about it!
These are gross sales figures. A chart with units sales would show a chart skewed towards trade sales, and net margin would show the mail order about the same size as the trade sales.
IPR has done impressively well for us this year. I was intending to shut down the mail order store because of IPR, but sales did not decline through mail order as I expected. OBS has also provided good additional sales, though their change in margin has stung badly.
Pelgrane has always been a very part-time business, but last year pushed that to the limit. I suspect that the success of Trail was a one-off, but that 2009 will still be better than 2007, with the release of new Trail supplements by Robin and Ken, Mutant City Blues and other yet-to-be announced projects. It's a peculiar (though not doubt enviable) situation to be in. If it starts taking too much time, I then have to consider whether I really want to continue this aggressive release schedule. I have to work for ProFantasy full time (which is as enjoyable, though different). I'll rethink later in the year. Of course, if every release sold as many copies as Trail, of course, I wouldn't have to worry about it!