Fear the change!
I listen to a lot of podcasts, and one of my favorite Podcasters is Leo Laporte. He does about a gazllion shows, and one that I try and keep up on is his weekly radio show. He takes tech questions, and gives people very good, concise answers on how to fix what is ailing their technology. He also has a bunch of guests on, and it's how I still am able to really keep my head in the tech arena.
So, right at the one hour mark of episode #437 of "The Tech Guy Podcast", Leo had a a writer named Bill "Mr. Excel" Jelen. Mr. Excel gives his books (on Excel, duh) away as DRM free PDFs. Bill also sells his books in all the typical places, Amazon, Brick & Mortar stores, and through his own website. When Leo asked him, 'So, I bet you don't sell any books cause you give away the book or free on PDF, hunh?'
Mr. Excel laughed.
Mr. Excel's sales have gone way up since he started doing this. Like way up (or so he claims anyway.) Leo really brought Bill on to use him as an example of this phenomenon. He even says so in the interview.
So, why am I bringing this up? Cause there has been an AWEFUL lot of grumbling in the Retail Game Store owner community about PDfs, and especially free giveaways of full books...and I don't get it. Why the fear? I WANT my alpha gamers to have these PDFs. It gets them running games FAST, and at times gets them running demos and the like right as the hard copy hits the streets. These demos also generate more sales to the less than alpha crowd by sharing the awesome. I think back to my recent MiniCon, and had someone had a copy of Trail of Cthulhu say even a week before the event and run it, I would have had even more special-orders than I already did.
I have seen this apply to both RPGs and Minis games (think GW Codexes that mysteriously always seem to leak right before they come out). My Gamers then rush in and buy the hard-copy as soon as it is available. Without fail. Heck, the GW guys get the opportunity to kit out an army list, and order figures to match the releases for new or updated armies this way.
So...uh, WTF is all the moaning about? Lost sales? Really? I HAVE seen lost sales to PDFs...when the product stinks. And, I would have lost that sale anyway. So, I honestly don't get it. The interview Leo did is GOOD. If you want more info than my ham fisted typing, listen to it. It's worth a few mins...
So, right at the one hour mark of episode #437 of "The Tech Guy Podcast", Leo had a a writer named Bill "Mr. Excel" Jelen. Mr. Excel gives his books (on Excel, duh) away as DRM free PDFs. Bill also sells his books in all the typical places, Amazon, Brick & Mortar stores, and through his own website. When Leo asked him, 'So, I bet you don't sell any books cause you give away the book or free on PDF, hunh?'
Mr. Excel laughed.
Mr. Excel's sales have gone way up since he started doing this. Like way up (or so he claims anyway.) Leo really brought Bill on to use him as an example of this phenomenon. He even says so in the interview.
So, why am I bringing this up? Cause there has been an AWEFUL lot of grumbling in the Retail Game Store owner community about PDfs, and especially free giveaways of full books...and I don't get it. Why the fear? I WANT my alpha gamers to have these PDFs. It gets them running games FAST, and at times gets them running demos and the like right as the hard copy hits the streets. These demos also generate more sales to the less than alpha crowd by sharing the awesome. I think back to my recent MiniCon, and had someone had a copy of Trail of Cthulhu say even a week before the event and run it, I would have had even more special-orders than I already did.
I have seen this apply to both RPGs and Minis games (think GW Codexes that mysteriously always seem to leak right before they come out). My Gamers then rush in and buy the hard-copy as soon as it is available. Without fail. Heck, the GW guys get the opportunity to kit out an army list, and order figures to match the releases for new or updated armies this way.
So...uh, WTF is all the moaning about? Lost sales? Really? I HAVE seen lost sales to PDFs...when the product stinks. And, I would have lost that sale anyway. So, I honestly don't get it. The interview Leo did is GOOD. If you want more info than my ham fisted typing, listen to it. It's worth a few mins...