| BigFish229 | 23 Sep 2009 11:46 a.m. PST |
I'm trying to decide what a fair price to ask for my upcoming game would be. I'll be using Lulu for the publishing end of things and have decided to go with the Digest size(5.5" X 8.5") and will have between 84 and 100 black and white pages of rules and fluff. Black and white interior with a color cover. Overall a pretty basic book, with what I feel is a solid set of rules. My goal is to keep the price low enough to entice those on the fence but at the same time not sell myself short. Is the difference between $12 USD and $15 USD enough to keep you from buying? Rob |
| royaleddy | 23 Sep 2009 11:51 a.m. PST |
no.
the key thing is getting it reviewed/discussed on various forums.
if you get good reviews people will cheerfully pay the higher price.
with poor reviews or no exposure people won't pay even the lower price. |
| Grizwald | 23 Sep 2009 11:51 a.m. PST |
"Is the difference between $12.00 USD USD and $15.00 USD USD enough to keep you from buying?" Yes. |
| nycjadie | 23 Sep 2009 12:04 p.m. PST |
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| Dan Cyr | 23 Sep 2009 12:06 p.m. PST |
No. As 4KingShaw stated, get copies out there to be reviewed and seen. Anyone in today's market for this hobby will think $15 USD US for a set of rules is dirt cheap. $3 USD US is not enough to buy a miniature nowadays. Dan |
| Who asked this joker | 23 Sep 2009 12:17 p.m. PST |
$3 USD US is not enough to buy a miniature nowadays. Those must be some nice miniatures you are buying! $15 USD is more than fair for 80+ pages of print matter. If it is a complete game (rules, army lists, scenarios etc) then I think the bump is worth it. |
| Darby E | 23 Sep 2009 12:18 p.m. PST |
Agree. Under $20 USD for a core rules set is seen as the magic mark. Over that, like $35 USD or $50 USD is mostly considered rediculous. Most people I know will pop for under $20 USD without a thought. |
| Grizwald | 23 Sep 2009 12:28 p.m. PST |
Well, based on the above comments, I suggest you go for broke and charge $19.99 USD !! |
| Captain Apathy | 23 Sep 2009 12:45 p.m. PST |
$19.95 USD has a nicer ring than $19.99 USD but more to the question, the $20 USD mark is my price break as well. However, I don't buy rules unless I get a review, either online or from a friend, unless it is something so unusual or out of the norm that I can't resist. |
| BigFish229 | 23 Sep 2009 12:51 p.m. PST |
Since I'm using Lulu for all the publishing, $19.99 USD would be a little much and I'd feel like I was price gouging. I feel like $15 USD is fair, but just not sure if I dropped the price to $12 USD if I could pull in more buyers. If and when I go the distribution route vice selling only online, the retail price may have to go up in order to compensate for the wholesale price offered to distributors. The book will have complete rules with art, scenerios, and list for creation of two "armies"(it's a small scale skirmish ruleset), but the lists are very customizable so not two forces would be exactly the same. |
Lee Brilleaux  | 23 Sep 2009 12:56 p.m. PST |
Some questions that you need to consider. Are you going to sell these all directly to customers, or do you hope to sell some through distribution? Because at that point you have to decide whether you can sell your product to dealers at around half of the cover price. If you can't, you are almost certainly charging too little. What will be your printing costs? How many do you have to pay for to get that price? Will you have to buy a lot of books and keep them in the attic while you sell them one at a time? How about postage costs? Books are heavy, and you have to make sure that you either pass those charges on directly or find a way to include at least part of it in the price. I've seen it suggested that the cover price should be at least 5 times your printing cost, and ideally closer to 10. Most self-publishers are too shy to risk that, and find that they are simply making a loss over a long period rather than getting ahead of their investment. Chances are, your actual efforts will still be rewarded at about ten cents an hour, so don't even think about how many months you put into it! |
| Thunder | 23 Sep 2009 1:00 p.m. PST |
Under $20 USD for me too. I've bought more expensive rule sets, but rarely. If I read a great review of it, that might make the difference. Also, please don't make it one of those things that has an expansion every few months. I don't want to have to buy a half dozen rule books to play one game. I like my Russian, German, Brit, and American stats all in one book. |
| CPBelt | 23 Sep 2009 1:07 p.m. PST |
$20 USD is the magic number. The expensive price of Ambush Alley and its variants puts me off from buying it, and I feel $20 USD for a PDF is way too much to pay. If the PDF were $10, I would have bought their games months ago. Something to consider when going the PDF route. |
| BigFish229 | 23 Sep 2009 1:10 p.m. PST |
I'm planning to offer the PDF version at about half the price of the print version since there are no associated print costs. |
| Stuart at Great Escape Games | 23 Sep 2009 2:03 p.m. PST |
BigFish, if you email me at stuart@greatescapegames.co.uk I will be happy to pass on my observations (based on selling over 3000 books – 4 different titles – published by my company) on the subject. |
| Sundance | 23 Sep 2009 5:35 p.m. PST |
No, $12 USD or $15 USD doesn't matter if it's something I'm interested in. I have to start thinking about it at the $25 USD to $30 USD mark, even if it's something that I really want. |
| Buff Orpington | 24 Sep 2009 4:11 a.m. PST |
Ganesha Games originally priced SoB&H at $4 USD for the PDF. Nearly everyone said it was underpriced and I think Andrea realised the same thing. It did get a lot of copies sold though and many of us have gone on to buy additional rulesets at $8 USD |
| Who asked this joker | 24 Sep 2009 6:45 a.m. PST |
Ganesha Games originally priced SoB&H at $4 USD USD for the PDF. Andrea was using the first game as an intro to his rules system which is why they still are only $4. USD The rest are around $8. USD This, of course is not a bad way to go. A lite version of any rules set for cheap/free is a good way to get people to look at them just to see if they will like the game. |
| vtsaogames | 24 Sep 2009 3:55 p.m. PST |
$12 USD or $15 USD doesn't make much difference for me, when others are selling rules for $30 USD and up. |
| Shriver | 25 Sep 2009 6:11 p.m. PST |
ganesha has it figured out. |
| MajerBlundor | 30 Sep 2009 6:29 a.m. PST |
There's also perceived value to consider. Things can be too expensive or too "cheap". <$14.95 = hmmm…might not be a lot there…should have been a free PDF $14.95 USD = no brainer, easy purchase, probably good content $19.95 USD = brief pause but if I'm interested due to online comments, reviews, game's website then also an easy purchase >$19.95 = need to be convinced even though I essentially collect rules MB |
Ganesha Games  | 07 Nov 2009 3:51 a.m. PST |
I think the original post was about pricing the printed version. My $4-$5 intro book with other books on the $8 USD range is for the PDFs, the printed books are around $15. USD I think you should also focus on how much per book you are making. An 80 pages book for $15 USD sounds right to me, I would buy it if interested in the mechanics/game design philosophy behind it. But I much prefer PDFs so a lower-priced pdf that I can read NOW would be even better. As someone else said, you need to be able to do a 40 to 50% discount to retailers and still make a profit once your game is successful. ganeshagames.blogspot.com
lulu.com/songofblades |
