So, I am taking a wild stab at trying something new. Publishing PDFs as Magazines. This is a test-run, please give me your impressions to every aspect of it, from the idea, execution (price for example) to quality (if you order).

Check out our first attempt here: magcloud.com/browse/Issue/5401

If people feel like this is something doable, we can publish some of our smaller releases in this form. It is pretty expensive print-wise, but it allows us to test stuff for no cost at this stage and allows for smaller prints than most other POD services.

Now, most important question: Is 6.95$ too much for a magazine-style "minibook" at 20 pages?

I don't mean this to be snarky ... but this is just like a pdf but in glossy paper that can be portable (and thus torn, lost, stolen, etc... )?

I personally prefer the pdfs from you all. They are more easily storable and certainly easier to cart around all in one place (computer, flash drive, portable hard drive, CD, any/all of the above). But, I am only one vote. I hope others find it interesting.

I like the concept, but think that the magazine could perhaps be pointed towards... slightly-less-already-made things. perhaps something more like Dragon/Dungeon Magazine. but that's just me.

Nonlethal_Force wrote:

I don't mean this to be snarky ... but this is just like a pdf but in glossy paper that can be portable (and thus torn, lost, stolen, etc... )? I personally prefer the pdfs from you all. They are more easily storable and certainly easier to cart around all in one place (computer, flash drive, portable hard drive, CD, any/all of the above). But, I am only one vote. I hope others find it interesting.

I know a lot of D&D players who would be much happier to have that than PDFs. I've played with more than one group that completely banned any electronic devices other than cell phones from the gaming table (and cell phones were only to be answered if it was family calling). Some of us REALLY like actually holding our books. Hell, I know I'd love to get HP: Soulknives like that, just to have the actual book with my name on it (though I'd have to re-dl the newest version of it and go through it to make sure I was relatively certain it didn't need errata first).

tevolria wrote:

I like the concept, but think that the magazine could perhaps be pointed towards... slightly-less-already-made things. perhaps something more like Dragon/Dungeon Magazine. but that's just me.

Note that when he mentions smaller releases, he does not say anything about whether he just means now, or having them ready for that format for future small releases also.

For things like RotM, which may eventually be compiled into an actual book, I would rather wait for the book. The option is still really nice though.

MaverickWolf wrote:

I know a lot of D&D players who would be much happier to have that than PDFs. I've played with more than one group that completely banned any electronic devices other than cell phones from the gaming table (and cell phones were only to be answered if it was family calling). Some of us REALLY like actually holding our books. Hell, I know I'd love to get HP: Soulknives like that, just to have the actual book with my name on it (though I'd have to re-dl the newest version of it and go through it to make sure I was relatively certain it didn't need errata first).

Oh, I'd much rather have a book myself - so in that I completely agree. I love the hard cover, the smell of the pages, putting them on the shelf and actually holding them in my hands. But given a choice between mag, pdf, and book ... mag would be on the bottom ofthe list. For a well done resource I would go book, pdf, mag. For and average or poorly done resource I'd go pdf, book, mag.

Well, the idea is to put things that might not end up in a book into print. Xeph was just taken as an example for testing since it matched the prerequisites (only iterations of 4 are available and Xeph was 20 pages).

So these would always be PDFs and just be an "in print" version for people who want it like that. The benefits of glossy magazine print is that we could do "all colour" if we wanted to, it is easy to setup and distribute and one can even create "subscriptions" in which people subscribe to a "line" and get each as it is published.

So, consider it is PDF -> Magazine OR Book. Or if a PDF/MAG line was extremely successful we might compile into a BOOK at later stages.

Well, all-in-all I think it is a good idea if there are enough people to make it worthwhile. THere is something to be said for making the most of a niche and doing everything possible within that niche. But there is also something else to be said about expanding into neighboring niches a little to test the waters. If the mag idea works for enough to make it worthwhile, I hope you all decide to go with it.

Well, it is essentially a no-cost option for us. Each magazine generally only has a cost in the form of a single proof and the rest is effective profit for us.

So, feedback wise - is the price point good? Is 6.95$ for 20 pages of printed gaming material too high, or is it even too low?

Nonlethal_Force wrote:

Well, all-in-all I think it is a good idea if there are enough people to make it worthwhile. THere is something to be said for making the most of a niche and doing everything possible within that niche. But there is also something else to be said about expanding into neighboring niches a little to test the waters. If the mag idea works for enough to make it worthwhile, I hope you all decide to go with it.

Yeah, and expanding out of our niche is something we're working to do. Part of the problem there is that once we step outside the psionics niche... there's a plethora of established and up-and-coming brands competing with us for customers and attention.

Part of this is that effort-wise, this is pretty minimal. Cost-wise, this is pretty minimal. And if our fans like it and support it, it means a possible extra revenue stream for us, which means we can fund additional other projects. Especially if it brings in new fans.

Andreas: Definately not too low. Looking at it vs. WotC hardcovers ... I could get a 3.x hardcover with roughly 200+ pages for between $30-35. Now, I realize you all can't compete with their volume. But, at $7 for 20 pages that puts the mag at a comparable $35 for 100 pages. I know you can't compete with WotC pricing on a volume standpoint, but the $35 for a 3.x WotC was also harcover. As for it being too high, I don't really think it is too high, either. I just spent $5 getting a mag-style 30 page (but each page is only 7.5 x 5.5) document for my work. Content-wise, I'm assuming you've got more info in your 20 full pages than in my 30 small pages.

Jeremy: I hope that you have the support base, then. Because it will increase work-load a wee bit, no doubt (formatting and layout always do regardless of how simple it seems to be). But if the profit margin is good, then I wish you all well.

We are probably gonna revise it to be 5.55$ for this magazine (6.95$ incl shipping).

There is almost no additional workload layout-wise, the magazines use the exact same size as our PDFs/Books do.

well, I'm in.

I'll see to it that we set down the price to 5.55$ for this one, so that we reach 6.95$ - if there was a coupon-system in place for our eStore we might have bundled stuff together, but alas we don't have that in place right now.