Dungeon Mastering Earnings Report - Nov. 09

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State of the Mongoose

Always an interesting read from a Gamer Lifestyle perspective is Matt Sprange’s annual state of the union address about Mongoose and the RPG industry:

State of the Mongoose Address

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Never undervalue yourself

This week Hannah Lipsky of Chaotic Shiny released her first Gamer Lifestyle product. Congratulations Hannah. It was a pleasure reading Martial Flavor. I’ll be using at least two clans for my upcoming Pathfinder RPG campaign. Well done.

A few hours ago I received the following question by email:

Hannah’s selling Martial Flavour for $20. It’s a good product, but I was surprised at the price. Did you and Yax help her set it?

Do you think that going in low is a mistake? I was planning on selling my product $1 for the first two weeks, then $3 from then on, with a release schedule of a new product every two months. Do you think I’m shooting myself in the foot?

These are great questions. I quickly answered back, and then thought you might find the answers interesting and useful as well. So, here they are:

“Yes, we did help Hannah set her price.

At $1 you’ll need to sell 20 times what she does to make the same money. At $1 some people will not buy because they’ll think the price is so low it can’t be worth much - probably just as many, revenue-wise, who think $20 is too high.

Hannah is taking advantage of affiliate marketing. At $20 she has enough room to give part of her profit up as sales commission and still have enough left over to pay herself. This extends her sales reach dramatically.

One can always lower a price in the future, but it is much more difficult to raise a price.

You are doing a promo, starting low and finishing high. You are training your customers to buy quick at the cheap price. In time you’ll always sell the most units at your lowest price. You want the opposite. Especially during the new release phase.

Never lower your price for new releases. Add more value instead. Limited time or quantity bonuses, for example.

Hannah has three more items coming in the series. She won’t be able to sell them as a bundle for $80. But her $20 price today gives her many bundle pricing options - something $1 products would never have unless you made a ton of them. She is setting her business up for future success.

You asked me about the cost of ezine advertising. My current rate is $50 per issue. At Hannah’s price she would need to sell just three and she’s made her money back. You would need to sell 50. You need to make sure your business is covered with positive cash flow so you can meet your expenses and make strategic purchases, else you won’t be in business for long.

Hannah is also declaring to the market what she thinks her product is worth when setting her price. You are telling people your product is worth a pack of gum. At $1 I personally would not go through the hassle of a PayPal or shopping cart transaction to buy. No offense intended.

Just my thoughts.”

I know the person who asked me the questions well, so I was able to be a bit blunt. But I hope you see the wisdom in what we’re telling our students: create remarkable and unique RPG products and never undervalue yourself.

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Dungeon Mastering Earnings Report - October 09

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How do I get noticed in the gaming industry?

This is a response I wrote to a Dungeon Mastering reader who was wondering how to get noticed in the RPG industry.

How do you compete with free?

Here’s the thing about working in the gaming and creative writing fields: people do it for free.  With a little effort, WOTC could get free content for almost all their magazine articles. I know I get enough free articles sent my way to have 10 decent articles per month for free on Dungeon Mastering.

However, good game companies don’t want free stuff from amateurs. They are looking for writers with a unique voice. As a writer, the only to find your own unique voice is to write, write, and write some more. Do it for yourself. Do it for your friends.

Another thing to keep in mind when you write is the reader, the customer. We all write stuff for our campaigns which is fun and cool when we play it with our friends.  But the value of what we prepare is rarely in the writing. The value is in the flow of the game - we prepared our game by writing content so the story flows naturally - and the value is also in ourselves - our personality, our enthusiasm. We sell the story to our friends, in a way. They are a receptive audience and we have the benefit of using context, body language, and assumptions. This is impossible when you write for complete strangers.

So the first step is to do it for yourself, write, write some more, and find your own unique style and voice. Oh, and publish everything to a blog - it’s free and easy and makes your work available to everyone.  The second step, once you have found your voice, is to start writing with the reader in mind. Every word you write has to be about the reader. Do you think what you write is cool? Probably. You have to if you want to have fun writing. But it doesn’t matter what you think of your own writing. What matters is your reader, your customer. What does your work do for them?

Always keep your reader in mind. Make a difference in their game, in how they play, and you’ll get noticed. At first, hardcore gamers will find your blog. If you make a difference in their life, they’ll tell their friends. Word of mouth, FTW! It’s slow growth, but with consistent, regular work, people will take notice, Google will take notice, and you will grow your audience and eventually some gaming company might notice you. But at that point it doesn’t matter anymore.

By that point you will have found your unique voice, you will have built an audience, you will have new contacts - readers and other bloggers. It doesn’t matter what the big companies think anymore because once you figure out who you are, what you can do for others, and how to get people to pay attention to you, numerous opportunities will be there for you to seize.

Have fun on your journey.

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