В сегодняшней рассылке DTRPG их ирландский вождь пишет открытое письмо молодому игроделу о том, как правильно публиковаться на DTRPG. Я был покорен - насколько меняется письменная речь человека, когда он пишет о чем-то в чем понимает толк. А то все шло унылое пережевывание холиварных тем десятилетней давности. Так держать, Sean Patrick Fannon! P.S. Я даже все на память скопирую: [quote]First, let me cover the basic steps you will need to follow to become a publisher via DriveThruRPG: 1) Create something. Seriously, there's no point to doing any of this if you haven't got something ready to put for sale via our site. Look below for some key tips towards this process. 2) Set up a publishing account with us. It is literally as easy as clicking this link and following the instructions. That's it. Once you've followed the process detailed at that link, you'll have access to all of the Publisher Tools we provide. You'll want to spend some time making sure you are familiar with them all - there's stuff to help you set up headers and footers; manage bundles; send out complimentary copies; send mailings to your existing customers; track your sales in any number of ways; set products up for the Now In Print program; and tons more. Oh, and the whole thing is FREE. We don't charge you anything to set up with us. We just split the revenue with you when you make sales. Now, just because you can set up to publish with us, it doesn't necessarily mean you should. Remember that I mentioned something about talent? And sweat equity? Lots of folks like to dream about - and talk about - getting into writing and designing for games as their profession. I have to tell you, I've been professionally involved in this industry since 1988, and it's only been in the most recent years that I can even claim to have made enough money at it to call it a "living." Having said that, it is more possible to make at least survival wages at this, if you're willing to really work at it. The lack of overhead that traditional print publishing incurs makes it a great deal easier for those who focus on the electronic marketplace to make more per sale than ever before. With the advent of the Kindle Fire (and the ensuing "tablet war"), e-publishing is only going to become more profitable for everyone. Now then, as promised, here's some tips for you if you're serious about getting into this business. I originally shared this with the still-tiny Google+ audience I had a while back, but here it is for all of you to see. Hopefully, you will find some of it useful. Some Random-yet-Useful Bullet Points About E-Publishing - Just scanning/OCR physical books and calling it e-publishing is not the best way to go. It is acceptable for older titles that were done in paste-up many years ago, if the demand for the content is relatively high; otherwise, the fans really don't care for the results. They can tell, and even expertly done versions might be considered "low quality." If you have access to the print files, those are the sources to use to create your PDFs. - Bookmarks in the Table of Contents! Unless it's a novel or a comic book, the fans expect bookmarks to make navigating the e-document easier. It takes full advantage of the medium, and it's one of the things that makes e-docs/PDFs a superior form for gaming books, text books, and related content. - Banner ads are almost always a waste of time. Almost. There are some few exceptions; if you've got a hot title from a hot author, it might be worthwhile to run an ad on Facebook. Our own efforts there for even the most likely "hot topics," however, yielded very low ROI. Only the most high-profile sites are even worth doing it for, and again, the ROI may not play out, because they're also the most expensive. (Note that I do not mean the Featured Product Messages we let you place on our own site; those are actually a really good idea). - Self-created "movie trailer" videos posted on YouTube and elsewhere are actually quite effective. It generally means getting some really talented and creative folks together who can help you put one together; paying for one immediately kills the ROI. Take anyone who can use your existing bank of images and make them fade in and out with a good voice-over and some decent music, though, and you can make that dog-and-pony show work hard for you across the social media network. - Social Media is King. Your authors/creators MUST create a link with the fans. I call this the 4-C's Principle: Creator - Content - Community - Consumer. The Creator reaches the Consumer through the Content and the Community that social media helps create and maintain. The whole thing is a garden, though; without regular maintenance, it will rapidly wither and die. - The lack of overhead cannot be underestimated as a winning point. No print costs, no warehousing, no shipping - all of these elements being cut out of the equation makes your revenue-per-unit incredible. - You must, however, price accordingly; the customer base is very price-sensitive and savvy. Price too high and they laugh at you, either moving on to another, more reasonably priced item and/or the torrents. - Price too low, however, and you create a sense that there's not real value in your product. The best thing you can do is check the current prices for similar products and position your pricing accordingly. Having a "release special" will spike your sales up front, and then you raise up by a small margin later. Even farther down the road, however, you will want to drop the price (especially in anticipation of a newer product). You can market this as another special that will also spike your revenue for a short time. - Forget pirates. Seriously. Forget about them entirely. There is NO percentage in wasting any time on the matter. Any stringent efforts you make to combat pirates will only serve to annoy and drive away your legitimate customers. The music industry first proved all of this for us, and our own experiences have born the truth out utterly. Measures that do not impact your customer experience in any way are reasonable; anything else hurts more than helps. The most important truth here is that legitimate customers WANT to be legitimate customers; pirates are NOT lost sales. OK, enough on that. Well, maybe not. If you have any more questions, hit me up at sean@onebookshelf.com. ~ SPF (10-05-2011)[/quote]