Furthermore On Electronic Publishing

Further Thoughts and Ideas

by Matt Pavone

I used to think that it would be most desirable to have one's set of rules for sale in BM stores. That was when I lived 10 minutes away from two excellent hobby shops. Now that I have nothing nearby, I think I've changed my tune on this. Yes, I agree that stores should certainly carry rulesets, if only to help sell the miniatures that are necessary to go with those sets!

However, you can get a pretty good view of rules, as well as lots of reviews, as well as supplement releases over the internet just as well, if not better, than you can at store. When I go to a store, I'm typically under a time constraint, but when I surf the web, if I'm interrupted, I just come back later and continue.

The real problem is not getting rules published, it is one of distribution. You are indeed lucky if you can get a (big) distributor to carry (read: order restocks when they run low... not just a one-time shot) them. Is there actually enough demand to warrant multiple prints of most rulesets? I would think that 98% of the rules published never sell out the copies of the initial print, much less require reprints. With all the free rules sets available for download these days, why would anyone want to pay to get one? Especially when considering the costs of printer ink cartridges and paper costs these days!

Yeah, but we all know that you tend to get what you pay for. I personally won't even look at "free rules" as my feeling is that if they were any good to begin with, they'd be pub- lished. Perhaps I'm completely wrong in this point of view, but I tend to apply the "get what you pay for" mentality in the majority of other areas of life, so why not to my hobby as well.

Sure, I'm sure there are a few diamonds in the rough so to speak, but the majority are free for a reason. It will be interesting to follow Chipco's decision as this topic has been beat to death on one of the closed industry's NG. In one case, a "not too smart" fanboy actually posted (for free!) the supplement on his website!

Can anyone remember what happened to Easy Eight's sales once they switched over to offering their rules only on CD? Alas, now we get to the meat of the topic. Should one publish online? Well, let me give you my consumer's two cents worth. I personally love the idea of pay now, download instantly, mentality. Its really hard to compete with instant gratification. The previously mentioned Game Mapper is a great example of this. Oh look, I want to make a map. An hour later, I'm making maps. Love it.

Now, from the other perspective, when it comes to printed materials, I tend to prefer a nice hard copy (i.e. not printed in my house and put in a 3 ring binder - and I am fortunate enough to have really excellent printers and I still would prefer professionally printed materials). The ideal for me would be to have the option to buy both. I get the instant gratification of getting to read what I just bought over the web instantly, then get the nicely bound, hard copy in the mail later). PDF's and what not are just fantastic as they are instant and they are searchable, a feature which simply cannot be overlooked. However, when buying online printed material, it has to be high quality. Flames of War army lists are an excellent example of a printed ruleset being supported by online distribution (granted, not the core ruleset) and could be taken as an example to follow.

Now comes the downside. It is absolutely, without a doubt, sheer publishing suicide to publish a set of rules and sell them in PDF format. This will only lead to grotesque copyright violations and free distribution to every friend you have. Sure, its cheap (i.e. Free). However, in the long run, you'll probably lose money as 75% of the folks who have your rules will have them for free. Now, sending CD's even with copy prevention on them is the worst idea. I still have to wait for it in the mail thus eliminating the attraction of electronic distribution, someone will get around the copy protection, and in the long run neither the vendor or consumer is really happy.

So, in the end, its my opinion that the "right" answer is a happy mix between the two. Paper publishing should never go purely online, however, the Internet should be vigorously used to support a product that you paper publish. Example: I write a ruleset and only sell it via normal paper based distribution. In concert with this, I setup a website to support my rules and offer updates to the rules etc... there and keep putting new content in people's faces which in turn keep people interested in my rules. I then release a supplement that really can't be used without the ruleset and sell it over the internet only. I really think that the guys at Battlefront (despite whether you like or dislike their rules) have got the mix down absolutely correctly. First off, they produce a superior (looking anyway) product with their Flames of War.

They then support this better than any other historical based company I've ever seen via their website. However, they then go to print with modules which outdate the free supplements that you got on the web! So, you buy that one and at the same time download the latest army list for free. Then, 5 months later, the army list you DL'ed isn't valid anymore cause they published a new book. Rinse and repeat. Brilliant!

So, if you haven't figured it out yet, my opinion is that you should never go purely web, but you should supplement your offerings with add-ons from the web. This keeps what you're doing relevant and alive, helps drive sales of future physical products, and reduces pirating by making the "free" supplements of no use without the physical product and then outdates those supplements with future physical products. Doing this successfully just takes some forethought and commitment (something I feel is lacking in most miniatures rules writers). In other words, don't just say "hey, I think I'll write a set of rules and publish them." Say instead, "Hey, I think I'll write a set of rules and publish them as a start, and then six months later I'll release a supplement for X, and then I'll release Y and then and then and then."

In theory, what you as a miniatures rules writer are doing is starting a business. This business should have a well thought out and strategized plan just like any other business. Unless of course, you're not in it for the money, to which I would respond that they shouldn't bitch about slow sales, lack of profits, and not being able to buy a new car with the proceeds. It can be done, it just takes more of a business mentality and less of a "passion" based mentality. Anyway, I've now said about way more than I intended with this post. However, I'm a big fan of miniatures gaming and a big fan of the Internet (have been professionally since there was an actively used internet).

Thus my perspective on this is that I'm really really surprised that in 2003 more companies haven't gotten it "right" yet. I think we all agree that the Internet is probably the greatest thing that's happened to all forms of wargaming since mass produced wargaming figures were introduced. However, I think that 90% of the companies out there still haven't grasped it as thoroughly as is necessary to really turn a side business into a full time business.

Electronic Publishing Pros and Cons

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