Happy Second Birthday to the Jonstown Compendium!

[Kloster]

19 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Otherwise, we'd have to presume that people prefer to drive a cheap Toyota rather than a Porsche or BMW... 

I do.

[Nick Brooke]

Fascinating. But how does this help Jonstown Compendium authors and customers? It would cost creators time and money to bring out “cheap Toyota editions” of our books, and speaking for myself I’m not particularly strongly motivated to do that. If I did, I’d most likely bump up the price of the cheap format to cover some of the IMO unnecessary cost of setting it up.

Customers who prefer print will still see PDF editions going on sale weeks or months earlier (and being snapped up by the hundreds of customers who prefer digital); customers who prefer cheap editions will still have to wait until creators supply them (which has only happened once, so far, in response to a printing cost hike).

To date, no JC titles have come out in the cheapest available format (B&W softcover), probably because none of us wants to make them; we all used to bring our books out in premium colour print (back when that was only a marginal price increase), so this is hardly surprising.

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Fascinating. But how does this help Jonstown Compendium authors and customers? It would cost creators time and money to bring out “cheap Toyota editions” of our books, and speaking for myself I’m not particularly strongly motivated to do that. If I did, I’d most likely bump up the price of the cheap format to cover some of the IMO unnecessary cost of setting it up.

For me, the whole process of creating a POD version has been difficult and time-consuming, even though I have had fantastic support from Nick Brooke, Neil Gibson, Meredith and everyone else at DTRPG.

I would not want to go through the process of turning everything into B&W softback, as that would also mean redesigning the covers, which is a pain in itself, and rechecking all the ink coverage and everything else needed for a POD version.

3 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Customers who prefer print will still see PDF editions going on sale weeks or months earlier (and being snapped up by the hundreds of customers who prefer digital); customers who prefer cheap editions will still have to wait until creators supply them (which has only happened once, so far, in response to a printing cost hike).

Secrets of HeroQuesting has only sold 40 POD Copies since it was released, compared to over 400 PDF Sales. So, I am seriously thinking about whether to put in the weeks of effort to produce POD copies in future.

In my experience, people bug me for POD Copies all the time, but the sales do not really justify them, at least for me.

[PhilHibbs]

13 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Secrets of HeroQuesting has only sold 40 POD Copies since it was released, compared to over 400 PDF Sales. So, I am seriously thinking about whether to put in the weeks of effort to produce POD copies in future.

That's a shame. I don't know what could be done to improve that. A lot of people will see the PDF in the community content lists when it is released, but the same effect won't be there when the print edition comes out. It will have dropped off the "new" and "hottest" lists.

I'd like to see a "Now available in print" list on the front page!

Edited December 15, 2021 by PhilHibbs

[soltakss]

3 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

That's a shame. I don't know what could be done to improve that.

I can spam all the lists again, reminding everyone that it is Christmas, but I am not sure if that would work.

[Nick Brooke]

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

Secrets of HeroQuesting has only sold 40 POD Copies since it was released, compared to over 400 PDF Sales. So, I am seriously thinking about whether to put in the weeks of effort to produce POD copies in future.

In my experience, people bug me for POD Copies all the time, but the sales do not really justify them, at least for me.

Each of the first three Sandheart books sold about thirty print copies in the first week after release, rising to fifty in the first month. They're all over 160 now. Don't give up yet!

But I agree, those noisy Pod People are like the "settings outside Dragon Pass & Prax" fans - a (very) vocal minority, who it turns out can't punch their weight in the sales / reviews / ratings charts, the only place their voices would actually matter.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

I'd like to see a "Now available in print" list on the front page!

If you're only interested in print, you can filter DriveThru to show print format only. My regularly-updated Index flags up new print titles (front page, item details, back page, and sometimes a splash advertisement if it's been a while coming).

I got an email alert from DriveThruRPG to tell me about the print release of Secrets of Heroquesting, but possibly not everyone signs up for those. (I think it's a "Follow your Favourites" option)

[Nick Brooke]

Just out: the Jonstown Compendium Catalogue - 2021 Edition. $7.50 in print (144-page colour paperback, 6x9 inches), or $2.50 PDF.

This book details every supplement published in the first two years of Chaosium's community content programme for RuneQuest and Glorantha. It combines the 2020 & 2021 versions of my Jonstown Compendium Index: a new layout presents every release up to the end of November 2021, divided into categories. Titles in the main categories are ranked by sales tier (best-seller medals) and customer ratings.

The seven categories used are RuneQuest (scenarios), Glorantha (sourcebooks), QuestWorlds, Monsters of the Month, Zenith Counters, Adventure Outlines and Everything Else. Detailed listings analyse content (pages split between scenario, stats, maps, etc.), price per page of content (excluding front matter, blank pages, etc.), and the intended adventurers, setting and complexity for each scenario.

Two “Where in the World?” maps show every product's location (if it can be pinned down). There are notes on when each scenario and campaign is set (by year and season, inc. all Chaosium RQG scenarios). Appendices include notes for creators, sales charts, and handy reference versions of the Jonstown Compendium Community Content Agreement, Content Guidelines and FAQ.

If you own last year's Jonstown Compendium Scenarios & Sourcebooks (2020) and this year's Jonstown Compendium Index (2021), read Chaosium's blog and pay attention to online resources, you will have all this information already. Unlike those products, this title won't be updated: it's a year-end snapshot (and a printed book). I plan to bring out a new, regularly updated Index starting in January 2022, with a new print Catalogue in 12 months' time if it seems worthwhile.