A question about Jonstown Compendium sales structure.

[Malin]

Had a meeting yesterday, and a question came up that I don't have an answer to, but which @Nick Brooke might? The number of sales and cost per page is tracked in the catalog, but is there a general theme on how those sales are structured? Bear with me while I explain.

Some products have a very sharp dropoff (red curve). They sell almost everything in their first two to four months, and then the sales drop off very sharply, selling maybe one or two a month.

Other products have a very long tail (blue curve). Sure, the majority of sales will be in the first release months, but then they keep selling constantly, getting bumps with exposure, sales etc, slowly adding up the numbers.

Asking for statistical reasons and to try to predict how having one or more products in the Jonstown Comepdium might behave. I also write other things, and my favorite ones are the ones with long tails, that really add up after you've got a few in the market. I'm in the lucky position of being able to support my family through my writing and part of that is through regular monthly royalties so it would be interesting to see how things perform here.

Edited June 11 by Malin

[jajagappa]

6 hours ago, Malin said:

Asking for statistical reasons and to try to predict how having one or more products in the Jonstown Comepdium might behave.

@Nick Brooke has shared a number of sales graphs on FB previously. 

For Scenarios and Sourcebooks there are fairly defined curves with varying length of tail. Most hit Silver (101+). Some reach Electrum (251+). There's 20+ works that have reached Gold (501+) and a handful Platinum (1001+). 

The sales start high and taper from there - you'll usually have a good sense of trajectory based on how quick they hit Copper/Silver. The top sellers typically hit Copper within 24 hours and Silver within ~2 weeks.

They get bumps for the 3 annual DriveThru sales events (March, July, Xmas). A later print version generates a bump. New, related content by the same author (i.e. a series) can generate a bump.

Generally works centered in the core Glorantha regions (Dragon Pass, Pavis/Prax, Lunar Empire, Holy Country) have done best to date. 

This post also notes a number of factors (as of early 2023): 

 

Edited June 11 by jajagappa

[Nick Brooke]

In my experience, products have a long tail: blue curve, not red. Here's a graph showing the monthly sales over time for five of my books. The vertical scale is logarithmic (base 2), which makes movements at the lower end visible. You can see the site-wide sales Harald mentions as spikes in July, November and March; you can see that although high first-month sales are never again reached, every book keeps selling over time, and there's often an uptick in older books' sales when new books come out. Hope this helps.

[Nick Brooke]

And you might like these charts (or might have already seen them). If something stops selling, it'll flatline. See any flat lines?

https://www.chaosium.com/blogjourney-to-jonstown-33-happy-second-birthday-to-the-jonstown-compendium/

[M Helsdon]

7 hours ago, Malin said:

Some products have a very sharp dropoff (red curve). They sell almost everything in their first two to four months, and then the sales drop off very sharply, selling maybe one or two a month.

There's an enormous number of factors.

Maps, art packs, and things set outside the core areas tend not to sell very well. Beyond that, trends are tricky to identify.

[Malin]

3 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

In my experience, products have a long tail: blue curve, not red.

You make me very happy, it is so RARE to see someone who likes charting stuff and making statistics as much as I do! Really. There's so much openness about sales and stuff here, in many other places, that's the kind of thing you have to work really hard at finding out, if people even are willing to share in the first place.

Sadly I am not on facebook, and have no plans on starting at this point... so I do miss some stuff.

[Nick Brooke]

NB: There is lots of sales information at the back of my Jonstown Compendium Catalogues and the current year Index, with different slices and updates in every release.

[Malin]

9 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

NB: There is lots of sales information at the back of my Jonstown Compendium Catalogues and the current year Index, with different slices and updates in every release.

Oh yeah, that one I already have!

[Nick Brooke]

ITYM “those four.”

[Austin]

15 hours ago, Malin said:

Sadly I am not on facebook, and have no plans on starting at this point... so I do miss some stuff.

FWIW Facebook is by far the best spot for marketing JC stuff, if you're looking into writing for RuneQuest. There's a significant enough difference in engagement that I do suspect authors who aren't active over there sell noticeably fewer books.

[Malin]

10 minutes ago, Austin said:

FWIW Facebook is by far the best spot for marketing JC stuff, if you're looking into writing for RuneQuest. There's a significant enough difference in engagement that I do suspect authors who aren't active over there sell noticeably fewer books.

Oh hell... thank you for the warning. I guess... yeah.... I guess I might need to make a facebook account. Oh boy. But I suppose I did brave and survive Reddit so....

[jajagappa]

3 hours ago, Austin said:

FWIW Facebook is by far the best spot for marketing JC stuff, if you're looking into writing for RuneQuest. 

The FB RQ group has ~6.3k members - far, far more than you'll see here, and advertising there definitely increases exposure to your works.

[mfbrandi]

3 hours ago, Malin said:

I guess I might need to … But I suppose I did … and survive … so

Arkat on one shoulder. Nysalor on the other. Gbaji on both? 😉

[Malin]

2 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

Gbaji on both? 😉

Look, I've been on tumblr long enough to be well acquainted with Eurmal already... how much worse can it get?

[Nick Brooke]

In my experience, Reddit is actively hostile to community content related posts, while Twitter is kinda niche (I mostly use it for outreach to our Japanese fanbase). Facebook is where I get the most interaction. BRP Central is basically a morgue populated by mindless zombies. Your experience may vary.

[Malin]

Alright, I have a facebook account now but I have no idea how to use it. Oh, they do not make it easy... Are there groups, like on Reddit?

[radmonger]

The big public one is:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RuneQuest

 

 

 

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Malin said:

Are there groups, like on Reddit?

Also you should join the Jonstown Community Creators Circle here: Jonstown Compendium Creators Circle | Facebook

[Nick Brooke]

And you should quickly learn where the search tool for searching within a group is located. It will magnify your Google-Fu most wondrously!

[Malin]

Oh the horrors of having to interact with the world, thank you so much for your help everyone, you make it so much easier. Unfortunately for me, my co-writer stays as far away from the internet as he can. So that bit is up to me.

EDIT: Oh boy you weren't kidding about the interactions! Busiest place I've been on since Reddit (but less weird).

Edited June 12 by Malin

[SDLeary]

4 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

BRP Central is basically a morgue populated by mindless zombies.

BRAINS...

[Austin]

5 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Reddit is actively hostile to community content related posts

Reddit in general, or the RuneQuest/Glorantha Reddit groups? I don't use much Reddit, but I feel like I've had positive interactions in r/RuneQuest. I can't speak about TTRPG spaces at large on the platform.

[Nick Brooke]

If you announce a new RuneQuest community content release in the RuneQuest subreddit, more often than not the mods treat it as spam, because obviously nobody in the RuneQuest subreddit wants to hear about new community content releases or chat with their authors.

[smiorgan]

21 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

If you announce a new RuneQuest community content release in the RuneQuest subreddit, more often than not the mods treat it as spam, because obviously nobody in the RuneQuest subreddit wants to hear about new community content releases or chat with their authors.

Usually, RuneQuest subreddit goes more or less like this:

Newbie post: "I'm interested in running RuneQuest. I've heard that Glorantha is a huge mythic Bronze Age setting. Seems cool. How is the new edition? Is it very crunchy?"

1st comment: "Yes, there's a new edition. But you might as well consider Mythras, which is the most elegant/ logical/ streamlined implementation of RuneQuest. You can run Glorantha pretty easily with that"

2nd comment: "Glorantha was fun back in the RQ2 era. I've played a ton of Borderlands/ Big Rubble, etc. Then Greg ruined everything  with <insert vague Hero Wars reference>. I've HEARD the new edition is all over the place."

Me: ... 🙄

Yes, that's a caricature and maybe a tad uncharitable. But that's the vibe of the place. 

Edited June 13 by smiorgan

[Malin]

A subreddit is sadly defined by its users and mods...

Edited June 12 by Malin