This week we put up a 12 page PDF on OneBookshelf (OBS) and expect to have it up on Paizo by the end of the week. At the time of this writing it’s sold all of 22 copies as a Pay What You Want (PWYW) title. We wanted to get some feedback, correct any mistakes and fold any changes into future products. The Pathfinder compatible title will be re-released as a Starfinder compatible book after Starfinder is released.

However right now I’d like to talk about this product as is. OBS has a tool to suggest prices for books based on page count and similar sales on their site. The Starfinder compatible book will be reset to be price competitive to the rest of the site.

In developing this book;

I spent $200 at $10 an hour for approximately 20 hours of Layout work to setup the PDF.

I spent $209.55 at $0.05 cents per word on writing to get the PDF ready.

I spent $485.73 on a Logo and 5 pieces of artwork for the book

Other publishers will tell you that you need one piece of art per 4 pages and you should spend about $25 per piece of artwork. They’d also say I should spend some money on cover art, probably $50-100. I’m at least $300 over art budget by old school logic. The vast majority of that information comes from years ago in the original D20 explosion and referred to small black and white pieces of art that fit a kind of retro 70s vibe. I don’t feel that applies to science fiction or newer publishing very well, but gamers are likely to still compare a 12 page fantasy book and a 12 page scifi book and wonder why my scifi book is so much more expensive. I’d love to be proven wrong.

The logo will be used across a number of books so that’s ok, the armor and weapons will probably be reused in a few books too. However right now they cost money to put in this book.

Subtotal for the book $895.28

Will we ever make that all back, I have no idea.

What could we do to cheapen the book, I could try to learn InDesign and do the layout myself, I could use Stock Art that other publishers use and I have in other books where it is appropriate. I could use cheaper writers even and I have in my Open Call, we’ll compare the prices in Enlightenment Book Two to this one and see how that comes out.

If you have any feedback about this post or our books please feel free to contact us.

Paul

Evilrobotgames at Gmail.com