Rogerd wrote:Going to ask the question here, but is it available in pdf yet?
The sneak peak is, but no sign of the actual book on DT.
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Rogerd wrote:Going to ask the question here, but is it available in pdf yet?
Mark Hall wrote:Rogerd wrote:Going to ask the question here, but is it available in pdf yet?
The sneak peak is, but no sign of the actual book on DT.
I think they give it a requisite amount of months before selling it on pdf. They make more money selling actual books.Rogerd wrote:Mark Hall wrote:Rogerd wrote:Going to ask the question here, but is it available in pdf yet?
The sneak peak is, but no sign of the actual book on DT.
Here's hoping it is available soon.
As I just do not have the space for physical books anymore.
Stone Gargoyle wrote:They make more money selling actual books.
Well, maybe hey just think they do. I do know I prefer actual books to pdfs personally.Rogerd wrote:Stone Gargoyle wrote:They make more money selling actual books.
I cannot for the life of me see how that can be true.
You have to get it printed, bind it, ship it etc. Wang it in pdf and there is none of that and all profit without the surplus on top.
Rogerd wrote:Stone Gargoyle wrote:They make more money selling actual books.
I cannot for the life of me see how that can be true.
You have to get it printed, bind it, ship it etc. Wang it in pdf and there is none of that and all profit without the surplus on top.
taalismn wrote:Hey, you came up with a novel, attention-getting idea, you did the legwork, you worked it through, you made it fit the setting, even though initial thought might be 'nah, it can't work, it's too silly/stupid/lame', and you posted something that only required a little adjustment, yet can be added to, without diluting its original concept. How can we not give you due support and credit?
Father Goose wrote:Rogerd wrote:Stone Gargoyle wrote:They make more money selling actual books.
I cannot for the life of me see how that can be true.
You have to get it printed, bind it, ship it etc. Wang it in pdf and there is none of that and all profit without the surplus on top.
Palladium Books is a publishing company. They have all the equipment for publishing already, so it really is better for them to publish print books rather than pdfs.
taalismn wrote:Hey, you came up with a novel, attention-getting idea, you did the legwork, you worked it through, you made it fit the setting, even though initial thought might be 'nah, it can't work, it's too silly/stupid/lame', and you posted something that only required a little adjustment, yet can be added to, without diluting its original concept. How can we not give you due support and credit?
Father Goose wrote:Palladium Books is a publishing company. They have all the equipment for publishing already, so it really is better for them to publish print books rather than pdfs.
Mark Hall wrote:But PDFs are going to be cheaper (though not as cheap as some people seem to think they should be).
Okay, I did not know that. In that case a pdf is cheaper to sell. So why doesn't Palladium just market their own pdfs? Why use Drive Thru RPG?Mark Hall wrote:They send out to a printer (i.e. they must pay the printer); they don't do it in-house. A published book these days starts as a PDF that the printer then prints and binds.
I know lots of folks prefer printed books; I like them for table reference. But PDFs are going to be cheaper (though not as cheap as some people seem to think they should be).
Stone Gargoyle wrote:Okay, I did not know that. In that case a pdf is cheaper to sell. So why doesn't Palladium just market their own pdfs? Why use Drive Thru RPG?Mark Hall wrote:They send out to a printer (i.e. they must pay the printer); they don't do it in-house. A published book these days starts as a PDF that the printer then prints and binds.
I know lots of folks prefer printed books; I like them for table reference. But PDFs are going to be cheaper (though not as cheap as some people seem to think they should be).
They already have a store for their books. How hard would it be to add a way to download pdfs to their existing store?Mark Hall wrote:Stone Gargoyle wrote:Okay, I did not know that. In that case a pdf is cheaper to sell. So why doesn't Palladium just market their own pdfs? Why use Drive Thru RPG?
Probably cost of setting up and maintaining a store v. cost of giving DTRPG a cut. I can't find the cut DTRPG takes out of every sale off-hand (I know they told me when I set up my book), but when you compare it to the out-of-pocket for a server and a store, plus maintenance on the store, it's probably cheaper and/or easier.
Stone Gargoyle wrote:They already have a store for their books. How hard would it be to add a way to download pdfs to their existing store?Mark Hall wrote:Stone Gargoyle wrote:Okay, I did not know that. In that case a pdf is cheaper to sell. So why doesn't Palladium just market their own pdfs? Why use Drive Thru RPG?
Probably cost of setting up and maintaining a store v. cost of giving DTRPG a cut. I can't find the cut DTRPG takes out of every sale off-hand (I know they told me when I set up my book), but when you compare it to the out-of-pocket for a server and a store, plus maintenance on the store, it's probably cheaper and/or easier.
Father Goose wrote:Personally, I think all the books need to be available in both formats for greatest exposure.
kiralon wrote:I don't think its a technical issue holding it back, its probably more likely to be the worry of the pdf's being pirated. Kevin seemed to be worried about that in days past and i'm guessing still does.
Prysus wrote:I suspect, but cannot confirm, that Palladium feels that 2 years is the window that their physical books will sell the best. After that point, release of the PDF will have a minimal impact on their physical sales. This is, of course, just my theory.
Rogerd wrote:Prysus wrote:I suspect, but cannot confirm, that Palladium feels that 2 years is the window that their physical books will sell the best. After that point, release of the PDF will have a minimal impact on their physical sales. This is, of course, just my theory.
Just to be clear, I am not having a go at you when I say this.
If this is the case, that is just dumb stance on Palladium's part. If it is 2022 when it comes out I will have lost interest by that point and wouldn't really care about reading it anyway. It is no wonder with this mentality they're slowly dying as brand and as a company. As much as oldsters like me want paper copies, once you have kids and pets, space is at a premium and such things are luxury. Plus, to get the younger generation involved, they all want electronic stuff nowadays anyway.
In short we want pdf's released as soon as possible. Exposure.
Rogerd wrote:Prysus wrote:I suspect, but cannot confirm, that Palladium feels that 2 years is the window that their physical books will sell the best. After that point, release of the PDF will have a minimal impact on their physical sales. This is, of course, just my theory.
Just to be clear, I am not having a go at you when I say this.
If this is the case, that is just dumb stance on Palladium's part. If it is 2022 when it comes out I will have lost interest by that point and wouldn't really care about reading it anyway. It is no wonder with this mentality they're slowly dying as brand and as a company. As much as oldsters like me want paper copies, once you have kids and pets, space is at a premium and such things are luxury. Plus, to get the younger generation involved, they all want electronic stuff nowadays anyway.
In short we want pdf's released as soon as possible. Exposure.
Mark Hall wrote:I'd also wager (again, like Prysus, we're speculating; I have no actual knowledge of Palladium's financial position, practices, or the reason for their choices) that they may wind up needing to get a certain number of books printed, and they want to make sure those sell, because they're a sunk cost. Palladium has long made a big deal out of how well their books are bound, and so switching to something like Lulu for POD would impact that perception of their work. Cutting into the sales of their physical books means they have to store the stuff until it can be sold or Grab Bagged.
These are a few things to consider, assuming they are making financial and not emotional choices (they may, themselves, prefer physical books and want to encourage those, for example)
Stone Gargoyle wrote:I din't like the idea of only getting pdfs because they are vulnerable to file corruption and possible erasure if my computer hard drive crashes and has to be reformatted or such. I have had that happen many times. And while Drive Thru RPG keeps track of your downloads and you only have to buy a pdf once, it is still a hassle.
Prysus wrote:Rifter 84 was released November 2019, and has had a PDF for a while now. In the Face of Death was (May? 2020), and that's coming out this weekend.
Maybe what I said was accurate a few years ago, maybe I'm just remembering their Megaversal Insider timeline (until Bestiary) and got confused. Either way, currently, what I said is not true.
While I still suspect there's an intentional delay (and that is just speculation based on threads and comments from way back when fans were trying to convince Palladium to release PDF at all), my timeline was off. So there's still hope. Maybe Christmas? Farewell and safe journeys.[/justify]
Rogerd wrote:Preferring to sell physical books over pdf's is plain dumb. As selling books incurs greater cost once you start adding transport costs on top, such that it becomes unfeasible to pay.
Mark Hall wrote:As we said, we're speculating; none of this may be true. I know a bit about PDF publishing through DTRPG, because I've done it through their sister site, DTFiction, but I also don't know, for certain, what constrains Palladium or what their reasons might be.