Something interesting happened today, and I just wanted to comment on it before moving on. As you know, Ramen Sandwich Press publishes two books that I call deep dives into random wilderness encounters: The Book of Chance Meetings, which is is compatible with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, and Book of Hidden Paths, which uses the same format to the same end, but uses the Pathfinder 2E Bestiaries (or at least, those covered by the open license). I have posted before about the difference in market share between these two game systems, and it was never my expectation that the two books would sell equally well; my hope was that there were enough Pathfinder GMs who would find it useful to justify the time I spent on it.
Until very recently, I was having my doubts. The Kickstarter campaign for Book of Hidden Paths did not go terribly well; it just barely funded. It didn’t sell well out of the gate, and until recently it lagged well behind The Book of Chance Meetings. Today, however, Hidden Paths passed Chance Meetings in number of copies sold through DriveThru RPG.
I’m not at all displeased about this. Frankly, I think Hidden Paths is the better book. Pathfinder has so many more open-license creatures than D&D 5E that I had a much wider variety of them to work into the book. Also, because Hidden Paths is longer, we can sell it for a higher price point. But I do wonder why this happened because, not much more than a year ago, I was in a deep funk over the state of our Pathfinder sales.
One possibility is that Pathfinder’s market share is catching up to D&D and even overtaking it. After all, it has been a bit over a year since Wizards of the Coast managed the brilliant feat of pissing off a large number of its most active and enthusiastic supporters by trying to revoke the Open Game License and effectively destroying the business models of third-party publishers. A lot of those people switched to Pathfinder out of sheer pique. But I don’t think enough of them got mad and stayed mad at WotC to tip the balance of the fantasy RPG market against D&D, which remains the dominant rules system.
It’a also possible that Pathfinder GMs are, overall, taking more interest in third-party material and Book of Hidden Paths is riding a wave within the fan base. I don’t dismiss that out of hand, although I think it’s unlikely to be the sole explanation.
Instead, alas, there is a third possibility that I think is the most likely of all: It’s just statistical noise. The number of copies that we have sell (of any of our books) through DriveThru RPG is disappointingly small these days. We’re just not getting any exposure. Ramen Sandwich Press is very much lost in the crowd over there. Because we generate such a small sample size, it’s not possible to draw meaningful conclusions for it. Overall — taking into account other online venues and in-person shows — sales of Book of Hidden Paths still lags The Book of Chance Meetings by a substantial margin.
So I don’t think that a seismic shift in the fantasy RPG market is in the offing. But we’ll take every sale of Hidden Paths that we can make, thank you very much.
Hey Doug - me again. Your excellent post made me think - again. Two things.
First you said: "because Hidden Paths is longer, we can sell it for a higher price point." So you are pricing your books based on weight? That doesn't make economic sense. This product is more intellectual property than fire wood. I have said for years you aren't charging enough. Sure some subset of customers will complain at higher prices but you need to make enough to be worth your time and mindshare. I suggest that's at a much higher price point. The work is excellent - price it as such. Not by weight.
Second, you said your work is not getting visibility. That's all on you. No matter how good the product, its critical that you make the sales happen. In the online universe that means fighting to get reviews, interviews (you are a delightful and interesting interview) and missionaries. Tons of ideas to make that happen if you want to talk. Also ChatGPT is available to help you think through it :-)
Much love HB