Make it a good preview
make is PWYW
Why do you have a back cover?
Put the fucking level on the text
Fancy fonts suck
Guys tips
make is PWYW
Why do you have a back cover?
Put the fucking level on the text
Fancy fonts suck
Guys tips
Production Design
- Thread starter bryce0lynch
- Start date
It's common these days to attach a sample of a few pages to your kickstarter, or to put up a preview on popular online storefronts. This is great! It allows the potential purchaser to get an idea of the type of writing they'll be getting if they purchase the product or support the kickstarter, etc. In order to make the preview effective, though, it should do a few things. It's it's a traditional room/key adventure then make sure your preview shows a few of the rooms. This allows the purchaseser to get an idea of both the type of writing you'll be providing as well as how you are laying out the rooms. If it's encounter based then ensure you're showing an encounter. if it's heavily NPC based, or town based, or X based, then ensure that your preview shows some of those NPC's, town entries, or X. These previews of the heart of the heart of the adventure are much better for setting expectations with the consumer then, say the first X pages of the adventuer. The title page, the cover, the table of contents and the backstory and introduction are usually what's in those first few pages are they are far, far less useful to a potential purchaseser when making a buying decision.
If you are just starting out, consider making the product free, or Pay What You Want. You will get substantially more people buying, and hopefully using, your adventure. presumably you're writing it because you have a passion. Don't worry about monitizing things at the start. You'll still need to pay any edtors, layout people, or artists, so you'll be taking a loss on the adventure if you don't do these yourself. It is, though, very unlikley that you will make back your outlay for art, editing, layout, etc in your first few adventures. Consider publishing for free, building your base and gaining experience and THEN you can begin to dream, as we all do, about making at least some beer money.
Does your adventure have a back cover with ad copy? Why? Back covers are useful for physical products but the vast majority of products will only exist as PDF's. PDF back covers don't need a back cover with ad copy; the purchasing decision is not mad eby picking up the book and looking at it; it's made by looking ta your preview and your ad copy in the product decision.
Likewise, please ensure that, if you adventure has a level/experience range, you put that on the storefronts description of the product. It's much mroe likley that a purchaser is looking for a Beginning level adventure, or an expert level one, etc, rather than "The new adventure by Bryce Lynch!" Put the level range someplace prominant, or at least on the cover, so folks can use that to assist in making a purchase decision.
Watch out when considering using fancy fonts in product that yoy maintain legability. Fancy fonts, cursive fonts, and so on make the product less legible when reading it and scanning it ta the table. Exceptions can be made, of course, for handout and the like. But if it's meant for the DM remember that one of your jobs is to make the product as easy as possible for the DM to use.
(does legibility go in to Usability section instead?)
(guy's tips)
(go find out which font is easier to read)
If you are just starting out, consider making the product free, or Pay What You Want. You will get substantially more people buying, and hopefully using, your adventure. presumably you're writing it because you have a passion. Don't worry about monitizing things at the start. You'll still need to pay any edtors, layout people, or artists, so you'll be taking a loss on the adventure if you don't do these yourself. It is, though, very unlikley that you will make back your outlay for art, editing, layout, etc in your first few adventures. Consider publishing for free, building your base and gaining experience and THEN you can begin to dream, as we all do, about making at least some beer money.
Does your adventure have a back cover with ad copy? Why? Back covers are useful for physical products but the vast majority of products will only exist as PDF's. PDF back covers don't need a back cover with ad copy; the purchasing decision is not mad eby picking up the book and looking at it; it's made by looking ta your preview and your ad copy in the product decision.
Likewise, please ensure that, if you adventure has a level/experience range, you put that on the storefronts description of the product. It's much mroe likley that a purchaser is looking for a Beginning level adventure, or an expert level one, etc, rather than "The new adventure by Bryce Lynch!" Put the level range someplace prominant, or at least on the cover, so folks can use that to assist in making a purchase decision.
Watch out when considering using fancy fonts in product that yoy maintain legability. Fancy fonts, cursive fonts, and so on make the product less legible when reading it and scanning it ta the table. Exceptions can be made, of course, for handout and the like. But if it's meant for the DM remember that one of your jobs is to make the product as easy as possible for the DM to use.
(does legibility go in to Usability section instead?)
(guy's tips)
(go find out which font is easier to read)
DangerousPuhson
Should be playing D&D instead
Sans serif for titles and headings (more impactful and eye catching), serif fonts for body text (easier flow for the reader's eye). There are also special fonts specifically designed for easy reading by people with certain conditions (like dyslexia for example)
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DangerousPuhson
Should be playing D&D instead
...y...yes?
Malrex
So ... slow work day? Every day?
Would keep this paragraph only as it pertains to the cover. This section is about presenting your 'masterpiece'...keep with that topic.
Bolded: I would talk more about fonts, italics, etc. for the interior in a different section.
For previews, Drivethru gives you the option of the first page, and the last page. This makes it difficult to give a good preview, unless you have it laid out in a certain way. For example, I couldn't do pg. 4-6, 8, 10, then 30 for a map. I'd have to go 4-30. Sure, giving a pg. 4-30 preview is great, but you get the jokers who then don't purchase your work because most of it is in the preview and they can just picture/copy it down.
Constant arguments about free vs. PWYW vs. set a price. The thing that stuck with me, is if something is free, people don't value it. You might get 1,000 downloads, but how many people actually read it? There is so much material out there to choose from--do people actually remember you or your adventure?? Are you really building up a base? A solid, supportive base? In my experience, free and PWYW doesn't do much good for you...being lucky and receiving a good adventure review, by a trusted reviewer, is king.
DangerousPuhson
Should be playing D&D instead
Malrex is right about there being one no definitively better option for all situations - both approaches have their drawbacks.
Honestly I'd leave the price stuff out if I were you Bryce... it's a sort of "after-the-fact" consideration, and unless you've got a ton of market data and have pushed numerous releases out through a variety of different pricing approaches, you're not exactly in an authoritative place to declare one method better than another, nor to suggest one option over another.