Publishing Advice - [Steampower Publishing] Q2 2010 Sales

Posted by: Andrew Kenrick On: Jul 23rd 2010

Malc posted the Q2 sales figures for Contested Groundthe other day, so I thought I'd do the same. The difference is, that for the past couple of years Steampower hasn't really had any sales, as I didn't have anything in print, so my figures are really only for the first month following Dead of Night's release.

It seemed to go down well at Games Expo, leaving me with only a couple of books left at the end of the con. I think my last minute panic about not having enough stock proved to be unwarranted, so I’m glad I didn’t fast-track any extra books like I briefly considered.

Print sales are steady enough that I can comfortably handle posting them myself, but books should be on sale at IPR in the States in the next few weeks, and I’ll be glad that I won’t have to fulfil many more to the US. Unlike the first edition, I’ve made a digital download available too, and that’s been a huge success. I’m not sure if it’s folk recognising the name when it pops up on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG, or whether it’s just Paul’s great cover drawing them in.

Dead of Night (released June 2010)
Direct: 23
Convention: 8
Retail: 2
PDF: 67
Total: 100 on the nose

Lifetime Sales: 100

Although I'd budgeted that selling 50 print copies would be my break even point, I hadn't taken into account sales of the PDF, so I've actually managed to break even in my first month.

Posted by: Malcolm Craig On: Jul 24th 2010

That's great to see. I'll be honest and say I'm (slightly) surprised by the direct sales figure. With the popular support that DoN has in the UK roleplaying community, I was expecting a slightly higher figure.

Then again, I'm quite sure that it will see really strong sales as people pick it up at conventions. The number of games being run at ConCrete Cow, for example, is bound to enthuse newcomers. As we all know, actual play makes sales and DoN looks to be getting an immense amount of that in the coming months.

On the electronic side, all those PDF sales are gold. At that $10 price point, it's great value for money, something that reviewers on Drive-Thru RPG have already keyed in to.

Breaking even in your first month is a really positive step and doubtless the appearance of DoN on IPR will further boost your figures. I'll be really interested in the Q3 figures when they eventually come round.

Cheers
Malcolm

Posted by: Gregor Hutton On: Jul 25th 2010

Great numbers!

I think it'll get a good number of orders from retailers through IPR, so that will be a nice boon in Q3.