CreateSpace and Amazon Distribution

[Joe the Rat]

It may be an exposure thing - Amazon has sort of a ubiquitous quality in online retail. I would not be surprised if the coincidence of this and the BFRPG blog day helped bolster awareness.

[Blazeguard]

That is right. I remember that now. I still think it would be nice to have a box that can be ordered individually.

I also seem to remember somebody making a general old school box for games... had Erol Otis art on it even. I wonder if that is still for sale.

That was Brave Halfling Publishing but it appears that he has gotten rid of them all. I had his site bookmarked for quite a while and was planning to pick up a couple...someday...but it looks like someday ran out.

Add me to the list of people who would like a game box.

[Edit]I've gone ahead and emailed John to get a little information on where he got his made, costs, etc. I'll post any information he comes back with.

[Fabio_MP]

Okay, so, 139 copies of the Core Rules sold in February; that's just two weeks. And for March? 6 copies. That's just today.

I had NO idea there were that many people who wanted to buy copies via Amazon.

a little serendipity seems at work here, I think that people make a lot of buys through Amazon so to drop in one more great and cheap game book is a good occasion... and there is millions of people buying on amazon

[Blazeguard]

I heard back from John today. He had ordered his boxes from http://marionpaperboxco.com/, a mom and pop company he said that are willing to do a 500 piece run (which I assume is quite small). He didn't give me any costs but did say that telling them that "Pastor John" sent us might net us a bit of a discount.

500 still seems like an awful lot and IIR he was selling his for around $20.00.

[Hywaywolf]

this is the kind of things that kickstarter is for. If you raise the money then the project is on. If not everyone gets their money back

[Fabio_MP]

a little late but on the 21st of february the Basic Fantasy RPG was number 8th on the amazon list of best seller in gaming

[Solomoriah]

Wow. Just, wow.

EDIT: Sales are slowing down, as I expected. For about 14 days of February, we sold 139 Core Rules (about 10 per day, obviously) while for 21 days of March we sold 66 (about 3 per day). Still pretty good, and more than we ever sold through Lulu in the same time frames.

[Hywaywolf]

I think the timing on getting these things on Amazon so soon after the "BFRPG appreciation day" was just perfect. Lots of free press, easy access through amazon worldwide, and cheap as dirt. Just great.

[Solomoriah]

Okay, so I just ran the stats. There have been 246 copies of the Core Rules sold on Amazon.com since I set up the CreateSpace copies. The average is about 5 copies per day. Egad. I can't believe it. At this rate, Amazon distribution will catch up to Lulu's current 726 copy sales total by sometime in July. That's about 7 years of Lulu distribution, compared to about 5 months on Amazon.com.

I still love my Lulu hardbacks, but I have to say, for getting the word out in print, Amazon is kicking their butt.

[rredmond]

That's fantastic!
Good show Chris!
--Ron--