Warning : Semi-rant incoming
Recently, this week in fact, DrivethruRPG/OneBook shelf changed their sorting algorithm that sorts the order of titles shown in the Hottest Titles strips.
Before it was based on units sold/number of days on sale. Now it has been changed to sales$/days on sale.
This change, according to them was made because some publishers complained about their higher investment $10 or $15 etc PDF titles getting crowded out by PWYW titles.
You may be wondering why I am posting this? Well to be perfectly honest, it affects EG and other small publishers a LOT. Many of us sell cheaper, smaller items in the sub $2 price bracket. This results in higher units per day. Before if you looked at the chart you would see a wide variety of publishers and products, from the Giants of the Industry to the smaller makers like myself.
Now, every product in the top 10 is $10, with many being more than that. What’s concerning now is that quite a few of these “hottest sellers” have been out for many many months. The only reason they are now suddenly back in the charts is not due to volumes sold, but that they have a higher price.
Look at is this way – You have an item that sold 2 copies for $20 vs an item that sold 20 for $2 over the same period of time. Before the later would be considered a “good seller”, now it’s the former.
Last month, one of EG products, Adventure Outline Maker reached the number #1 slot. This helped to highlight EG products as a whole. It was priced at $1.75. Now it cannot be seen anywhere in the top 100.
As of this week and the current change, the EG products that were in the top 100 lists for Hottest sellers have now disappeared, overnight. Sales have dropped quite dramatically, even allowing for the time period of the year.
What does this mean for Ennead Games?
Simply put, being a one-man-operation I cannot work on both advertising and product at the same time. I feel like I am being penalised for pricing my products at a fair price for a PDF, whilst the big companies, who need little to no extra promotion or those who price their products at frankly disgusting prices for a digital file are being favored.
As such, if this trend continues I will not be able to afford to maintain running this blog, or producing materials and Ennead Games will either go part time as I try to seek out new employment or simply close, shutdown.
At this point in time, I honestly have no idea what I should be doing and hope that I am simply being paranoid and it’s a big misunderstanding on my part.
But I am not the only one to notice this and complain. Once again the smaller publishers are being bullied by the larger ones. Not just in the rpg world, but in many other walks of like, such as Youtube, twitter and other media.
And I am fed up with it
Noooooooooooo!
It’s not 100%, but looking increasing likely with every passing day. I’m hoping I can do something part time, but to give you an idea of how bad it is, last week’s sale pre-changes – $177. this week (so far) after the changes went live…$18
Ouch!
DriveThru should realise the massive impact of their change. Is there a chance they will change their mind? Have you approached them directly?
Really hope it turns around for you.
Phil
to quote – “Obviously publishers relying on PWYW items or low-priced items will not be benefitted by this, but we have to make these decisions based on all publishers and products. And again, here, the bottom line is that this change increases publisher earnings.”
Right . . .
So no help there. So sorry.
A few people I spoke to about this didn’t even notice until it was mentioned to them, so am making sure people are aware of this change. Just go look at the Hot list/top sellers now and see how many you can find are in the sub $10 price range.
Since it’s now based on dollars/day rather than units/day, you example seems to be off. There’s no difference between two sales of a $20 product and twenty sales of a $2 product over the same timespan.
What is different is that four sales of a $20 product is now higher rated than five sales of a $2 product… and even though most of my products are rated under $5 that seems a fair metric to me, to be honest.
In terms of income made, yes I agree with you 100%. It didn’t help as well that this change was made and then publishers told about a few days ago. There was no preparation time, no “this is going to happen in a few months.” or similar heads up. It was sudden, with no warning this was going to happen and it has messed me and others over, a lot. I accept that many people will perceive me as someone moaning for the sake of it, but , when your income suddenly drops to less to 10% to what is was the week before, I feel like something had to be said.