Hey Dark Heresy fans!

There's a video interview of me talking about Creatures Anathema up on the website. The video is chock full of great info about the book and showcases a lot of the book's great interior art.

Swanky, dude.

I'm continually impressed by FFGs production quality.

Anyone else wondering how much of that $50 a book pricetag went into this?

LuciusT said:

Not at all and Creatures Anathema is $39.95 not $50

Roleplay Books economics lesson 101

Numbers below may not represent the exact ratios FFG have with their distributors/the distributors have with the stores but are roughly generalised across the industry. For example, Wizards of the Coast typically has better percentages and can get away with charging less (together with lower per unit costs).

$40 at the retail store will roughly break down into roughly 35-25-40 splits in the three-tier-distribution model (some publishers have as low as 25-35-40)

The retail store will get $16

The Distributor will get $10

The Publisher will get $14

Out of that $14 for the publisher they have to cover the printing, distribution (to their warehouse and to the distributors), writer costs and artist costs. On top of those you have to account for all of the sundry other expenses that go into running a company; staffing, insurance, electricity, computers etc. etc.

Add to this the sales figures for non-WotC roleplaying books are not huge and you should be able to see why books cost what they do (smaller print runs mean higher per-unit costs).

To anyone who knows the inside figures it's a depressing picture of an 'industry' where the artists, writers, editors etc. typically work for far less than they would get in any other industry but continue to do so out of some sense of enjoyment in what they're doing.

Obviously buying the book directly from the publisher, either online or at a convention, sees them getting the full retail price. However, (mainstream) publishers rely on the distribution chain and retail outlets to remain succesful so they can't afford to entirely cut out the two other parts of the chain (yes, many small publishers can, but they're insignificant in size compared to the overall sales using the distribution chain).

Personally, knowing more than a little about the publishing industry (mainstream and rpg) I'm impressed with the quality of the graphic design and writing of every DH release to date (well, the character sheets wasn't essential but it's the first game where I thought the GMs screen was worth the money).

Very nicely done, Ross. Bravo.

Very nicely done Ross.

LuciusT said:

First its $40. Second probably none of that went into this. Heck I have a built in camera on my laptop that can record me talking, which I can then post the footage on a website. Admittedly this is better quality then that, but if I can do that for free on my laptop, at home, and I'm not in the buisiness, my guess is that this was done very easily and very cheaply. All it takes is a digital video camera which most people that live in the 21st century have access to if they don't own one.

A great video! Well done.

However, I'm still waiting for Anathema as it's yet to be released in Australia.

Xathess Wolfe said:

While I agree with the spirit of what you say, I disagree with the plain facts. I'd have to say "very little". Simply put, there's obviously design, editing, and postproduction that went into it, and that doesn't come for free. Still and all, it'd cost considerably less than to have your wedding filmed, so it's hardly breaking the bank.

Xathess Wolfe said:

To be fair, though, that's not how it works. Accessbility in no way translates to production.

Kage

I had it in my hands today! I was unable to get it though as my car demanded more of mt attention. However it is in the book store and my cross hairs. This book will be mine, Ha. That is all..... Nice vid boss.