So, I published Zine-O-Morph #1 on Friday, and it bolted out of the start gate with a good handful of sales right off the bat. And for most of Saturday, it sat at #3 on RPGNow's "Hottest Titles" featured at the top of their front page, and at #4 on their "Hottest Small Press" for a time too. I got all excited and giddy.
Then I saw on Google+ that Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor had put up a flash review with some glowing praise. That made me grin. Tim put out one of the best fanzine out, and was a huge inspiration for me to even try. So, to have him praise it was high praise indeed! Subsequently, by the end of Saturday I was beaming with excitement over this.
Then Sunday rolled around. Not a single sale. And now Monday morning...still at the same number.
Ok, I'm sure I'm over-thinking it. But hey, it's my blog, right? Honestly, it doesn't really surprise me, and it wouldn't surprise me either if it just didn't sell well. While I am confident in my writing ability, and I think the presentation is pretty good (though I plan to up the graphics game a bit with subsequent issues), I think it's a weak subject matter.
Underdark adventures have kind of been done to death. And people are probably just tired of hearing about them. And I totally understand that. Had I to do it over, I would have done something else, probably. That being said, what I did do, particularly the new race, I am pretty proud of. Heck, even the fiction turned out well.
So, just a recap, this is not me capitulating. I am moving forward with new issues. Heck, all it is is me doing what I do anyways (writing scads of RPG material from my head), and making it available to others for a small fee. If I can make a few bucks, it'll help with the costs of Gamehole Con and Gary Con, so that's cool.
Anyways, if you bought the issue, please give it a review. As always, I am actually interested in peoples' opinions of the stuff I do. And, obviously, reviews help with sales. But that's generally a secondary consideration. I have a full-time job.
I have been gaming, off and on, since I was 12 years old. Now that I'm...well, MUCH older, I don't get to play quite as often as I like, but I still like to keep my hand in the game, as it were. This blog is about the role-playing games I write, the games I play, and the games I wish I could play.
Let me be the first purchase of the day/week, then. Looking forward to reading your stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Hope you get something out of it. :)
DeleteIt takes time, but hang in there.
ReplyDeleteThat's sorta the way it goes. You'll get most of your sale in the first couple of days and then have a huge drop off. Afterwards you'll get a sale here and there. The trick is to keep producing. Because when you release you second zine, you'll get another small bump in sales for your first zine. And so on.
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes you hit it just right and you can sit atop of the pile for a while. I have no experience with this phenomena, but I've witnessed it.
And Tom, if you're REALLY lucky, you may get a reader that buys multiple copies of the same issue. (I'm not making this up.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input and support. Yeah, it was the same with my other stuff too. Quick sales followed by trickles. I'm good with that. And I'm hard at work on issue #2 already. I think this one will be better. :)
ReplyDelete