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Sunday 15 December 2019

An idea worth pursuing?

Over recent months, I've had several requests for PDF versions of those of my books which are currently only available electronically in eBook format. These books are:
  • THE PORTABLE WARGAME
  • DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME
  • GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAMES
  • WHEN EMPIRES CLASH!
  • HEXBLITZ
  • LA ULTIMA CRUZADA
The downside of publishing these books as PDFs is that they will only be on sale via Lulu.com rather than via Amazon etc.

It would not be too difficult to produce PDF editions of these books and to sell them at the same price as the eBook editions, but there is no point in doing so unless there is sufficient demand. I am therefore asking regular readers to send a short comment listing which of the above books they would like me to publish in PDF format. I will not reply to these comments, but will make a note of them, and if a book gets five or more 'votes' by Christmas, I'll publish it in PDF format.

I did consider adding a poll to the sidebar of my blog to make answering this feedback request simple, but for some reason the old poll widget no longer exists, and trying to find an alternative proved tiresome ... hence the request for comments.

12 comments:

  1. On a Laptop I find pdf more user friendly than epub readers so I can understand the requests - my personal preference is a book, but then I'm old-fashioned!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maudlin Jack Tar,

      I agree that a book is far better than the electronic alternatives, but if some people prefer my stuff in an electronic format, I’d be stupid not to meet their requests.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. I've been looking at non-physical options. I have an old style Kindle, and the pdf is poor on that, so I need to do a full ebook conversion to see how it turns out. I've just uploaded the pdf of "Chile" to a tablet, and I'm more of a fan of that than I thought I would be.

    If I go to a pdf then I think I'll need to put them on the Wargamers Vault, which shouldn't be a problem as I upload to KDP/Amazon in pdf format anyway.

    And I wouldn't buy any wargames books in pdf, unless that was the only format and I really, really, wanted it. I prefer hard copy if I'm going to be learning rules or using it as a reference book.

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    Replies
    1. Trebian,

      I have a Kindle, and it’s great for most fiction books, but non-fiction ones often include charts, illustrations, or photographs that are barely if at all readable.

      Those of my books that are in PDF format seem to sell just as well as those in eBook format, and the latter is much easier to convert from my original docx files.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. Bob
    Generally I prefer hard copies of non fiction wargaming related books. However it certainly seems that others' tastes differ, if my book sales are anything to go by.
    Mine are available on WV only and PDF sales outnumber hardcopies by just over five to one.

    A thing you may wish to bear in mind wrt WV is that, in my experience, the production costs of hard copies are considerably lower than Lulu or Amazon and the author's percentage is greater. So if you tie the price of a PDF version on WV to the price of an ebook version on Lulu, you may find yourself with a significantly larger profit per sale.

    This has been part of the reason for my limiting myself to WV. As far as I could tell neither Lulu nor Amazon could produce hardcopies for anything less than twice the cost of WV, which would have raised the price to customers of both hardcopies and e-books significantly.

    On WV the relative pricing of my PDFs and hardcopies are set to deliver an identical absolute profit to me regardless of which version someone buys.

    So, I suspect if you produce PDFs, you'll find buyers. I have a sense that WV has a different customer base as well.

    Cheers
    Andrew

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rumblestrip (Andrew),

      Thanks for the very helpful advice. At present, the comments I have received have not indicated that very many potential customers want PDF versions of my rules, so I may well just leave things as they are.

      That said, it might be a useful exercise to produce them for my own satisfaction. Whether I do so or not may well end up depending upon how bored I get over Christmas!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. For me PDFs are much more handy than eBooks as I can read them on any device and the diagrams and pictures show up clean and in the correct place...

    As for what would be on my list:

    First and foremost would be ‘The Portable Wargame’
    Second would be the ’Developing the Portable Wargame’ but this would depend on funds / birthday list to be honest as it’s not as thumbed as the original.

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    Replies
    1. Andyroo,

      Thanks very much for your feedback.

      I also tend to use my iPad for books with diagrams and photographs because they are easier to read.

      The proposed price of any of the PDF editions of my books will be the same as the equivalent eBook. Hopefully this will make them easily affordable.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  5. While print is best. I do like electronic versions too; I can make notes and not write in the (printed) book. Kindle is my preferred format, but PDF is a nice format too (better on iPad and desktop/laptop). My ideal is both Kindle & PDF. I'd likely buy PDF for any of your books where I don't yet have a electronic version.

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    Replies
    1. Mike Taber,

      That is very helpful feedback, and has helped to convince me that publishing PDF editions of my books would make good sense.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  6. Bob, I have bought all three of the following in eBook and would much prefer in PDF. The experience is much more consistent across tablet and laptop and I can view in 2-page view on the laptop.

    THE PORTABLE WARGAME
    DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME
    GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAMES

    Question for you... Would having purchased in eBook entitle us to a PDF copy?

    Keep up the great work Bob. I am loving the PW stuff and have a fantasy project on the go AND an ECW project in planning.

    Cheers,
    Millsy

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    Replies
    1. Millsy,

      Thanks very much for your feedback. You have confirmed my own thoughts that although the eBook has certain advantages, the PDF format might be a more useful format to use for publishing rules.

      In answer to your question, I think that I cannot do as you ask BUT that it might be possible for future books. I am certainly going to investigate that as an option, along with making a free PDF version available to anyone who buys a hard copy of the book from Lulu.com.

      Good luck with your projects.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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