A bookstore's stock-in-trade is relatively small items running $5 (paperback)-$35 (hardcover) apiece. They're used to dealing with bestsellers that are hot for a month or two and then only sell in a small stream for another year; they understand the series concept whereby the current volume is hot and the last few volumes are not, but should still be available. If you adapt CD-audiobook packaging for the game, they'll even have shelves adapted to handle it.
The problem with The Green Mile is that they turned a single $25 hardcover sale into 6 $4 chapbooks, driving up printing costs and transaction costs and making every transaction risky... and did it all in a single summer.
On-line distribution is perfectly feasible as one channel, but if you want to sell to every 15-35yo male with a PC in the US, you need to put the physical item in front of them somewhere in the mall. And if you're really successful, Walmart.
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Date: 2006-01-20 09:07 pm (UTC)The problem with The Green Mile is that they turned a single $25 hardcover sale into 6 $4 chapbooks, driving up printing costs and transaction costs and making every transaction risky... and did it all in a single summer.
On-line distribution is perfectly feasible as one channel, but if you want to sell to every 15-35yo male with a PC in the US, you need to put the physical item in front of them somewhere in the mall. And if you're really successful, Walmart.