OSR: How To Become A Hundredaire On DriveThruRPG

I've got 4 products up for sale on DriveThruRPG. In order of publication date, they are:

• Kidnap the Archpriest (Megapost) 
• Epochrypha: A Book of Speculative Ages (Megapost)
• Tomb of the Serpent Kings - Deluxe Print Edition (Megapost) 
• Magical Murder Mansion (Megapost)

Tomb of the Serpent Kings is a free PDF and an at-cost print on demand copy, so it doesn't really count. The Megaposts contain links to reviews, supplemental information, etc.

Anyway, people sometimes ask how the books are doing. Here's a look behind the curtain. I'm going to be as blunt and transparent as possible about sales figures. I think this kind of analysis is important. If you publish stuff, consider giving it a shot.

If you want to actually make money, read Cecil Howe/Swordpeddler's article How To Become A Godzillionaire On Drivethrurpg. The title of this article is a loving reference. Notable advice that I do not follow:

• I don't pay for ads.
• I don't use PPP for anything.
• I don't do sales or bundles. You want the thing? Pay for the thing. You want the thing cheaper? No thing for you!

I'm not in this for fat stacks of cash. Ideally, each book pays for its own costs and provides enough money to start work on the next project. In practice... well, you'll see. I'm mostly in it to make things exist. If you want my advice on writing and designing a book, check out this post.

Sales Per Month

Here's a breakdown of sales per book per month. Fairly useless at this point, except to show that sales usually start high and drop off, with an intermittent spike. More on that spike later.

Since the Tomb of the Serpent Kings free PDF massively skews everything, I'm going to leave it off for all future charts.

Cumulative Sales Per Month

Ah, that's better. Flat line = few sales, steep line = increase in sales.

For ease of use, here's the charts split out by Print and PDF. It's sort of amazing that there are only 21 print copies of Kidnap the Archpriest out in the wild, and only 38 copies of all books (not counting Tomb of the Serpent Kings).

Total Cumulative Sales Per Month (with comments)

Here's the most interesting chart. With print+PDF sales combined some trends become clear. I've added a little star whenever a Questing Beast review came out; there's a spike in sales, but it almost immediately returns to normal.

Cents per word is estimated. The total, across all paid books, is ~6.5 cents a word.

You can compare rates per word to the rates on this site, and note that those rates don't include image editing, layout, and locating editors, artists, etc. If you factor in time (or blogging) you'd probably be better off (financially) sticking a magnet on a pole and going through storm drains for loose change.

Book-Specific Notes

Kidnap the Archpriest
The bestseller by far, but why? It fills a niche. 5E's attempt at a heist... isn't; Kidnap the Archpriest does a much better job, and seems to get regularly brought up whenever heists are under discussion. The art also helps. Let's face it, Luka would be worth hiring for an RPG project even if his art was photocopies of old publicity stills with black marker moustaches because he's Got Reach. Luckily for everyone, his art is amazing. The sneering Archpriest on the cover is probably responsible for 50% of all sales.

Epochrypha
This was a passion project. It didn't exist and I wanted it to exist; making money was incidental. Two contributors (Dan D and Dunkey Halton) were paid up front for their work. This is why you never take a percentage of the profits unless you're absolutely certain the book will make a profit; if they'd cut a royalty deal they'd still (14 months after release!) be waiting to make the rate they were paid up front.

Tomb of the Serpent Kings
There are still revisions I'd like to make if we ever do a new version, but I think it's a solid book as-is. It's certainly my most famous work. Like Kidnap the Archpriest, it fills a niche. I'm not sure how many downloads go through the Megapost vs. DriveThruRPG, but it's still fairly successful: 4,100 PDF downloads and 141 print copies.

Magical Murder Mansion
Costs for this book were lower than expected thanks to the generosity of the artist (gooooo Frenden!), but playtesting and writing time was much higher than expected. The whole thing was revised several times before ever it ever saw an editor. It's the most tested module I've produced to date. While I think MMM fills a niche (a modernized and easy-to-run funhouse dungeon), I suspect demand for that kind of dungeon is lower than expected. Either that, or the book just hasn't found a following yet. I suspect the demise of G+ has made launching a new book much harder. Twitter and Discord are poor substitutes.

Reviews

Because DriveThruRPG doesn't allow external links, it's hard for a buyer to get a detailed sense of what a book contains. The Megaposts help, but only if the buyer searches for them. If you write a review, consider sticking some excerpts on DriveThruRPG.

	★★★★★	★★★★	★★★	★★	★	Reviews
Kidnap the Archpriest	17	1				6
Epochrypha	3					1
Tomb of the Serpent Kings	26	6	1		2	5
Magical Murder Mansion	3

Tomb of the Serpent Kings has the highest number of reviews and ratings by far. If I had to guess, it's because of the negative reviews. If people really like a product and see it's rated 5 stars, they might not bother to add a rating. But if people really like a product and see it's got a few 1 star reviews they disagree with, they might rate it highly "to balance things out". Who knows.

Conclusions

When it's charted out like this, it's clear how small this side of the industry really is. Kidnap the Archpriest is a gold bestseller. The other books are silver. Retweeting "pay authors" or "support indie publishers" is free; don't expect those people to turn up when the hat gets passed around.

It's also rather alarming that I've only made ~1,000 paid sales on DriveThruRPG.. and then managed to get 569 Kickstarter backers for a new project. That seems... not right somehow.

Anyway, hopefully the charts help. If you've got questions, ask away.

OSR: Kidnap the Archpriest Print Version

Good news! The print version of Kidnap the Archpriest is now available. For a limited time, a PDF copy will be included for free.

Read about the history of Kidnap the Archpriest, along with some reviews, here.


If you have any issues with the print copy, contact Support here. One of the USA test prints was misaligned. Other prints had no issues.

OSR: Kidnap the Archpriest Megapost

I wrote a heist module. It's the first RPG-related thing I've published for money. You can buy it here.
 
The print version is now on sale.

Why?
People seemed to want OSR-type heist modules, but I couldn't find any really excellent examples. Some modules had diplomacy, some had stealth, and some had burglary, but nothing seemed to put it all together in one really compelling and easy-to-use package. This is my attempt.

Much like my first (free!) module, Tomb of the Serpent Kings, I don't think Kidnap the Archpriest is revolutionary... but that was never the intent. I just wanted to make a good, solid, thoroughly tested module that was fun to run, cheap to print, and easy to adapt. I also wanted to include some tools for designing your own heists. They might not be useful for experienced GMs, but when I was first starting out in this hobby, I'd have loved to have read a module like this.

Inspiration
Heist films, of course. The Oceans movies. The Italian Job. All the classics.

The module is based on a few historical events. In 653, Pope Martin I was kidnapped by the Byzantine Emperor Constans II over a doctrinal dispute. In 692, Pope Sergius I was very nearly kidnapped as well, but was saved by a popular uprising, botched diplomacy, and an unfortunate war. The Castle of St. Logan in this module is based on the Castel St. Angelo, although the interior layout was altered significantly.

Art
Luka Rejec did the art. I had a remarkable number of people work on the maps, but Luka really went above and beyond to produces these pieces. They are all gorgeous.

Isaac Bacterian
Agent of His Dread Majesty

Layout
This module wouldn't exist without David Shugars. That man is bottled patience. I'm not very good at the whole "turning words into a usable document" thing, but he really, really is. I can't count how many times I asked him for impossible things and he delivered.

A heist module lives and dies by its layout and usability. Playtesting helped, but David spun that raw information into a sensible, usable, and consistent format.

Reviews
1. I sent the mostly complete module off to Bryce Lynch, of tenfootpole fame, for a final round of comments. After an enormous amount of helpful advice and editing, Bryce finally said,

"And that all leads me to this, the second highest praise I can give: This is as good as it can be, in an obvious way. It meets expectations. I don't think you've broken new ground, the way, for example, the first one page dungeons did. But that's not a criticism. This is a good adventure. I would not feel ripped off if I purchased it."

-Bryce Lynch

 And if you know how he writes... that's not bad at all. I'll take it.

2. ktrey parker also reviewed the module. The whole article is worth a read; it covers the contents and intent very well.

I’ve always been interested in options for play that do not involve the conventional D&D graph-paper flow-chart experience, but this module seemed a bit ambitious. Could a tutorial be produced that provides the necessary tools to run a successful, entertaining, and exciting adventure without the typical focus on combat encounters and character sheet-bound challenges?

After pawing over KtA a few times, I’m pleased to say it does an admirable job at providing these tools. [...]
Flavorful encounter tables are also provided to further furnish the GM with some interesting complications and situations. I really can’t see this module going the same way twice, which can seldom be said for more traditional site-based crawls.
-ktrey parker 

3. Ben Milton / Questing Beast has a video review here.

4. Nickoten has a detailed review here.

If this elevator pitch interests you, buy this module and actually run it, because it does all of these things well. You know that blissful wave of relief that comes when a player ask about some small detail that informs a pivotal game decision, you think “wait, maybe the book can answer this” and realize that only has the module anticipated and met this need for you, it’s made sure that the answer makes for as interesting a decision as possible? This book gave me that feeling over and over.

-Nickoten

Extras
Oorlof has made an "animated" map of where each NPC is each hour.

Final Notes
If you read this module I'd like to hear about it! Feel free to post links to play reports or reviews in the comments below.