Pdf version of the printed books?

[WurmD]

Hi folks,

I really enjoyed buying and reading Erfworld's first book in PDF format, since I'd missed some extra stuff on my first online reading,

I was wondering if GitP will have a PDF version of the books as well ^_^
(is here the right place to ask? Or should I PM Rich?)

Cheers!

[Sunken Valley]

No He Will Not (http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/orzad/order_of_the_stick_is_doing_a_kickstarter_project/c3k3dv3)

[NerdyKris]

Or from the Index of the Giant's Comments thread:



Suffice to say, digital pdf downloads are not in the works at this time. My concerns are not piracy; the majority of people who are not willing to pay for content simply don't read the stuff that doesn't get posted here, and the rest, I can't stop. No, my concern is that printing is a very difficult business with very, VERY thin margins of profit compared to the amount of money invested. And those margins are mostly dictated by the economy of scale: printing 5000 copies of a book may only cost 30% less than printing 10,000, and printing 20,000 may only cost 60% more. But they all sell for the same price. So, my printing business only functions if I can sell ALL of the copies that I print, and I estimate the print run as exactly as possible.

Releasing books digitally messes with both of those needs. I can't predict how many people will buy digitally (polls are worthless), and I can't sell a paper copy to someone who has bought a digital one. If half of my predicted customers buy digital instead of paper, then the cost of each paper copy skyrockets and I can't afford to print them anymore. And contrary to what people think, not everyone wants to buy digital.

In the end, I want my books to be, well, BOOKS. I am therefore willing to sacrifice the few digital sales (and I do believe them to be relatively few, since my work is online already anyway) in order to keep my paper business in business.

[137beth]

Honestly, not having PDFs are actually a limiting factor for me right now--I have been moving around a lot and don't want to have too many physical books. That's one of my favorite advantages to Paizo over WotC: I can get Pathfinder books as PDFs, while WotC is mainly still in paper land.

Granted, I read the paperback versions of Otootpcs, SoD, DCF, and NCfPB several years ago at an old gaming group, so I wasn't in a hurry to buy those anyways, but I still haven't gotten a chance to experience SsaDt or the bonus strips in DstP. And I of course would try to get a new prequel if it were released as soon as possible.
I guess I'm just hoping that at some point, I'll either
a)have a more stable living environment, or
b)e-books will be released

Based on the decision not to consider e-books at this time, I would guess that I am in a very small minority of potential buyers. Oh well, I can wait. After all, it wouldn't really be worth getting e-books if it caused the giant's business to hurt and we stopped getting as many bonus strips.. So I'll just wait for either my life to turn around or for the printing industry to collapse, and then I'll enjoy the bonus strips.

[NerdyKris]

Based on the decision not to consider e-books at this time, I would guess that I am in a very small minority of potential buyers.

It's not a matter of there not being enough buyers for Ebooks. It's that there aren't enough buyers TOTAL between both formats to make both worthwhile. It would be one or the other. Any Ebooks would reduce the number of buyers for the print books to the point where print would become unfeasable, and no longer an option. It's either/or, not both.

[Durgok]

Hi folks,

I really enjoyed buying and reading Erfworld's first book in PDF format, since I'd missed some extra stuff on my first online reading,

I was wondering if GitP will have a PDF version of the books as well ^_^
(is here the right place to ask? Or should I PM Rich?)

Cheers!

This might be a better place to ask. Here. (http://www.erfworld.com/forum/)

[NerdyKris]

This might be a better place to ask. Here. (http://www.erfworld.com/forum/)

He's talking about Order of the Stick PDFs, not Erfworld.

[Reddish Mage]

This was requested many times. The Giant's answer is no. I'm not sure why he won't offer PDFs as an added incentive to those buying the print editions but it may make it easier to pirate.

[Rakoa]

The Giant has specifically said that piracy isn't his concern.

[Bulldog Psion]

Short answer: no, there are no PDFs. No, there probably never be PDFs.

[Taelas]

Short answer: no, there are no PDFs. No, there probably never be PDFs.

That's not quite accurate: there won't be PDFs as long as it isn't economically viable while retaining the printed books. Which may mean there will never be PDFs, but who knows?