Its been less than a month since the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the River Nations has hit game stores and it is already on its second printing. This is really amazing just how this blew away our best estimates. To date we’ve sold 270 print and PDF copies and it doesn’t look like it is slowing down yet. Also doing well is Mech Tech ‘n’ bot: Mech Squadrons. This book is doing about what we expected, selling approximately 170 print and PDF copies. We are quite pleased with both of these books. Coming up right the heels of the Book of Beasts is the d66 Compendium. I’m taking a break from doing the final edits right now. As soon as they’re done, its off to the printer for a sample, final approval and then printing.
When I started 2010, we planned to do 3 books and hoped to do 4. Well, a fourth isn’t going to happen this year. Once the d66 Compendium heads off to the printer, we’re instituting a few changes in the way we produce books here at JBE. First off, both Mech Squadrons and Monsters of the River Nations missed their deadlines. This is not a habit we want to be in. Our plan to correct this involves getting the book ready to goto the printer and then informing the distribution chain that it will be coming. This will appear like we’re stopping production for a few months. That is not the case. We want our books to be both high quality and on time. Until we figure out exactly how long that requires, we’ll have a larger lag between when the book is completed and when the book hits the stores.
The second change involves compendiums of PDF series. Of the 3 book we released this year, the d66 Compendium was the first to make a profit. This is because we’ve been selling individual d66 lists for a solid year now. In fact, the sales of d66 lists have paid for the Mech Squadrons and Monsters of the River Nations print runs. That is pretty amazing when you think how many list have to be sold to pay for 200 copies being printed. So we’re instituting this model for the our other lines. We’ll be doing a series of warp ships starting this fall and when we have enough for a decent size book, you’ll see Mech Tech ‘n’ bot: Warp Speed, (that is, if there turns out to be sufficient interest). We’ll be doing something similar for Pathfinder as well, but we are still discussing exactly what shape that will take. We’re still discussing whether that will be monsters or NPCs, or locations, or what.
The last change is strictly one for myself. I am learning to be much more comfortable with what I can accomplish. I’m not going to stagnate but I am certainly not going to be working frantically to accomplish my goals. I am learning that at the end of the day, I really am only in competition with myself and my own impossible goals I set up. My goals are becoming much more realistic and I am much more at peace with what I can accomplish. Because I know that I can accomplish great things when I put my mind to it. I’m making a change to work smarter and not harder. And that will be probably be the greatest triumph for me and my company.
Now I have to get back to work. See you on the flip side.
Jon Brazer Enterprises 