Upgrade path

[ResslynHalvik]

It would be nice if there were an upgrade path from PDF to physical book that weren't a 100% cost rebuy.

For "marginal" books I am quite happy to speculate £22 on a PDF to see if the content is what I want, but if it is I don't really then want to spend another £40 buying the hardback.

 

[DataDwarf]

Is there any publisher that does this? Mainstream book publishing doesn't, curious if any small book publishers over a discount for the physical book if you buy the electronic? See a number do the opposite (including Mongoose), Electronic (free or discounted) when you buy the physical, which mainstream publishing does not.

 

[MongooseMatt]

This is something we have looked at, but there is no decent automated way of handling it (maybe why others don't do this!).

We keep looking!

 

[ResslynHalvik]

Is there any publisher that does this? Mainstream book publishing doesn't, curious if any small book publishers over a discount for the physical book if you buy the electronic? See a number do the opposite (including Mongoose), Electronic (free or discounted) when you buy the physical, which mainstream publishing does not.

Does it matter whether anyone else does it?

 

[DataDwarf]

Does it matter whether anyone else does it?

I was just curious if there was a precedent for a company doing something like this.

 

[ResslynHalvik]

This is something we have looked at, but there is no decent automated way of handling it (maybe why others don't do this!).

We keep looking!

Oh, OK. My naive brain was just thinking that you know what I've already bought, so a discount based on that might be easy.

Low grade alternative might be to sell say 10% of the PDF for £5.

 

[Anstett]

Pazio has something that is vaguely like that.

If you purchase a product on VTT (at least on Fantasy Grounds) you can get a discount on the PDF or physical product. That is because Pazio accounts sync with Fantasy Grounds at the store level to verify purchases.

It would be great if purchasing the VTT Module got you the PDF for free. I imagine that would take a bit of manual syncing with Mongoose. Time that could be spent creating instead.

 

[Sigtrygg]

If you buy a pdf from Chaosium you can later buy the book at a discount of the pdf value already paid, there are several rpg companies that do this.

 

[Anstett]

And yesterday Fantasy Grounds put out a video showing how to access the PDFs that come with your purchases.
{note this is so far mostly Pazio, no Mongoose items there...yet?}

 

[ottarrus]

There was a 'Bits and Mortar' initiative here in the States [I don't know if it got to Europe], where you would get a discount at your FLGS if you bought a PDF and vice-versa [if you bought hardcopy at your FLGS, the publisher would give a discount on the PDF]. I haven't heard much about it lately but that was one attempt at solving the problem.

 

[Anstett]

That is definitely still a thing. They posted it on the Mongoose Socials last week.

 

[Terry Mixon]

There was a 'Bits and Mortar' initiative here in the States [I don't know if it got to Europe], where you would get a discount at your FLGS if you bought a PDF and vice-versa [if you bought hardcopy at your FLGS, the publisher would give a discount on the PDF]. I haven't heard much about it lately but that was one attempt at solving the problem.

I’m not sure it’s a both way thing. I could be wrong. I thought it was for getting the pdf if you bought the physical book at the gaming store, not the other way around.

 

[Anstett]

I’m not sure it’s a both way thing. I could be wrong. I thought it was for getting the pdf if you bought the physical book at the gaming store, not the other way around.

Yes. Buy the physical book at your FLGS and then Mongoose sends the PDF.