The "danger" is that a print product needs to sell in sufficient quantity to be viable. *If* sufficient people were to buy the pdfs only who would previously have bought the hard-copy then it may mean all of Moon Design's cash is tied up in "unsellable" books.
> I know Jeff is very sensitive to "in progress" publications being
> called vaporware, but that's what they are. Or, if you want to
> consider the "previous" editions made available only at
> conventions in GB and Germany, then they're (at best) 'vanity
> press' publications.
I may be wrong, but I think the Limited Edition Con Specials have all been provided as fundraisers for the cons in question. So "Vanity Press" seems a reasonable description.
> I don't think that the financial means to hop on a Transatlantic
> flight is a precondition that a publisher would put on their
> materials if they were at all serious about publishing.
True. Mind you it cost me as much in shipping as the price of the book for the last Delta Green hardback, which was only available from Arc Dream (And at the time I didn't realise they would be following it with a public relaease of a paperback version).
> I have yet to see a convincing argument why PDF previous
> publication is a bad idea.
It's a bad idea for me because books are easier to handle and read, not requiring any special hardware, and having pages the right size to fit all the words on! To the extent that publishing a PDF might affect the viability of the "dead tree" version, I'd sooner not have books released as PDF in advance of the paper release. (In some ways waiting 12+months for Blood over Gold was worse knowing that other people had the pdf than if everyone was still waiting for it...)
>
> Several companies have made use of the ransom-ware concept as
> well. As soon as enough people have pre-paid for a product for the
> initial print run, the product is printed and distributed.
There are two versions of "Ransomware" I am aware of. One is the Arc Dream approach where they offer pre-orders of a book before it is written. This guarantees there is suffcient interest and also the money available to pay for printing, but it doesn't mean the book is available once the ransom is met. In fact work may not even start until the ransom is met...
The other is Greg Stolze's approach with Reign. Greg doesn't offer material for ransom until it is ready, so he can release it (on pdf) immediately. If Rick's only problem was Cashflow then this might be a solution
> With the irregularity of 3rd Age Glorantha material seeing print,
> I can undestand how many would possibly be reluctant to pre-order
> a book that, like it or not, they have no *real* reason to expect
> will get printed. But I think the GTA
> experiment proved that there are certainly enough hardcore
> Gloranthaphiles to support such a model.
>
The question of costs and expectations is always difficult. Rick could offer HQ2 for pre-order, stateing it's not ready yet, but that he hopes to publish in the first half of this year. Some people will say "I'm not ordering it until I know it exists" - and that's fine. Some people will say "I'm sure Rick will publish it eventually, so I'm happy to pay up front, even if it doesn't turn up until Christmas" - and that's fine too. The problem is that some people will start to demand the book they have ordered, and start invoking various consumer protection laws about mail order products being delivered within 56 days. (I've seen this sort of ranting going on on RPG.NET in the past). The GTA was worded in a slightly different from to Greg's original conception due to similar legal issues.
> But the biggest problem is that I'm sure Rick has his reasons why
> everything has happened as it has. And I completely understand the
> refusal to state a release date until you're sure of it. But it's
> the "hopefully we'll know something by Continuum," followed by
> months of silence and then "hopefully we'll know something by
> Tentacles" that drives many over the edge.
>
I certainly think all of us "on the outside" would like to have more regular updates. I think most of us would even understand if the update was just "Sorry no change since last time. Problems with Day Job/Family/Building Maintenance/Illness have meant I have not been able to anything further"
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