*applause* Very well put! I think that electronic distribution is a good thing to look at. I do find that actual physical artifacts are neat though (and do not tell my boss I am saying this since I am allegedly writing policy to discourage dead tree formats!).
All sorts of indie gaming folks have found that pre-orders, with PDFs being provided to pre-ordering clients until the books are printed, is a fairly good way to go. I found this really great with Houses of the Blooded since I could get hyped about it, get others hyped about it, and thereby encourage them to chase up the book once the thing went on-sale.
A real key marketting point is getting the material out to the enthusiastic lunatics who want it, and who will actively try and get people to play it (and thus buy it). I'm sure that I've personally sold a fair few HQ books in my time and I've never worked in game-related retail! (I also know that a fair few people are keen for HQ2 but are starting to look for other interim systems since the wait is going on and on; some are even pondering getting HQ1 until the new version emerges from the primordial ooze). I think this feeds in on the "stop giving out stuff exclusively at European cons" movement quite nicely. PDF distribution of drafts etc is a great reward for pre-ordering, and it gets (and KEEPS) people excited about the game, the world, and the products.
--
John Machin
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
- Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.
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