Until OBS killed the RPGNow webstore / portal, I rarely paid attention to the DTRPG side of things. There was no need to, as RPGNow did a much better job of reflecting products I would be interested on their home page.
Now I'm paying more attention to DTRPG and it has my head spinning a bit.
Case in point. Cubicle 7 is on the Hottest Small Press released with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition Buildings of the Reikland currently at #3 and Wrath & Glory: Core Rules at #7, and then we have Savage Worlds Adventure Edition from Pinnacle at #4.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition Buildings of the Reikland is #43 on the Bestselling Titles but is beat by other Cubicle 7 books on that list, with Rough Nights and Hard Days and the WFRP book at #13 & #15 respectively. I always thought Cubicle 7 and Pinnacle were many steps beyond "Small Press".
Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. The Second Edition, Version 2.01 from R. Talsorian Games Inc. is #6 on the Bestselling Titles list but appears nowhere on the Hottest Small Press list. Is R.Tlasorian Games NOT "Small Press"?
I'd be very interested in knowing under what conditions a company is categorized as "small press" by OBS.
I'll probably dig into this a bit further. For know, just interesting observations.
edit - Cubicle 7 has 7 titles in the BestSelling Titles Top 100, coming in at 13, 15, 30, 43, 67 and 78 - yet somehow is "Small press"
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I have a related question. The big publishers have been unloading back catalogs on the site for a while. Looks as though WOTC has 188 items on the site. As far as visibility goes, do any creators feel like that's a problem? Genuine question.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to your question it is driven by an algorithm similar to what orders the hottest list. If you appear in the Publisher list on the left hand side you are not considered small press. I experience this every time I release a set of Wilderlands maps
ReplyDeleteAs Robert noted, DTRPG small press identification is algorithmically derived from recent DTRPG storefront sales over the publisher's entire catalog. For publishers that funnel substantial numbers of sales through Amazon, conventional retail, and their own storefronts, this can result in a distortion of their relative significance vis-a-vis publishers that channel their sales very heavily through DTRPG.
ReplyDeleteSine Nomine Publishing, for example, is currently considered a major publisher by the algorithm, but Cubicle 7 is not. This is because the algorithm is seeing almost all of my sales but is only seeing DTRPG's share of Cubicle 7's sales.