Cashflow and the Secret to running a extremely successful RPG Company…

I just say this on Louis' blog, and I want to repost it here, because this is amazing advice. Just saw it this afternoon and I agree with it fully. As soon as my computer decides to start working again (RAGE!) I plan to seriously follow his advice.

CHRIS

Friday, April 9, 2010

Cashflow and the Secret to running a extremely successful RPG Company…

Cashflow in the business world is your lifeblood. Keeping your cashflow going is how you survive. Since this is tax season, I have been looking at my company’s cashflow and have thought to myself, “How could I double our cashflow in a month?” Tough question to answer right? Here is a better question to answer, “How can I get something for free and make it so I could sell it and make a profit?” This is where the real money gets made. This is the basic concept behind webcomics. They give their online webcomic strips away to get you to come to the website where they make money by selling hard copies of the collected webcomics and online advertising at the site. Chris Anderson wrote a book called Free that many people might find interesting to read if they want to learn more about making money of free things. But this post is about CASHFLOW not about making money on free stuff.

How did I increase my cashflow? I did something radical. I stopped work hard for it. Let me tell you what I mean. Over the years of 2002 thru 2003 I have a 400% growth in LPJ Designs revenues, and over the years of 2003 thru 2004 I have another 400% growth in LPJ Designs revenues. These were the two best years I ever had growth wise in the business. What helped make such a massive growth in cashflow possible? I stopped working so hard in my business and started working hard on my business. What does that mean in plain English, well

#1) I hired freelancers do write roughly 95% of the work I was releasing at LPJ Design.


#2) I set the budget for making small 2 to 6 page projects to only $20 for writing and artwork.

That is it. That is the secret to making money in the arena of PDFs.

A typical PDF will normally sell no more than 50 copies, so you have to make as much money as possible within the initial 50 copies. If I make a $2 PDF and sell 50 copies I will make $100. Subtract RPGNow.com 35%, the amount drops to $65 and then subtract the $20 budget to break even, I make $45 in profit. I then take the $40 and repeat this again twice, leaving me with $5 to place in the bank to save for a rainy day. Simple, easy and it work.

But here is the funny part of this post, most of you don’t believe me when I tell you this. You make up excuse why you don’t do or believe what I am telling you to do: “I can’t find people who work for that cheap” or “You have to pay people more money, it isn’t fair” or “You lying that can’t be done like that”. My answers are the same: “Yes you can find people” or “I pay what I can afford, they don’t have to work for me” or “Yes it can, you are just lazy”.

Once again I worked ON my business, NOT IN my business. I worked on the marketing, distribution, partnerships, accounting and manufacturing of my business. The hard and boring stuff creative people HATE with a passion. Not the making the cool fantasy world building, creating amazing NPCs and exciting magic items stuff. I worked hard on making sure I can pay my people on time and getting more products out to consumers as part of my business. Simply put, most people who want to work in the RPG industry, don’t want to deal with this side of the business. They want to be the name on the cover of the RPG book. They want to be the ones who the fans come to see at cons and sign their RPG books. They want to be the “ROCKSTARS” of the RPG industry.

I, on the other hand, want to be the “MAJOR RECORD LABEL” that makes and creates the rockstar, while at the same time makes the cashflow to create even more rockstars who make even more cashflow. See where I am going with this. CASHFLOW IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR BUSINESS. Talk to you later…

Remember My In Touch Weekly Rant?

A couple of months back, I posted an article about Sarah and Bristol Palin's loathsome little anti-choice cameo in In Touch Weekly. Here's a follow-up article from the blog Heartless Doll.

http://www.heartlessdoll.com/2010/04/poor_people_should_pause_before_you_play.php#more

I'm glad somebody else out there is noticing these things. Thanks to Heartless Doll and Amanda Grimes for bringing this to their reader's attention.

CHRIS

And Why Are These Stories Not Being Covered More Enthusiastically?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36185917/ns/us_news/

Erlyndon Joseph "Joey" Lo, 27, of Plano, filed documents there Friday saying his religious beliefs entitled him to use deadly force to prevent an abortion. He listed the name of a clinic, its address and the time he was going to show up — noon that day.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36197759/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

Last week, threatening letters were sent to the offices of I believe 37 of 50 state governors. Each letter was a typical right-winger love fest, not-so-subtly implying that if the governors didn't immediately disband the government and bend over and take that big militia cock they were dead. Naturally, the FBI, Southern Poverty Law Center and others were concerned, and the major media buries the story behind a maze of story-links. Last Christmas, one idiot tried to detonate his C-4 Underoos and the media covered that story for days.

Here we've got evidence of a nation wide, well organized conspiracy, which is inspiring copycat acts of nut jobbery (see those two lovely little links above), especially the last ride of Mr. Lo, and guess what? I'm still the only motherfucker in the country who gives a shit.

Damn it, the bastards are waking up.

CHRIS

Amanda Webb finally has stock art!

After illustrating about half my Otherverse America releases, and quite a few cool products from Mongoose Games, D-3 Games and others, Amanda Webb has dipped her toe into the stock art arena! I'm hoping these packs sell as well, if not better than the LPJD Illustration Portfolios. It's art I will be using in alot of future products, and I seem to have a pretty good eye for artwork.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=80423

Go over to RPGnow, pick up Amanda's first pack. (There will be a second coming soon, and once Black Tokyo II hits, she's told me she plans to release an erotica themed pack including some of the illustrations she did for that setting). And say some good things about it on the review section, okay?

Blessed Be,
CHRIS

Behind Enemy Lines

You know what Easter weekend means to a pagan?

It's a neon-lit billboard that says "One of your kind will never be President." The letters are an attractive pastel pink, white and gold.

Seriously, at this point Christmas is secularized enough that I can almost close my eyes and pretend its just a holiday where I get gifts for those I love and receive some in return. It's self delusion, but I can almost, maybe, just a little pretend that Christmas isn't simply a self-righteous, uncaring exultation in unquestioned cultural dominance.

But Easter.... it's a theological endzone dance, a celebration of smug religious superiority. Almost every fuckin' part of the holiday is stolen- blatantly plagiarized- from one of my people's. But that doesn't matter, because the winners write history, right? Sociological might makes political right, huh?

"Hey, little pagan," the Easter Bunny says comfortingly, "at least my celebrants aren't killing yours.... recently. You go ahead and enjoy your second class citizen ship, little pagan.

You enjoy the fact that though pagans serve at almost twice the rate of non-pagans in the US Armed Forces (18% of adult pagan population, vs 11% of adult non-pagans, according to Witchesvoice.com) they almost never have in-unit chaplains of their own faith.

Enjoy the fact that if you're unfortunate to be an imprisoned pagan, earning the right to celebrate your faith- something every fuckin other convict in the joint takes for granted- is almost as hard as escaping through a tunnel, Shawshank Redemption style.

Enjoy the fact that for Christians (especially wealthy ones), it's a three (or four) day weekend, while your underpaid pagan ass is sweating to cook food for people who believe that since you haven't accepted the light of the fuckin' Lord JAYY-ZUS, you're doomed to an eternity of torture, mutilation and devil sodomy.

Enjoy the fact that Pope Hitler Youth I and his inner circle seems to be above the law.

Enjoy the fact that in a "right to work" state, like say... Texas.... you can be promoted on Wednesday, taken out to a congratulatory lunch by the boss, not pray before the meal, explain that you're a Wiccan and don't do that, and somehow be fired for 'not fitting in with the corporate culture' on Thursday. And if that last example sounds a bit specific, that's because it happened to me in 2005.

But hey, at least the Christian majority isn't killing us.... like they've done before, many, many, many times.

This year.

They're just planning to (the Hutaree), or being sentenced for killing a non-believer last summer (Scott Roeder). Or working to restrict the rights of gays, pagans, and anyone who has the audacity to face Mecca to pray (almost every elected Republican in D.C.). Progress right.

Okay- this is a pretty dark, gloomy post. I'm in a fairly dark place- work sucks, I'm broke all the damn time, and my computer died yesterday, plus I always get depressed around Christian holidays, because of the sheer enraged lonliness I feel.

So let me end with a bit of light. There is one kid who comes into my restaurant about 3 times a week with her grandparents- little 12-13 year old kid, looks exactly like the comic book version of Kitty Pryde. Anyway, she came in wearing a pentacle one time, so I always make it a point to say 'hi' to her. (I think the grandparents believe I'm some kinda crazy pedophile at this point.)

So why? Because a lot of the time, I feel like a soldier trapped behind enemy lines, like a far less competent Chuck Norris battling the Conservative Christian version of the V.C. So this little girl- hell, I don't even know her name- I consider her my sister. She's like a fellow soldier, shot down in hostile territory. I can't do anything else to help her, but damn it, I can say hi every time she comes in.

Anyway, the point of this rant?
Fuck, I don't know. Maybe the moral of the story is this: if you know a pagan, give 'em a hug today or tomorrow. Buy 'em lunch. Something nice.

If they're anything like me (and in a lot of ways, I hope they're not) they could probably use it.

Anyway, Blessed Be,

CHRIS

Superheroes Soon, Hentai Coming Next

I just sent off the finalized version of Psi-Watch: Unlimited Edition to Mark yesterday, and he should be posting it for sale within the next few days. The final copy of the book clocked in at 308 pages, counting the OGL on the last page, back cover and final page index. In terms of actual content, it's about 300 pages or so of very dense material. Fifteen new player races (with a couple of subraces included), a half dozen new advanced classes, a completely redesigned power armor section....this book is going to be amazing. I'm hoping you all are as enthusiastic as I am.

I also sent along the final draft for Black Tokyo II: Chastity & Depravity. The previous draft, the one that Mark had already was about 25,000 words. Over the last couple of week that initial draft ballooned into a 52,000 word monster. Expect alot of new world information, new spells, a new advanced class added since the previous draft was completed, bringing the total new classes in the book to four. I also added a few new player races, some monsters and did I mention an entire shit load of world detail? This is going to be an amazingly sweet release.

Right now, I'm taking a short breather, not really working on anything, after getting these two massive manuscripts out. In a day or two, I'll start up a short (and long promised) "Giant Mutant-killing Robots" sourcebook for Psi-Watch. Expect the 'Sentinel-book' to be about 15-20 pages. I also want to do another short sourcebook about Vatican funded heroes for Psi-Watch.

My next big release will probably either be a State of the Otherverse sourcebook revising the Object Philosophy rules from Otherverse America. I want to go back and retweak all the Object Philos a little bit, make it easier to qualify for them and use them. That will probably be a weighty 50-60 page sourcebook. I also want to take a deeper look at the Choicer culture, giving some of the other neo-pagan factions the same love I showed the Coven of Bast.

I still plan to do a little bit more fantasy stuff- I've got a nice idea for a revision of several D7ACU releases as Pathfinder prestige classes. I've been wanting to update the Neo-Witches, the Innocent, the Manitou and a few other casting classes from D7ACU into fantasy, and I think I've finally come up with a way to make a single impressive, cohesive release that ties all those diverse classes together.

Anyway, it's going to be a great April.
CHRIS

The Charts Are Eating My Brain!

I'm laying out Psi-Watch version 2.0 right now. I'm about 130 pages in- probably between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way home. It's coming along very well, and the last of the art is trickling in.

Over on the left is the inked artwork (from Amanda) for the Nano-Sculptor advanced class, which emulates both Engineers from the Authority and other comic book gadgeteers very nicely.

I've got a few last pieces coming in. I have lots more original art than I did in first edition, and the stock art is being utilized a bit better. The illustrations are going to be a big crisper, larger and more attractive over all. Layout will be very simple- two column with a border at the top and bottom of the page which indicates the current chapter.

I've got a couple of sourcebooks planned for the initial weeks after the release. My goal is to keep Psi-Watch V2 in the top three at RPGnow for at least three weeks, and at the number one slot for at least a week of that. I figure that's a very doable goal, especially if I keep up the release treadmill. Look for a 'monster manual' and a short faction-splat focusing on conspiracy styled Vatican heroes.... think Magdalena or the Red Hoods in Crimson, or that team that showed upinthe Jim Lee penciled issues of Gen 13..... I might even riff on some of my old Against the Darkness stuff, do a subtle 'intercompany crossover' if it's cool with the folks at Table Top Adventures.

Anyway, the layouts coming nicely. The only thing is that laying out the charts- for the classes, various feats, class abilities, ect- is a major pain in the ass. Aside from writing up monster stat blocks laying out charts is my least favorite part of freelancing.

Talk to you later.... I've got more charts to lay out.

CHRIS