It seems that negotiations with distributors will take longer than expected   so I have decided to start selling copies and gain visibility and word of mouth using our beloved friend, eBay. I did a listing britzkrieg tonight in the main game collecting markets...



in the UK:  
** expired/removed eBay auction **




In the US:  
** expired/removed eBay auction **




In Italy:  
** expired/removed eBay auction **




In France:  
** expired/removed eBay auction **




In Germany:  
** expired/removed eBay auction **




Unfortunately, I can no more afford to offer free shipping in UK/ Europe beside Italy  (the book weighs too much, it would costs me almost 6 euros ) but I have kept very reasonable rates (3 euros o pounds in Europe, 10 dollars in the US).



We are preparing a web page about HoD with a preview to let people evaluating the book and pushing the publisher to start pdf sales too



Comments and suggestions will be appreciated!

I've already paid in euros, do you need a small additional for postage?
Let me know,
Jon

Just a quick question about the book.

How much would shipping cost for sending the book all the way to Hong Kong?

I guess I would use Ebay USA to purchase it since our dollar is pegged to the US dollar right now.

Thank you.
Ronald

MetamorphosisSigma wrote:I take it from the list of contents that AD&D is not covered?

Also, 30 bucks US? Wow.

I'd be surprised if AD&D was not covered. That would be a dealbreaker for a lot of buyers, IMO.

No AD&D. But maybe Ciro is planning Volume 2…

Hello! I'll do my best to answer to every question...

For Sardan: yes, it's true, but the difference was not that significant and nothing stops you from buying the euro listings  

For jonjhargreaves: no, no, people that bought the book per my initial offer will get them with free shipping (I mailed them today)

For rhynne: I'll need 13 euros to ship the book in Asian and Australian destinations

For metamorphosisSigma: no, this book is about D&D, not AD&D: I have an idea for another book covering AD&D first edition, a surely still more massive undertaking, but it's just an idea at the moment. Me and the publisher want to gauge HoD's success before starting another project. And about the 30 bucks, 25 euros would have resulted in 35 dollars More, the price is not that high: the Kobold Guides for an average of 80 pages cost 19 dollars for example, a lot of 32 pages modules go for 9,95 dollars...  The publisher hopes to close a distribution deal and let people save money and get market penetration, especially in stores.

Hmmm I am tempted but it is perhaps a little expensive for me.  I would be grateful if people who have bought it could post up reviews or thoughts once it is received.

Well, I want to buy one, too. I just would like to see some sort of review like Ian suggests.

I have no doubt about the quality of the product, and as the author/publisher, you can sell at a profit. But it falls into the same catagory as the 40 Year History of GenCon, which is a very good book, but the reatil price dictated by market demand for that one book is well below $10, and you can't even ship them at that price. If a buyer buys say 20 copies at say $15 a copy, I don't think he'd be able to shift them for $300 over the course of a year, and even then, that does not allow for shipping, overheads or any profits. Realisticly, the reseller would need to be able to buy at below $10 a copy and sell at above $20 a copy to make it a viable product line. I suspect those are similar to what the distributors are already saying.

This is why a lot of small publishers with good quality products end up selling all their product to NKG. It's the only way of covering the printing costs in the short term and not writing a loss. The alternative is to sit on stock and sell privately for the next two or three decades, hense the number of authors who continue to sell stock from the 70's on eBay, on account of them still having box loads of them.

I'm sure there's a good 50 odd people here who will buy a copy over the next month or so, but the market is pretty much limited to board members here, or lurkers. Acaeum tends to draw the collector, even in some just lurk and read.

I'm really looking forward to a review of this.