Thanks be to boxninja for snapping these photos of the IPR booth at GenCon 2009:





(Clickin' on 'em will get you biggers.)

EDIT: And some Hero 6th Edition stuff too. What's odd and wonderful about this is seeing physical manifestations of stuff I've worked on. (Steve Long hit the copy shop and got one-off printouts of the two books done up so folks can browse the new edition. Also, see the preorder CDs done up for the con!) These ones are thanks to gamera_spinning.

I goofed up and didn't do an IPR summary on April 15th. I plead taxes. So this is a double-feature, hitting both the close out of last quarter, and the beginning of this.

2009Q1: January-March, IPR

What's particularly interesting about our IPR sales is the volume to retailers. Do some quick thumbnailing to figure out the approximate percentages, and you'll see what I mean.

DLYM PDF: 16
DLYM SC: 62 (41 to retailers, 3 at cons)

DRYH PDF: 29
DRYH SC: 85 (52 to retailers, 2 at cons)

SOTC PDF: 14
SOTC SC: 174 (107 to retailers, 2 at cons)

SOTS PDF: 9
SOTS SC: 8

S7S HC: 56

2009Q1:
DLYM PDF - 16 + 16 = 32
DLYM SC - 0 + 62 = 62

DRYH PDF - 39 + 29 = 68
DRYH SC - 1 + 85 = 86

SOTC PDF - 62 + 14 = 76
SOTC SC - 0 + 174 = 174
SOTC HC - 4 + 0 = 4

SOTS PDF - 18 + 9 = 27
SOTS SC - 0 + 8 = 8

S7S HC - 0 + 56 = 56

Lifetime:
DLYM: 374 + 16 + 62 = 452
DRYH: 1964 + 29 + 85 = 2078 (milestone!)
SOTC: 3354 + 14 + 174 = 3542
SOTS: 480 + 9 + 8 = 497
S7S: 56

A solid quarter in a downturned economy. I'm happy.

---

2009Q2: April - OBS, Lulu, e23, YGN

Q2 2009 starts off with S7S getting into the mix. Remember, I don't include IPR numbers until the 15th of the month following the end of the quarter, so this is strictly other sales sites.

OBS:
DLYM PDF - 10
DRYH PDF - 14
SOTC PDF - 20
SOTS PDF - 2
S7S PDF - 44

Lulu:
DRYH PDF - 3
DRYH SC - 1
SOTC PDF - 3
SOTC HC - 1

YGN:
DRYH PDF - 1

e23:
DRYH PDF - 2
SOTC PDF - 2
SOTS PDF - 1

2009Q2:
DLYM PDF - 10
DRYH PDF - 14 + 3 + 1 + 2 = 20
DRYH SC - 1
SOTC PDF - 20 + 3 + 2 = 25
SOTC HC - 1
SOTS PDF - 2 + 1 = 3
S7S PDF - 44

Lifetime:
DLYM: 452 + 10 = 462
DRYH: 2078 + 20 + 1 = 2099
SOTC: 3542 + 25 + 1 = 3563
SOTS: 497 + 3 = 500
S7S: 56 + 44 = 100

I'm liking April.

My public twitterself -- where I'll occasionally tweet about what I'm working on in my various jobs, whether it's Evil Hat, IPR, or some other contract work. I won't be echoing my tweets here, as you might have guessed. :)

https://twitter.com/fredhicks

I'm going to be at Origins 2008, in the IPR booth. Will you?

Hey West Coast folks -- just wanted to let you know that IPR's going to have a presence in some fashion at two conventions next weekend.

Up in the SF bay area there's Kublacon: http://www.kublacon.com/ -- EndGame will be there, and bringing a wide swath of titles from the IPR catalog for sale.

For the Southern Cali crowd, Gamex 2008 will be happening the same weekend: http://www.strategicon.net/ -- Joshua BishopRoby will be there with a spread of IPR games for sale as well.

Plenty of indie play happening at both conventions too, if I hear right. Check 'em out!

So, there's a gamestore in Glen Burnie, Maryland -- Games and Stuff -- that just signed up for a retailer account at IPR: http://www.gamesandstuffonline.com/

This is IPR's first retailer in the entire DC area (all of Virginia and Maryland combined, in fact). Dream Wizards kept dropping the ball on talking to me, so on the recommendations of a few of you folks I reached out to G&S as a good second option for the Maryland side of things. G&S responded very quickly -- I sent the email, like, yesterday or so -- and what with HeroCon happening at their store in early November, I can definitely see building a partnership with them in the coming years. Plus, they're decently close to rob_donoghue, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Anyway, Ed from Games & Stuff says he'll probably be placing an order in the next week or so, so if you've got any special orders let them know -- or drop on by in early June when I figure stuff will be on the shelves!

Hello small press independent game publishers!

As I've noted before, Evil Hat is a sponsor of the Forge Booth this year, and we're looking to get folks signed up. Those sign-ups have been pretty anemic so far, though, and we'd like to see more.

Here's where the details are:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=26153.0

I know a bunch of y'all are striking out on your own in your own booths, and frankly more power to you if so. But for the rest of ya, in past years I have found the Forge booth to be a pretty economical way of finding a good presence at GenCon, in a way that gives me strong interactivity with my customers. Not to mention the degree to which you get a crash-course in running a solid booth demo is pretty indispensable.

What's most important about this is that the deadline for sign-ups is June 1st, a little over three weeks from now. So if you're interested, we need you to commit in May!

Come join us!

Houses of the Blooded -- the somewhat Spirit of the Century influenced, blood opera fantasy game from John Wick -- is up in preorder on IPR right now. Two versions -- the limited edition hardcover:

http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16615&cat=287&page=1

And the softcover:

http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16616&cat=287&page=1

... are both available. The Limited Edition Hardcover's only going to see 100 copies, so if you're up for the expense, snap one up while they're available. I believe we're already down by 5. :)

So, IPR made a pretty huge announcement today, and it's the sort of thing that I think requires a little unpacking to understand.

First off, here's the announcement.

IPR Announces New Retailer Discount

At GTS 2008, we at Indie Press Revolution talked to a lot of retailers, and got a lot of great feedback about what we're doing and what we could do to improve. Time and again we heard from you that our 42% standard discount wasn't good enough.

We heard you.

Effective back to the beginning of April, and going forward, IPR has increased its standard retailer discount to 45%!

Those of you who placed orders from IPR earlier in April should find an email in their mailbox with a gift certificate good for the difference on all the products you bought at 42% off which are now priced at 45% off. If you placed an order in April and did NOT get your gift certificate, please contact us and let us know so we can investigate!

We're excited about making this change, and we're eager to improve our business relationship with you. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns (or, heck, praise!), you can reach us at support@indiepressrevolution.com

Now, before GTS, you would have heard me saying on occasion that our 42% discount wasn't all that bad, and how I couldn't quite "get" why a measly 3% difference took IPR's discount from being a little too thin to being totally competitive.

But the thing there is, I was looking at it from a publisher's perspective. That 3% difference is all of 90 cents on a Spirit of the Century sale into retail -- doesn't sound like much to me, in the grand scheme. Hardly enough of a difference to buy something else with, unless you're already ordering monstrous amounts of product.

But that's not the perspective that the discount's really being perceived from, not in the market -- where that discount matters is in how the retailer perceives it. When IPR gives retailers that extra 3% now, taking the discount up to 45% off, that's like giving the retailer *six percent* on their return in terms of how it affects the margins *they* receive when they make a sale. 3% doesn't sound like much, but 6% puts it over the significance hump. And after talking to retailers at GTS, this started to click for me. That 6% that they get allows for them to assume a lot more risk at the end of the day, and risk is what retail lives and dies on -- the gamble that what they buy and put on their shelves will go out the door in the hands of a paying customer. Give them a little more flexibility, a bit more capacity to take on risk, and they'll be a lot more willing to explore the indie catalog.

So ultimately this is huge news -- even if it just looks like a 3% bump on the surface. This is the sort of thing you should consider mentioning to your FLGS the next time you're in there (you know the store; it's the one you've had a hard time selling on carrying IPR's games to begin with). I'm seriously hopeful that folks will help us wave this banner and get the word out to the game stores, and get our games on more shelves across the globe. With this new discount we're poised to expand much more capably and effectively into those brick & mortar stores -- but we need those stores to realize we're here and ready for their business.

If you're looking to get indie games from IPR into your local store, post here and tell me about your troubles. Maybe we can help. :)

The Forge Booth is open for sign-ups for GenCon 2008. Evil Hat is one of the Primary Sponsors this year, though that'll mainly be my crew (Lenny, Rob, Chad) and less me, since I'll primarily be wearing my IPR hat and acting as the Advanced Brennan Substitute Mark VIII, what with Brennan not being able to attend.

Here are the details, according to Ron Edwards.

Hello,

Well, I ran a little bit behind schedule this year. Finally - here is the thread about signing up for the Forge booth this year.

1. The only eligible people are those who did this last year for the first time, and people who are doing it for the first time now. Actually, there are a couple of exceptions due to past investments, but that's not important for this thread.

2. Here's how it works, which is how it always worked. I and a few others have already secured a booth, which will serve both as the IPR store and as a promotion site for independent publishing - specifically your games. We've already paid for it. Publishers may then sign up as exhibitors, and be members of the booth. They will pay $65 for the badge fee, which goes straight to GenCon, and $125 or $250 to us, which helps offset the price of the booth. If it's your first time, it's the lower rate, and if it's your second, it's the higher.

3. Activities at the booth are mainly based on short promotional demos, more on the CCG model (a quick taste) than the traditional con scenario played over hours. Customers basically sit down and play, and then they buy stuff. All the publishers participate as well, and in many cases, they pick up enough to be able to demonstrate one another's games. (For instance, I often spend a full day demonstrating others' games, although that's a little extreme and not expected of others.) Every publisher should spend 1/2 the working day at the booth (10 to 6 the first three days, 10 to 4 on Sunday) as well as help to set up and clean up at start and end.

4. Arrival is a big deal. It's almost impossible to coordinate it precisely, but the basic fact is that we need as many people as possible to be there Wednesday afternoon, especially toward 4-6 PM, when certain heavy and crucial materials show up (shelves, flooring). You'll be able to pick up your badges at the Exhibitor Booth in the hall, to get in. I also suggest planning to stay through Monday morning, if you can, mainly because trying to check out on Sunday and still be an effective booth member is pretty hard.

5. Please do not register for GenCon. Do not register for GenCon. Doing so will result in a huge pain in the ass for me and also make the GenCon staff impatient with our whole endeavor.

6. The only way to sign up is to pay me, using Paypal, at sorcerer@sorcerer-rpg.com. If you're a really really nice person, then you'll put a teeny bit extra in to help offset Paypal's fee, but most people don't do that, so you don't actually have to. You do not have to tell me here that you're signing up or otherwise formalize things at all - the money will talk just fine.

7. Please keep the number of people minimal. If you have several people in your company, consider having only one be an actual exhibitor at the booth and the others simply sign up for GenCon as attendees. Spouses and best friends should not be exhibitors. So the fee is $65 per badge you're getting (I hope only one) and then either $125 or $250 as well. So let's say you actually have three people who are really and truly all part of the publishing company and everyone will just die if they're not full exhibitors at the booth - that'd be $195 for the three badges and $125 for the first-time buy-in, for a total of $320.

8. As far as hotel rooms go, your best bet is to have your friend or spouse or whoever secure a room as a regular GenCon attendee, and stay there. There really isn't much other option.

9. The deadline for signing up is June 1.

Other stuff that goes on - well, there's a lot, not necessarily all part of the Forge booth at this time, but having originated that way, and so the booth is still a hub of social networking and setting up games for the evenings. It's kind of a like an instant-community or perhaps theater troop type experience.

Questions? Questions! I know I probably missed about 100 key points, so let me know what you need to know.

Best, Ron

Respond to the above at the thread on the Forge if you're saying anything official, but I'm happy to yap about things conversationally here on this blog.