I have a couple of new products from Chris ready to drop.  Look for it tonight or tomorrow; as well as new Free20 to go along with it.

Still plugging away on some longer releases I am working on.

In other news I turn 39 later this month.  (So does my twin brother!)  Gen Con is fast approaching, so I am looking forward to that big time this year.

I picked up the new Warmachine figures, the plastic Menoth knights, the other day.  Plastics have come so far since those beak space marines GW put out back in the day.  Those Menoth dudes have some serious detail.  The new GW plastics are also fantastc.  I don’t know why I keep getting figures, I never have time to sit down and paint them, let alone play games!

I scored a super-sweet deal on Craigs List the other day.  When I get some pictures up I’ll make a post on my other site about it.  (Since it really isn’t gameing related exactly.)

I got a CD in the mail last night from Chris Field containing his APEX release.  Look for it later tonight.

He and I will also be collaborating on Pathfinder releases in the future, especially as I want to get the Pandora project off square one this year as a full-sized campaign setting.

I have also begun work on a Traveller project I am very excited about.  In addition to a four page outline and about a thousand words so far, I have been reading through the main rule book”cover to cover” instead of just specific areas.  (With my highlighter handy!) I find that this not only gives me a better foundation in the rule set, it also breeds inspiration for other concepts and projects I want to explore in my products.  I have several ideas that have come from this so far.

I also got two new shirts from Zazzle last night; the Mech Damage Chart and the N.A.I.S. designs I ordered a few days ago.

Plenty of stuff going on.

Chris Field has some large projects in the pipeline.  Coming soon.

My new artist is working hard to free his schedule up, and Anthony is still taking work from me so thats two great illistrators on the hook.

Several larger Traveller projects are in the works.  I am fairly excited about the first few.  These will be our first forey into dead-tree products as well.

I have the Pathfinder RPG in my hands, and will be using it as the basis for the Pandora project.

I ordered a few of the T-Shirts I designed for myself.  Can’t wait for them to show up.  (N.A.I.S. and the Mech Damage Chart.) I’ll get the “Body by Gygax” one next cuz I need to lose a few pounds!

I have a project I need to get off my plate before I can devote as much attention to the upcoming projects.  I made the mistake of offering to do a website for my buddies wife.  She’s a partner in a psychology practice and I am setting up the site.  So naturally I bit off a tad bit more than I am comfortable chewing and its kicking my ass.  I hope to have it wrapped up by tomorrow night.

I did a quick post on my other blog about the shooting in the Holocaust Museum.

I received my advance copy of the Pathfinder Role Playing Game in the mail yesterday.  Talk about massive!  The production quality is top notch; the artwork is beautiful.  (Even though my copy is all in B&W; can’t wait to see the color version.) I haven’t had the chance to really dig into it yet, but I am looking forward to supporting it.  I predict big things for Pathfinder; a built-in 3.5 fan-base and still OGL friendly unlike the 4E GSL trainwreck.  This release should give a boost to us 3rd party publishers.

I whipped up a couple more T-Shirt designs last night before bed.  They go fast, which is nice.  One thing I really don’t like about sites like Cafe Press or Zazzle that do T-Shirts and stickers and mugs; is that a person will put up fifteen different items with the same crappy image on it.  That makes scrolling through thousands of products frustrating when there are really only a couple hundred actual “designs”.  So when I do my website, I am going to set it up like SnorgTees.  Easy viewing, no jumping around. I try to do two versions, one for light shirts and one for dark sirts.

Larger projects are still progressing slowly.  I have to clear a couple things off my plate so I can focus on them more.  It’s frustrating to want to be wroking on project A when you have to get X and Y out of the way before you can really sink your teeth into it.

My advance copy of Pathfinder is on the way.  Looking forward to receiving it.

I decided to whip up some gaming related T-Shirts to put up for sale.  I mean one type of digital distribution is much like another (PDF’s vs. T-Shirts).  I have all this awesome artwork from my PDF’s so why not use it on some shirts.  (Or stickers, mugs etc.)  I jotted down fifty or sixty ideas.  I even registered a new domain name to use.  There is nothing there yet, and even the Zazzle store is very sparse.  I will get around to giving the layout a good once-over after I get a few projects off my plate.  (Oh, the site will eventually be THACOshirts.com.  Kinda catchy, isn’t it?)

make custom gifts at Zazzle

I am trying to get a new release from Chris Field posted but RPGNow seems to be having a problem with their back end server right now.  I sent them an email, so look for the Scion of the Pilgrim later today!

I purchased my airline ticket for Gen con yesterday.  Already have a hotel reservation and Gen Con tickets.  Looking forward to the Geek-Fest!

Very excited about some upcoming projects, but not releasing the details just yet.  More soon.

My new Artist went and got his wife pregnant, so he has been off the radar scope for a few weeks.  Still waiting on the final piece of art for the S.L.A.M. Soldier from him and that will be ready to go up.  I also have a few other PDF’s on deck.

On the Traveller front I was going over some things and laid out the various ideas I have for products in a master list.  Then I weeded those down to the ones I think will do the best as print releases.  I have a large list, but have chosen six projects that will be the first released.  I am very excited about them.  One of them I already have the artwork done thanks to Anthony Cournoyer.  Check out the cover he did for me:

I laid out a template for the various entries for another book last night.  Damn, I wish I could just work on this stuff full-time instead of slogging to work every day and doing my publishing business on nights and weekends.  Some day.  Some day soon.

First off, I put Apex Strike File: Low Level Rescuers up this morning on OBS and Piazo.

Yes, I said OBS and Paizo.  I just signed up at Piazo so I would get early access to the Pathfinder books.  (Plus, it never hurts to have more sales outlets!)  I only have a couple products up there right now, so look for more in the coming weeks.

Work is progressing on several fronts.  I got a batch of artwork back from Anthony for a Traveller release in the works.  Check one out…

Oh, and I saw the new Kindle from Amazon yesterday also.  I have been toying with the idea of getting one, but have held off.  Now I am glad I did, I would much prefer to have the larger sized one with native PDf support.

This one will definitely be on my birthday gift list!

Lots more in the works, stay tuned.

Louis has a post up about getting started in PDF publishing for under fifty bucks.  Go check it out.

I got my start as a PDF publisher because of the podcasts Louis did called the “RPG Publishing Gauntlet”, so I have benefited directly from LPJ’s advice.

Let me lay out for you the details of the first product Skortched Urf’ Studios ever released:  More Mighty Than Steel.

I spent exactly ten bucks on this masterpiece!  Five bucks went to the writer (Dennis Mohr) and another five bucks for the stock art cover I got HERE. (It looks like the prices have gone up a bit since then, so the same piece of stock art today would set me back $12 bucks. That would bring the total for this PDF to $17 as opposed to the $10 I spent.) So ten bucks for your first very short PDF, not bad.

I ran a report on OBS and it shows I have sold 78 copies of this PDF.  Our first PDF was profitable almost from the very beginning!

Now lets look at what happens when you don’t ruthlessly control costs, and let yourself spend too much on a PDF.

I let Anthony go hog-wild on the artwork for this baby.   It looks great, but lets examine the cost on this PDF.  I spent $50.00 on the writing (By Eric Karnes) and a whaopping $500 on art!  Sure, that sounds like a lot, but it really comes to about $25 bucks per piece of full-color artwork; a real bargain when you take into account the quality of the illustrations.

The OBS report shows 42 sales of this PDF.  (Smaller overall market for D20 Modern vs. fantasy stuff.)  So run some quick numbers and take out OBS’s 35% and I made not-quite $150.00 bucks on this PDF.  I am still $350 bucks in the red on this baby.  Looks like I may never get my money back.

Unless….

I sell the images I already own as stock art!  Remember, I have about $25.00 bucks *per piece* into the art.  How many pieces do I have to sell to make up the delta? About 25, right?

Each of these Sketchbooks sells for $9.99, and each has about 8 images, but to make the math work lets just say I make one buck per image when they sell.  So if I manage to sell 25 of each Sketchbook I have broken even.  Lets look at the numbers.

Modern figures #1 has sold 36 copies on OBS.

Modern figures #2 has sold 34 copies on OBS.

Modern figures #3 has sold 30 copies on OBS.

Modern figures #4 has sold 31 copies on OBS.

I have net sales (after OBS takes their cut) of $653.25 on those four sketchbooks.   Without the stock-art sales I would NEVER get my money back on Mia Famiglia, but factoring them in I have a great looking product, great stock-art that I can re-use and sell to other publishers who get access to the artwork for as little as ten bucks.  I think that iswhat we call a “Win-Win” scenario!  I’m not getting rich on stock art sales, but they do allow me to access another revenue stream that helps keep Skortched Urf’ Studios profitable.