thread: 2012-03-21 : Monster Mania Con: barriers to interest
On 2012-03-21, Eric E wrote:
I think both Bret and Frank are onto something here. Lowering the costs to something someone would drop some con-change onto is a good idea.
The other is that to a lot of people, $10 is a lot for a book. I know this may seem crazy. It does to me, as I read a lot of novels and try to buy new works, in addition to being raised on $20 TSR books. However my wife, who both games and reads to a lesser extent, $10 sounds ludicrously expensive for a novel. And that's a self-contained experience, with an RPG you have to bring more work to the table, not to mention getting other people together to play it (which somehow increases the cost of the book to her, as opposed to me where the cost to enjoyment is theoretically split). She is too used to walking into a half-price and spending 5-8 dollars on a hardcover and a buck on a paperback. But if you package in doodads and whatnots, then it's different. She feels like she is paying for SOMETHING.
From a creative standpoint (I write fiction) this strikes me as crazy, as those doodads were just printed en masse by someone. But whatever.
However, what does work with her, I've found, is the bait-and-switch maneuver. Present cool looking thingie (book/game/whatever), demo it, when they ask for the price, tell them the realistic number which is too high, see the light dim in their eyes, then say "but I have these copies of an old game I still stand by here for a song! Buy one of these, take my card, and if you really enjoy it order my new one."
Don't know how applicable that would be in your case, but it's what I've seen.
