Self publish Kindle books?

[ralphtricky]

In case you've been under a rock, Kindle is Amazon's electronic book format. They've got their own hardware, and you can read kindle books on PC, Mac, iPad, Android, and probably a bunch of other platforms.

It looks like there isn't a set up fee and and you keep 70% of the price you charge for the book, although I haven't done a detailed look at it, jsut skimmed so far. I also don't know about how revisions work, etc.

That made me wonder if that's a possible vehicle for some of the scenarios that have detailed backgrounds. I wonder if you could make money from publishing the detailed background information, complete OOB, etc. on the kindle for some set amount and put up the scenario somewhere else. The background information wouldn't be required for the scenario, but I think some people might be willing to pay some amount for a detailed scenario breakdown and background information. I'm sure some people would do it just to support the scenario creators.

I have no idea if that would be possible, or if there are any issues that I'm not aware of here, I just saw this and thought that some of the scenario authors might be interested in it.

I don't know if it would be possible to eventually tie the purchase of the book to being able to download or play the scenario, or even to a different publishing format. I haven't thought that far down the road, and I'm not sure it's a good idea, or a practical one. It's something for me to think about down the road. For all I know, nobody is interested and this will fall flat.

Mainly I'm throwing this out to see what people think about how viable this is. I don't think that Matrix is currently doing any paid download third party DLC, and that's what this is (sort of.) It may be a practical way for the scenario designers to be paid for their work without me having to do a lot of complicated work, or set up a paypal donation button and web site, etc. It does rely some on people being honest, and the designer providing enough content for the purchase to be worth it, but anything more complicated won't happen for a while.

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that this would violate the TOAW license or anything. That's my personal opinion, I'm not a lawyer, etc.

I think it's a good idea, but I'm not advocating this, do it at your own risk with your eyes open about it.

Ralph

[Oberst_Klink]

G.F.Nafziger donated his complete OOB and TO&E works to the Command and General Staff College and since the idea, to make a few bucks (Reichsmark or Lagergeld for me and the staff of STALAG13) sounds OK, I think the scenarios and documentation (unless stated otherwise by the author) should stay in the public domain for all avid wargamers. I have to point out, that Telumar's recent documentation for his Anzio 44 scenario deserves a kind of Pulitzer price... HOWEVER, the TOAW community wouldn't mind some Matrixgame vouchers... *coughs, monocle drops* jk, jk.

[Boonierat]

That might be an idea if one day I publish the Vietnam Operations Chronology I'm working on, but I would never charge for any of my TOAW scens, including the doc.

[ralphtricky]

ORIGINAL: Boonierat
That might be an idea if one day I publish the Vietnam Operations Chronology I'm working on, but I would never charge for any of my TOAW scens, including the doc.

It's something to think about anyway. I've seen the price for the latest war-games, and while I understand why they are charging that much, I'm not sure it's sustainable. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of PC games go the DLC route, and it's becoming more acceptable by users. Civ V is doing civilizations for $2.50 for example which I feel is way too high. I'm not suggesting $20 for a scenario manual, but the basic docs as free and the extra stuff more likely in the $1 to $5 range. it's not for everyone, and I would rather everything were free of course, but I saw this and it got me to thinking.

I know that the designers (and me mostly) are driven by passion, not money, but it may be an option. Whether it will work or not is anyone's guess. My crystal ball isn't working very well on where tech is going.

[pionier]

My crystal ball isn't working very well on where tech is going.

I think it says: go on with toaw