Social Engineering

[Rasputin]

After getting a good look, there isn't as much of the new as there is clarifications and expansions of the old. Mind you, those are good expansions, like what each social skill entails and when an Influence roll happens as opposed to a Reaction roll. What there is of the new almost begs for its own supplement, one that was on the lips of many already.

[Refplace]

So frustrated but have to pay rent first then get the book darn it.

[Refplace]

Reviewed the Preview page, nice bit on different senses and aliens but it appears this does not cover animals or spirit negations from the TOC and index.
If so that would be a disappointment, I was hoping for some stuff around the social advantages like Indomitable and the non standard empathy and how to work social interactions with and around them.
Still I am sure it much of it will apply just take the appropriate empathy then you can apply much of the rest.

[Fnugus]

Any hope of this book ever making it to hardback?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Fnugus

Any hope of this book ever making it to hardback?

I doubt it. Page count is pretty light, but maybe softcover.
Its a real good sized PDF and a very good value.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Fnugus

Any hope of this book ever making it to hardback?

No. At 88 pages, it's far too short for that. The hardback cutoff is up around 160 pages these days. However, if PDF sales are strong (and they'll have to be very, very strong, as this product was costly to produce owing to its length and crunch), then there may one day be a softback. Compare Psionic Powers or Tactical Shooting, both of which are 88-page softbacks now.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Kromm

and they'll have to be very, very strong, as this product was costly to produce owing to its length and crunch

I'm not sure why this would matter at all when determining whether to release it as a softback. Those costs are sunk - they won't increase if you decide to produce a softback. As far as I know, the cost to produce a softback version is primarily dependent on the size of the book - in this case, it's the same size as Tactical Shooting and Psionic Powers, both of which got softback releases. I'd think the cost to produce a softback version of Social Engineering, given the fact that we've already got the PDF version, would be around the same as the cost to produce a Tactical Shooting softback, given you've already got a PDF version. In other words:

Cost to Make Softback = Softback-Specific Price + PDF Price

And you've already paid the PDF price. Thus, the sales volume that would indicate 'this is a good softback contender' should be the same as some other product with a similar Softback-Specific Price, since that's the only cost that should actually matter in the calculation.

[Kromm]

Not quite. A PDF's profit is what pays the startup cost for a softback. Until a PDF pays off its own production costs, earns the writer a royalty, and builds up a surplus sufficient to cover printing, shipping, distribution, and retail advertising, there's little chance that we'll consider a softback. If a PDF's production costs are extremely high, then its sales have to be a lot stronger to show the necessary profit.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Not quite. A PDF's profit is what pays the startup cost for a softback. Until a PDF pays off its own production costs, earns the writer a royalty, and builds up a surplus sufficient to cover printing, shipping, distribution, and retail advertising, there's little chance that we'll consider a softback. If a PDF's production costs are extremely high, then its sales have to be a lot stronger to show the necessary profit.

That's odd. I wouldn't normally have thought a PDF would have to pay for the printing, shipping, distribution, and advertising costs for the softback - I'd have thought you'd attribute those costs to the softback itself, and release the softback when sales figures show that a softback could pay for itself.

I suppose the model you actually use makes sense if you're a bit lacking in cash reserves, but the more 'classic' model would probably earn you more profit in the long-run (if you had the start-up capital for it). Could also be the more 'classic' model I'm thinking of just doesn't work that well in practice, I suppose, though I'd find that a bit surprising.

[Kromm]

To expand some, when we produce a PDF, there's no "per unit" cost and no printing or shipping overhead. The basic profit formula is this:

PDF profit = {(PDFs sold)×(PDF price)×[1 - (Author's PDF royalty)]} - (Cost to produce PDF)

When you toss a physical book into the mix after a PDF:

Book profit = {(Books sold)×(Book price)×[1 - (Author's book royalty) - (Distributor's percentage) - (Retailer's percentage)]} - {(Books printed)×[(Printing cost/book) + (Shipping cost/book)]}

We can control some of these quantities, but they aren't all independent variables; e.g., PDFs sold varies with PDF price, books sold varies with book price, books sold has a complicated relationship with PDFs sold, and printing and shipping costs per book go down slightly for high numbers of books printed. This makes it hard, in practical terms, to gauge whether a book is worthwhile. What we can do is minimize our chance of taking a bath. We do this by looking at total profit:

Total profit = {(PDFs sold)×(PDF price)×[1 - (Author's PDF royalty)]} - (Cost to produce PDF) + {(Books sold)×(Book price)×[1 - (Author's book royalty) - (Distributor's percentage) - (Retailer's percentage)]} - {(Books printed)×[(Printing cost/book) + (Shipping cost/book)]}

and setting this condition:

{(PDFs sold)×(PDF price)×[1 - (Author's PDF royalty)]} - (Cost to produce PDF) - {(Books printed)×[(Printing cost/book) + (Shipping cost/book)]} > 0

That way, for any value of this term:

{(Books sold)×(Book price)×[1 - (Author's book royalty) - (Distributor's percentage) - (Retailer's percentage)]}

we don't take a bath. It's quite possible for both of the following to be true:

{(PDFs sold)×(PDF price)×[1 - (Author's PDF royalty)]} - (Cost to produce PDF) > 0

{(PDFs sold)×(PDF price)×[1 - (Author's PDF royalty)]} - (Cost to produce PDF) - {(Books printed)×[(Printing cost/book) + (Shipping cost/book)]} < 0

Thus, we only consider a book when PDF profits can cover all the costs. Sales of print books are far too weak to take risks with them.