Thursday, April 30, 2009

Brandy's is up!


Brandy's by the Bay is now up and available for purchase at RPGNow and related OBS stores.

Things did get a bit crazy today but the release is out and I am off to sleep so I can be well-rested for tomorrow's field trip with a collection of 1st graders.

Working Away

Well, we'll have to see what happens for the weekend. I don't like the way the map for Brandy's looks in the layout right now so I am going to try to re-do it. Probably not necessary considering my usual sales but re-scanning doesn't seem to solve the problems. I am going to be looking at different pens for my inking. The artwork for this just isn't coming out right.

I don't claim to have stellar artwork in any of these books, but I do try to at least have something decent.

I'll post again when I am finally done.

I will be gone most of the day tomorrow for my daughter's field trip so I pretty much have to get this completed tonight.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tavern Denizens Review up

Well, Tavern Denizens, Book I: The Dives just received a 4/5 from OBS staff reviewer Nathan Collins. I am hoping the review might help drive a few sales, we'll have to see.

Whatever happens, I am pleased with the review. I would like to have a few more good reviews but I am sure that will take time.

Thursday night (Friday morning early?) will see the release of Brandy's by the Bay a new City Streets location. This is another tavern as I clearly need to have more taverns and inns in the mix of releases. I will still be releasing other locations but sales of anything tavern/inn related are MUCH higher and are probably going to end up supporting the release of "normal" locations. We'll see what happens, I do get backstock sales every time I have a new release.

I have a blurb just about ready for new writers and a 4e rules editor. I need to put those up when I have time to answer any emails that actually come in. If I put it up before the weekend I probably won't answer any emails until next Monday. The weekend will be very busy.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Update

Okay, let's update the previous post to "No chance" for a weekend release. I will be working tonight but I just didn't get enough done this afternoon to have any realistic hopes for a weekend release.

Slim chance for a weekend release

There is still a slim chance for a weekend release. It will depend a bit on DS#3 taking a nice long nap and me getting all the bills paid, etc. If I do get something out it won't be released today, likely tomorrow sometime. This means it won't make any newsletters and probably unlikely to get a mention in the ENWorld news until next week, but I would still like to get something out.

I haven't been feeling 100% this week and most of my energy has gone into taking care of the kids, house, etc.

Tomorrow is the "Battle of Flowers" which is a day of historical importance here in San Antonio. This means the big kids all have off from school. I'll have to figure out what to do with them.

Anyway, if I can't get a product up tomorrow I'll probably just wait until next Thursday. My lovely wife is on-call Saturday and we have 3 soccer games scheduled over the weekend.
If I don't get it out, I might shoot for two products next Thursday but that will require me feeling much better and getting a real chance to get work done.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Slow Week

Well, it has been a bit of a lazy week, sort-of. Then again, it is only Tuesday. I was thinking about shooting for a release this week instead of sticking with every other (when I can) week. It is a possibility, but I have been spending some of my free time playing with the video I took during Easter and DS#3's birthday.

I am going to be adjusting some of my plans to insure that I have a tavern or inn-related product released every month. The demand for those is MUCH higher than for anything else. This is somewhat disappointing as the latest two releases, Zinia's Spa and Siarl's Herbs and Elixirs are locations that I have used in some very memorable gaming sessions. While I know that locations like this do have a market, it is clear that the tavern/inn based locations are much stronger sellers.

I am still planning some 4e related products. It is a bit slow moving, but I am getting closer to making some announcements. I will probably wait for official announcements until I have a product ready to go. I am going to be looking for a "stat guru" to do some 4e stats and stat block editing for me. I had someone interested but I guess his professor wants him to finish his Master's Thesis before the end of summer (I guess the professor is moving and wants to graduate his students first). I will probably advertising for it on ENWorld and RPGNet soon, but I am waiting for some responses from a few people first.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Taverns and Inns???

Well, if customers speak with their money, then it looks like they want taverns and inns. Siarl's Herbs and Elixirs made it into the ENWorld news and was on the front page at RPGNow for a while and has still only sold a single copy (I don't count reviewer copies, etc.) Now, since its release I have sold additional copies of several of the taverns. Hmmm.

I have a lot of "boring" locations lined up that I think I can actually make quite interesting but if sales demand more taverns then I think I need to answer to the customers that are voting with their dollars. I will be thinking about this a bit over the next couple of days while I plan out more releases. I have several Tavern Denizens titles outlined and I think that I will need direct a bit more energy and focus in that direction.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Siarl's Herbs and Elixirs


Well, I had a few problems with the switch to the new desktop but Siarl's Herbs and Elixirs is on sale now at RPGNow and related OBS sites. I am on the front page of releases at RPGNow and I sent an email off to ENWorld in hopes of making the news. We'll see if I make the RPGNow newsletter. It seems like I have enough products to start using some of the added advertising/promotion features OBS offers so I think I will be doing that soon (probably in May).

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

New Machine

Well, yesterday I received the new iMac that I purchased last week. This means that I spent much of my free time transferring files etc. I should still have a CS release ready for very late on Thursday. I actually want to be late enough to make the RPGNow newsletter, which shouldn't be a problem with the various other things I need to get done. We'll see how that all works out.

I had planned a "tax day" sale but simply didn't get the ball rolling soon enough and got my time sucked up by other projects.

I hope to have more news up about some other planned products in a bit but that always seems to take longer than I plan for.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Not Much Accomplished

Well, as I expected, I didn't get much accomplished this weekend for GU. Between DS#3 turning 2 and having a house full of guests for the birthday and Easter there simply wasn't enough free time to get things done. When I did have free time I was exhausted.

I am still planning a very short "Tax Day" sale and have high hopes of introducing a small new "Tax Collectors" product to go with it. I haven't decided if that would be free or 99 cents. It'll likely be free and used as a heavy promotion for some of the other products. We'll see.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Distracted myself again

Well, this is a busy week. DS#3 turned 2 today and we will have a house full of company for the Easter weekend. This means it doesn't take much of a distraction to keep me from getting the work done that I REALLY should be doing. Well, I suddenly had an idea for a "freebie" (which could become a "cheapie") related to, well, taxes. I just LOVE the fact that my wife and I are self-employed and have the honor of paying our taxes quarterly (as well as both halves of social security and medicare--yippee!).

In any case, my brief moments of writing time got stolen by work on a probable freebie.

I do still have a release (okay, it looks like "releases" now) planned for next week. It isn't quite ready yet, but it should be done on time. I have a new iMac desktop slated to arrive next week but I will be sure to keep the files over here so that when I set it up I won't need to cease all work. My present desktop still runs the full Adobe CS3 suite, but, well, at over 6 years old it isn't exactly "fast." Right now the laptop that I am typing on compiles .pdfs about twice as quickly. The new machine should be a big help with a number of projects I have planned.

That is the news for now. I will try to have more this weekend.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Zinia's Spa


Well, I did get Zinia's Spa uploaded last night. I thought I was pretty far behind schedule for getting something uploaded for the weekend but it looks like about 5 more products were uploaded by other companies after I got Zinia's up. No the cover isn't especially different from the other CS covers, but I thought this blog could use a picture of some sort.

I am not happy with the artwork on this one. I tried some different things on this one and I can't say that I feel they worked out well. I might put out an update with new artwork in the future.

The Lantern Inn is probably going to be the next CS release, but I probably won't release that until the week after Easter. It is predominantly complete but I need to do more work on the map. Siarl's Herbs and Elixirs is also high on the docket as both of these are essentially complete. It should be easy to get one of these out in 2 weeks. I do have to admit that next week is probably not a quality work week. DS#3 turns 2 next Thursday and we are going to have a full house for Easter. I have a lot to do before then so we'll see how it comes out.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Late but on the way ...

Okay, Zinia's Spa will be a little late, due to kids events probably not uploaded until later tonight. I have to finish up and re-scan some artwork. I thought I was done but when I put the map into the layout the lines for the walls ended up looking the same as the gridlines. Oops!

Once the scanning is done, I pop the artwork in, double check everything, and .pdf it, upload it, and finally, advertise it. We'll see how it all goes.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I see products ???

Okay, I imagine I see products. When I gave up on a product for last weekend I started spreading myself thin when I actually had time to work on products. Basically, I have about 3 products at close to the same stage in development and I really need to focus on one at a time and get them done instead of going from one product to the other.

I still have some work to do on my taxes and then I can get back to writing. I believe I am going to focus on Zinia's Spa right now so that should be tomorrow's release (possibly late tomorrow but we'll see how things go).

I have held off on some open call type announcements because I want to be able to answer email in a timely manner and I really need to spend most of my time getting some products ready. I am going to be looking for some 4e stat people and some writers for 4e and generic products. I am thinking I will ask a few writers if they are interested first and see how that goes. When I do, I will be very open about what my sales numbers and income have been. I know that I can pay a pittance, but I would rather pay per word than have a writer constantly wonder what their sales are.

I will be signing on with (or trying to sign on with) some other online .pdf vendors to see if this will help sell a few more .pdfs. I probably won't be going through that whole bit for at least another month as I just don't see having the time right now. Let's face it, I should have had something released last week.