Great article from Tim Grahl of Booklaunch.com on how we view piracy, especially ebook piracy, in the wrong way.

It’s summed up nicely in this quote by Tim O’Reilly is the founder of O’Reilly Media:

“The problem with writers isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. It may be hard to monetize fame, but it is impossible to monetize obscurity.”

Read the entire thing here: Ebook Piracy = Sell More Books by Tim Grahl

Fun little fact film, and the fact that you didn’t have money the way we think of it until the late 1800’s, and you’d have dollars issued by your local bank, which could be worthless in the next city over…

Ever wondered why airlines don’t do more for the economy class passengers, considering how much they do for the premium, business, and first class ones?

Money, plain and simple.

Because all of those economy class people aren’t worth diddly squat to the airlines…

I talked to a neo-pro indie writer who soured on the whole experience, having paid $460 for editing, formatting, cover, keyword research, and a bunch of other stuff to get his book published.

In his view, he’d never make that money back. Which is quite true. But that’s not his problem.

His problem is that he overpaid. A LOT.

I published my first self-published novel in November. Total cost: $0.78 for two stock images. (more…)

If you’ve ever wondered what the hype about NFT:s is based on, wonder no more.

This two-and-a-half-hour movie of a dude talking very fast will explain it all to you. And if you look beyond his politics, there’s the making of a giant bubble in there. Yes, it’s a stupid way to collect sports cards…

Let’s get the elephant out of the room. I think NFTs are overrated. Both in terms of money, and in terms of usability.

They are imaginary, resting on a social convention and people’s faulty understanding of technology. They have an outsized environmental impact (or rather the blockchains most NFTs rely on do, although that’s improving.)

And they add nothing, except a huge financial bubble, and yet another a way for organized crime to launder money.

But let’s explain NFTs so that we both know what we’re talking about. An NFT is a number. Nothing more, nothing less. (more…)

I’ll skip the chase. Here’s the formula:

Size of audience * visibility / competition = sales

If you already know what all of this means, well, you likely don’t need the formula. If not read on.

When we begin, and this is true for any business, we look for certainty. We want to know what will make things sell, so that we can be successful, make a living, get rich, and hire SpaceX to fly us to the Moon.

This translates into rules. (more…)

So, do you think you could tell the difference between a slab of plywood that was rotating, and one that was see-sawing back and forth?

You might, but your brain sure wouldn’t.

Welcome to the magnificent Ames’ Window, and how putting a Rubic’s Cube on a stick makes it go through a solid object. (more…)

So, like, you’re paying $20 billion for a company that has never turned a profit, and doesn’t plan to? And you’re telling me that you’ll make money that way? Please do tell how it works, Mr. Ponzi.. (more…)

You can become rich making tabletop games. Just ask Reiner Knizia or Maureen Hiron. But most likely you won’t make much money. And if you’re making games you aren’t likely to make much money either. In fact, you’re at great risk to lose money, or work for free.

That’s where Nick Bentley has some advice: don’t bet on numbers. The market’s saturated and the chances of a game becoming a blockbuster on its own merits are slim to none.

[…] games that don’t reach mass-market success are weak business. Board games have thin margins and you need economies of scale to make them profitable. In addition, a game without sufficient mass-market penetration is far less likely to be sustained by word of mouth, which means you have to market it, which cuts further into what little margin you have. From a profit point of view, most board games aren’t worth continued publication.

But there is hope, especially if you manage to crack the code of breaking into the mass market. You just have to know how to bet on the best horses and kill all the games that don’t make the top cut.

Linky: Board Game Publishers are Doing it Wrong @ Nick Bentley Games