1893: A World's Fair Mystery Annual Report
PTN
(almost) gone. The verdict? A slight drop in the number of games sold,
though still a respectable showing. I'm pegging sales at about 800 copies
for the year, for a total of 2800 sold so far. In the previous two years,
some with long memories may recall, I sold about 1000 per year.
Why the drop off? Well, lots of reasons. Mainly because I don't actively
promote the game these days, and haven't for quite a while. The year started
strong with an article in the NY Times and a cover story in my local paper,
but that's been pretty much it. Certainly I haven't sent out any press
releases to try and pick up any additional coverage.
Online, sales have dropped to a trickle, maybe one copy per week. Hardly any
sell online at all (though, this would be a good time to mention there is
still time to receive a copy for Christmas, HINT HINT).
Offline, I've seen some successes, and some failures. A few stores that
carried the game in the past no longer do. This is a result of them changing
their sales procedures, switching buyers, or what have you, and me utterly
failing to follow up with the new folks to start a new relationship. Only
one of the shops that stopped carrying the title seem to have done so
because they really don't want to carry it anymore (despite the fact that
all copies I sold them sold out). My main outlet for the game continues to
be the Chicago Architecture Foundation.
I've also done some lectures. I created an hour lecture about the ways we
try to experience past events when we "can never go back," specifically in
relation to the 1893 fair. I start out talking about collecting, and
reading, and then spend the majority of the lecture on visiting sites, a
slide presentation of various still existing exhibits and buildings from the
fair. The talk concluded with a "new" way of visiting the past, through
virtual recreations, such as 1893: AWFM. Of course, copies were sold at the
talks. These all took place in libraries, typically as part of an event
where the *main* attraction was DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. The audience was
invariably older than the hills. But a surprising number splurged for the
game, people who I am sure never played a computer game before in their
lives. Some even wrote back, commenting on the experience. Some wrote back
wondering how to get the damn thing to run on their Mac, but that's another
story.
I also rented a table at a Chicago Book Fair, where, because of the game's
Chicago-based theme, it sold like hotcakes. I put a few vintage books out on
the table published in 1893 and 1894 that visitors could flip through, then
explained that most of the images were on the disc, in an interactive
environment in which you can explore the fair as if you were there, solve
puzzles, and so on. I explained that you read about your location, and typed
in what you wanted to do in simple sentences. I occassionally but sparingly
demoed the game for visitors, but the battery life was short on my laptop
and I found it did not have an appreciable effect on sales, so I dropped the
demo by the second day. My sales pitch never once used the phrase "text
adventure" or "interactive fiction," nor did it prey on the customer's
nostalgia for INFOCOM. I simply explained what the game was, in terms
non-gamers could understand. And from the feedback I have received, they
were not disappointed. I plan to do the fair again next year, even though,
lame as I am, I won't have any new products to sell by then, it will just be
a repeat.
So that's the wrap up for the year. Sales are drifting off, but I blame this
on myself more than any other factor. If I was a good salesman, or if I had
a good salesman, who could take the game and shop it around to the right
catalogs and stores, I've come to believe that 1893 could be stocked in
those stores and displayed in those catalogs. I am lousy at this, and so, it
will likely not happen (any interested salespeople, please contact me!).
-- Peter
http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/1893
Eyecatcher
market still exists for this type of thing, however modest.
- BM
Quintin Stone
> So that's the wrap up for the year. Sales are drifting off, but I blame
> this on myself more than any other factor. If I was a good salesman, or
> if I had a good salesman, who could take the game and shop it around to
> the right catalogs and stores, I've come to believe that 1893 could be
> stocked in those stores and displayed in those catalogs. I am lousy at
> this, and so, it will likely not happen (any interested salespeople,
> please contact me!).
>
> -- Peter
> http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/1893
Peter, thanks for the update! I don't know about others, but I found it a
very interesting read.
==--- --=--=-- ---==
Quintin Stone "You speak of necessary evil? One of those necessities
st...@rps.net is that if innocents must suffer, the guilty must suffer
www.rps.net more." - Mackenzie Calhoun, "Once Burned" by Peter David
ChicagoDave
with 800 copies or $15.960 in the past 12 months. That's with one man
working on one title and putting very little effort into sales other
than what's convenient to the author.
I think this is a clear indication that Interactive Fiction, if done
well and with a relevent subject matter, marketed to the appropriate
audience, can be highly successful.
Of course 1893 has a specific sort of historical flare that probably
garners a lot of "curiosity" sales, but still, I think this is very
valuable information.
Indeed, where are the salesmen IF folks? We need you.
David C.
PTN
"ChicagoDave" wrote:
> So I'm being nosey here, but 2800 copies at $19.95 per copy is $55,860
Keep in mind that with store sales being the primary outlet, retailers get
half. Of what's left, I pay production costs, and of course the govt gets
about a third. But I'm certainly not losing money on the deal and your
following statement is correct:
> I think this is a clear indication that Interactive Fiction, if done
> well and with a relevent subject matter, marketed to the appropriate
> audience, can be highly successful.
What I think is the most valuable lesson I've come away from this experience
with is this: no one cares that I'm marketing "Interactive Fiction." They
want this game about this topic. They might think the game play is a bit
strange, or a bit "retro", or whatever, but for the most part, the interface
gets very few comments. It is all about what they are playing, not how they
are playing it.
As for sales:
> putting very little effort into sales other
> than what's convenient to the author.
I should mention that sales is a lot of effort and very inconvenient, no
matter how little I do. Even the teeny, tiny bit I do takes a huge effort,
with usually good but small results. I feel like an ESL student asked to
write something in English, looking up each word and taking days on
something a native would spend 5 seconds on. So I find the effort to be
great though the amount is small.
> Indeed, where are the salesmen IF folks? We need you.
This is the big one -- much more than PR, I think. I've had plenty of PR,
and it's not that hard to come by. What is needed is a way to convert the
publicity into sales to retail outlets.
In any case, Dave, since you live somewhere in the area, you should come to
the city for the book fair next year (if I have a booth) and work the booth
a bit, see how people respond to a work of IF in this day and age. It's
actually pretty remarkable (and a lot of fun).
Samwyse
> In any case, Dave, since you live somewhere in the area, you should come to
> the city for the book fair next year (if I have a booth) and work the booth
> a bit, see how people respond to a work of IF in this day and age. It's
> actually pretty remarkable (and a lot of fun).
When's the book fair? People where I live drive to the Windy City all
the time for Cubs-vs-Cards games, so perhaps we could arrange a road
trip and inter-city meetup?
PTN
"Samwyse" <sam...@gmail.com> wrote:
> When's the book fair? People where I live drive to the Windy City all the
> time for Cubs-vs-Cards games, so perhaps we could arrange a road trip and
> inter-city meetup?
That would be great. It takes place June 3 & 4 next year. I'll post closer
to that date if I can secure a table again. Seems like a long time from now,
but it'll be here in a flash. Actually I almost posted about it this year,
but was not confident how the game would go over at the fair and wanted to
fail in private, if necessary.
-- Peter
http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/1893