Any change Out of Print Titles for sale in downloadable PDF?

[Rerednaw]

Hello, I've been trying to pick up some out of print Champions titles from various used game and online bidding war sources for some time.

However, it occurs to me that this doesn't help Hero Games revenue. So I have a question, what are the chances of getting some of the old out of print titles in downloadable PDF format? Or something similar? Same kind of pay and download key system you folks already have in place for security purposes?

Just do a quick survey on one of the boards (which 10 titles would you buy in PDF?) and see if there is an appropriate response.

Or if that's not possible, anyone want to sell me their old copy of To Serve and Protect?

Just a thought.

Cheers.

:D

[Steve Long]

I definitely appreciate the sentiment -- thanx for thinking of us! ;)

Unfortunately, the chances are almost nil. We don't have PDFs for those books -- in fact, many of them were written and published before there was such a thing as PDF, I think -- and that means scanning them in and checking them. At this point, we have far better ways for Ben to spend his time.

We had one fan volunteer to scan in Western Hero for us so we could sell it (thus netting himself a free copy), but he took the book we provided him to do the work and vanished, so we're definitely not going to try anything like that again.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Steve Long
IWe had one fan volunteer to scan in Western Hero for us so we could sell it (thus netting himself a free copy), but he took the book we provided him to do the work and vanished, so we're definitely not going to try anything like that again.
Tell us who he is Steve. We will hunt him down like a scurvy varmit and plant out spurs into denims. :)

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Steve Long
IUnfortunately, the chances are almost nil. We don't have PDFs for those books -- in fact, many of them were written and published before there was such a thing as PDF, I think -- and that means scanning them in and checking them. At this point, we have far better ways for Ben to spend his time.Would it be feasible for people to do this for you? Not for free books like the filching fan you mentioned. But people scanning their own books and giving you guys the PDF to sell in exchange for a percentage of the sales.

For example, if someone makes you a nice PDF of To Serve And Protect (or whatever), and you guys sell it for $5.00, maybe the scanner could make $.50 or $1.00 on each sale...

[Thag13]

Steve or Ben

I have a copy of Western Hero. I could scann it or I would be happy to send it to someone that has the equiptment to do so.

Just happy to help out.

If anyone wants to contact me please do....

[Steve Long]

Getting into some sort of scanning-for-royalties thing would probably be a lot more trouble than it's worth, administratively. The only reason we were willing to consider allowing a fan to help out with the WH matter was that he didn't want anything out of it except a copy of the PDF for himself. Hence, no recordkeeping for us -- if it'd worked out.

I'll give this some more thought. I'm reluctant to rely on fan help too much, because I don't want to look like we're exploiting anyone. You guys already do a lot of stuff for us -- just talking up the game and teaching people is a great help.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Steve Long
I'll give this some more thought. I'm reluctant to rely on fan help too much, because I don't want to look like we're exploiting anyone.Hmm. Well, you probably wouldn't charge too much for older PDFs, so they'd probably end up in about the same price range as Digital Hero (at least for the smaller ones). What about handling them similar to Digital Hero issues?

People could purchase the older PDFs with Digital Hero credits, and scanners could get "paid" in them (with a one-time-only influx of credits, not a royalty). That way, there's not too much bookkeeping for you guys.

Perhaps a 32-63 page PDF could cost one DH credit, a 64-127 page PDF costs two, a 128-191 page PDF costs three, and a 192+ page PDF costs four. The original scanner could get paid, say, twice as many credits as the book he scanned will cost.

This way, the scanners get something for their work (access to other old products or some Digital Hero goodness, rather than actual cash), but it doesn't cost you guys anything except maybe a few lost DH sales if people chose to spend their "earned" DH credits that way.

Just random pondering. :)

[Polaris]

I would love to buy a pdf of Western Hero. I can appreciate Steve's reluctance to abuse the kind offers of help from the fans. If WH ever does become available again, I know I would love to get it. I joined the "Hero Family" after Western Hero was long out of print.

Polaris

[Lord Liaden]

The generosity of HERO fans in offering this assistance is noteworthy, but not surprising to me. However, I should point out that getting a clear scan of many of these books, especially the thicker ones, would require cutting them apart so that the pages would lie flat. So, you would essentially be sacrificing a bound copy of one of these products to create the .pdf file.

[Alibear]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
The generosity of HERO fans in offering this assistance is noteworthy, but not surprising to me. However, I should point out that getting a clear scan of many of these books, especially the thicker ones, would require cutting them apart so that the pages would lie flat. So, you would essentially be sacrificing a bound copy of one of these products to create the .pdf file.


That sounds okay for a very popular book like, say Ninja Hero, where you can still get 'em reasonably easily. I would be very reluctant to do the same with a more treasured or rare book, like Western Hero. I would flat out refuse the same for Justice Inc or Strike Force!

Thinking about it I've had 3 copies of the original Ninja Hero and am onto my 4th with the fifth edition!

[tenebre]

I have every hero book, only missing some mythic greece , mythic egypt and the emer atlas from the ICE stuff...

What is needed in order to make a pdf of scans?

is it really really time consuming?

id do it for free if its not insanely hard.

condisering western hero can be bought on ebay for 5 bucks that guy is jsut a douche

[Thag13]

OK STeve or Darren,

I am happy to donate my time or copy of the book. I like helping out fellow Hero fans. I do have Mythic Greece and Western Hero. While It looks like it would take a while to scan, I dont mind. Let me know.

My only concern is what soft ware or scanner i need I do have a decent HP scannerbut its three years old and not a top of the line one....

if someone on the boards knows more about this, drop me a line....

[Grymlynn]

AndI'm more than willing to aid the cause. I can survive taking my Mythic Egypt apart, also, if that turns out to be required. I'll just put it in sheet protectors and a 3ring binder. I think that this is a very good idea, if we can arrive at a mutually acceptable way to do it. Since most of us are more than willing, we just need to get Steve okay with it. I think that's do-able... He is a lawyer, so if anyone can work it, he can.

[Tetsuyama]

I've got some older AC magazines that I'd be willing to scan in (no need to cut them apart, fortunately). I don't remember the numbers off hand, but if you guys can sell them, I'd be happy to do it for free (on the hope that somebody else will scan in some other old ACs that I can then buy from you). :D

[Syberdwarf2]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Getting into some sort of scanning-for-royalties thing would probably be a lot more trouble than it's worth, administratively. The only reason we were willing to consider allowing a fan to help out with the WH matter was that he didn't want anything out of it except a copy of the PDF for himself. Hence, no recordkeeping for us -- if it'd worked out.

I'll give this some more thought. I'm reluctant to rely on fan help too much, because I don't want to look like we're exploiting anyone. You guys already do a lot of stuff for us -- just talking up the game and teaching people is a great help.

What if somebody wanted to scan something not in exchange for money or free copies of stuff provided for scanning? What if it was done in exchange for a current 5th ed book, and the book being scanned was the scanners personal property?