I know the diviersity zeitgeist is everywhere now, but judging by some of the figures in Kingdom Death, I think there are people out there that still enjoy the oldskool aesthetic too. Sadly too many gamers and publishers can't leave their personal politics out of the hobby. It's created unsavory extremes in a lot of content on both sides of the issue.
I apologize if my input regarding the female sorcerer came off as prudish or intolerant. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and I still treasure my original Fritz Leiber
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novels with the Frank Frazetta covers (Actually, Frazetta was a true genius, in my opinion, while Vallejo was a vastly over-rated Frazetta wannabe, but that's just me...). I can appreciate a Heavy-Metal-Magazine cover babe as much as the next over-the-hill, old-school gamer. I just wasn't sure that was the best way to appeal to today's female gamers, which in 2017,
actually exist, as opposed to 1977, when female gamers were as imaginary as unicorns and balrogs. But hey, I've been wrong before, especially on matters of taste. In any case, if gave offense in any way, I am sorry.
That being said, I don't believe your pricing plan is going to work on DriveThruRPG. Try to look at it from the perspective of your prospective customers--if you want them to pay you for your miniatures, you have to offer a value that is competitive with current market rates.
I've bought dozens--perhaps hundreds--of sets of cardstock miniatures for anywhere from $2 to $4. In each set, I've received a minimum of six to twelve professional-quality full-color minis with finished back art. Many of these sets use the layers function of PDF files, or multiple pages, to include several color variations on each miniature in the set, making it possible to print several dozen unique minis from a single set. This is the going rate that the top players in the field get paid--about $3 for a set of at least a half-dozen full-color minis with back art, and usually with color variants. Check listings on DriveThruRPG by
Okumarts,
Kev's Lounge,
Trash Mob Minis,
Permes, and
One Monk/Mayhem in Paper to see that this is the case.
Most or all of these artist/publishers offer at least one introductory set of finished minis with full color and back art
for free on DriveThruRPG. You can also download dozens more free, finished color minis with back art from
onemonk.com at any time of the day or night. I'm confident that in the next 10 minutes, I could legally download a hundred or more unique miniatures with full color and back art that the original creators are intentionally offering for free. Minis
without back art are by most collectors' definition less desirable than minis
with back art, and if the minimum price for minis with back art is $0, the market value of minis
without back art pretty much has to be $0 (or less)...
As further evidence of the absolute necessity of back art, the free monthly figure hoards created by the members of this community have a rule that specifies that only figures with back art will be eligible for inclusion in the monthly collection. Here is a direct quote from
the rules for Monthly Hoard submissions:
So, I'm afraid to say that the minis you are asking DriveThru shoppers to pay fifty cents for don't meet the standards for minis that this forum has given away for free every month for at least a decade.
Consider this: anyone with an internet connection and Photoshop Elements or GIMP can make an infinite number of front-only paper minis with professional artwork for free. Just punch "elf warrior with sword" into the Google Images search bar, pick one you like, and download it as a JPG or PNG. Open it up in Elements, scale it down to 1.25" tall at 300dpi, duplicate the layer, flip the duplicated layer and align it with the front, and print it on cardstock. A gamer with minimal photo manipulation skill can do that in ten minutes or less, and he got to choose from an almost limitless assortment of illustrations. And it's not even a copyright violation, so long as he never shares the file--making minis for personal use from images legally uploaded to the internet is allowed as "fair use" under copyright law.
I'm about to say something that I believe is a fundamental truth of creating, marketing, and collecting cardstock miniatures, and it's going to sound harsh, but I'm quite confident the rest of this forum will back me up:
Cardstock miniatures without backs are not worth paying money for under any circumstances.Some gamers
may feel that certain cardstock minis without back art are worth
printing, if the art is really good, and it matches the character you're trying to depict really well, and it can be downloaded for free. But I don't know a single person willing to pay money--even a few cents--for a mini without a back.
The way you're describing your marketing plan, it sounds like you're trying to use a Kickstarter strategy, setting up the colored versions and back art as stretch goals. The problem is, DriveThruRPG isn't Kickstarter. People shopping there expect to download a finished product as soon as their credit card payment goes through--the promise of immediate delivery is contained in the title
DriveThruRPG, as well as RPG
Now.com. But you're promising to deliver a finished miniature at some later date, only after 19 other people join the current shopper in paying 50 cents up front for a product that will be delivered at an unspecified point in the possibly distant future, if ever. Even Kickstarter has deadlines for a project to raise its funding goal, and if it isn't funded, the backers' money is returned to them. Your plan asks customers to pay 50 cents up front, and
hope that a finished miniature will be delivered weeks or months from now. That's just not how DriveThruRPG works.
Your artwork is great. That's not why your minis aren't selling. The problem is your marketing and pricing strategy of selling what are essentially unfinished products at full price, with a vague promise to deliver a finished product in the future. That's not going to move minis.
Try this as an experiment. Pick your three favorite minis, color them and finish the back art, and put them up on DriveThruRPG with a flat price of $0.50. (
Don't use PWYW, because most people treat PWYW as synonym for
free, and most publishers know and expect that.) I bet those three minis sell twenty copies each long before any of your front-only minis raise $10 through PWYW. If you put those three colored minis with backs up for sale and let us here at Cardboard Warriors know when they'll be available, I'll be first in line to buy them--I promise you that, because I like your art, and I collect good miniatures. But I'll never pay a dime for a mini without finished back art, no matter how good; in fact, I won't even download it for free, because to me, a backless mini isn't worth the time or trouble to print and cut out. I have too many full-color minis with backs waiting to be printed and trimmed to waste time on unfinished ones.
I apologize in advance if my tone or advice come across as disrespectful--my intent is exactly the opposite. If I didn't think your artwork was worth my time and attention, I wouldn't have bothered writing this post. I'm trying to support your work with time and suggestions that I believe will be worth more to you in the long run than if I just sent you $0.50 as a PWYW on DTRPG. If you put backs your minis, they
will sell. If you don't, no one's going to pay for them. That's just the way the cardstock mini market works, and nothing you or I do is going to change it.