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Just enjoying reading the Bestiary 6 and I am gobsmacked with the excellent art and design that went into these creatures and I was wondering, has Paizo released all it's art in a book that I can put on the coffee table for guests to enjoy?
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They did for their art in Dragon magazine. Thirteen years later, it's priced at $4, and they still have copies left to sell.
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They did for their art in Dragon magazine. Thirteen years later, it's priced at $4, and they still have copies left to sell.
Yep, sadly Art Books don't sell that well, despite being awesome.
D&D just has a lot more history behind it, so a "look at the development of the art over time" book has more impact.
And it has the D&D brand bonus.
Really a poor comparison.
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It's the one I linked to above, from 2006.
For 30 years, Dragon magazine has published genre-defining fantasy masterpieces. This beautiful treasury features classic pieces by undisputed masters such as Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Jeff Easley, Wayne Reynolds, Brom, Todd Lockwood, Tony DiTerlizzi, Tim Hildebrandt, Daniel Horne, Denis Beauvais, Clyde Caldwell and more!
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Fantasy art has come a long way since then,What does this even mean?
The two counterexamples given so far, The Art of Dragon Magazine and the Wayne Reynolds book, seem to have been consciously marketed to a niche audience. Spectrum has proven there's sustained interest in fantasy illustration, and there's no reason Paizo can't tap into that interest.
How is Pathfinder players a less niche audience than Dungeons & Dragons players?
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It would be great if we could get feedback about this from someone on Paizo staff. I know Vic Wertz has made some very illuminating posts on publishing decisions for other Paizo products.
Also, on art books.
Art books are a bit of a hard sell, I'm afraid. It's funny—it's one of those things that everybody wants to publish, but they just never really work out all that well, financially speaking. I think Pathfinder will have to be a much bigger brand for that to happen.
As a suggestion for those of us who love the art but don't mind an art book....how about an Art of Golarion book ?Art books are a tough, tough sell. Believe me, we've tried, both here at Paizo and at other publishers. No matter how popular the brand is, it's hard to succeed with a gaming art book.
I'll tell you all now, when it comes to this product, I'm the one that's going to need to be convinced that it's a good idea. I've been in the industry for 15 years, and customers are always clamoring for art books, yet every time we do one, the sales are pretty much always disappointing. Kind of like requests for T-Shirts that aren't black—everybody says they want them, but nobody actually buys them.
Some of you might remember that we did an Art of Dragon book while we were still publishing the magazines. That's actually one of the most successful art books I've ever had any involvement with... but the fact that we still have inventory on it several years after we lost the magazine license should tell you something. And I fully expect that the Art of Pathfinder would be a harder sell than an official D&D product was a few years ago.
I'll give you another reason why I'm resistant to art books for Pathfinder in particular: because we designate our rules content as Open Game Content under the OGL, that means that other folks can republish all of our rules for free. Take the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook—you can get everything you really need to play out of that book for free online.
So, since you can get the rules content for free, we need to give you some reasons to buy the product that they came from—especially in the Pathfinder RPG line, where the books are almost all rules. And that's one big reason why we don't generally make the art available outside the products—art is one of the few things that you can currently only get by buying the products, in most cases.
Wouldn't it be nice to see a book filled only with the art of the Pathfinder game. They could put a caption under each picture or a paragraph to explain it a little. Also from this could spring a pathfinder graphic novel series or something.We talke about doing this every so often... the problem is that gaming art books just never sell as well as anybody would like to think they do.
On the other hand, they're relatively easy and inexpensive to make (since we already own all the art), so it's bound to happen eventually...
I was looking at my advanced players guide, and I got an idea for a new product. I was thinking about a novel, hardcover, and the size of the Pathfinder rule books.
I was thinking this book could contain art work like in the rule books to illustrate the story in the book. Obviously there would be lees art than in a graphic novel, but just nice large illustrations for climactic points in the novel or big battle scenes.
I would by this in a heart beat, as well as an Art of Pathfinder book.
just my thoughts
I think we need to prove that our $9.99 novels work before we can even think about a $35 novel.
Frankly, gaming art books never do as well as you'd think. Case in point: we still have copies of 2006's The Art of Dragon Magazine available, and that's after pricing it with a steep discount a while back.
Any chances of an "Art of Pathfinder" book?I'll tell ya... art books generally don't sell well. (And the fact that we still have this one in stock after all these years should tell you something...)
If Paizo made a calendar with a lot of neat, high quality Pathfinder pics for each month; I would probably buy it, others probably would as well. I like a good calendar with our gaming genre pics.
just a thought in case you guys think about making one.
In my experience, calendars are like art books and non-black T-shirts—they never sell anywhere near as well as most people would like to think. Plus, the fact that you pretty much have just a three-month window to sell them makes it very difficult to get the print run sized right. And any delay in the schedule then makes even the right number wrong.
My advice would be to make use of our Community Use Policy and look for one of those places that lets you make your own calendar.
People keep asking for art books, and we keep saying that they don't sell. This may be your one and only chance to prove us wrong on that.
There are so many people constantly asking for huge minis, I'm uncertain if this was fully the deciding factor.If there's one thing that my many years in the industry have taught me, it's that there is often a huge gap between what people ask for and what actually sells well when you offer it. (See also: art books, posters, and T-shirts in colors other than black.)
But ultimately, Paizo doesn't control this—in general, WizKids determines what kinds of products to produce, then we offer suggestions for the specifics. We do frequently ask for them to consider new categories (and old ones too), and they occasionally say yes, but we simply don't get to dictate that they Make Huges Now.
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I wish Vic wasn’t so wish-washy and could just stake out a consistent position.
Geez.
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Not called for, and not what I'm saying.
Sorry if that seemed directed at you at all - I wasn't having a go at you in any way. I've bought all three of the art books Paizo have produced and will buy any in the future too.
It's just I was impressed by Vic's consistent wording, since he's been answering basically the same questions for years. Not sure any of my positions have been that consistent - even in the things I know a lot about. :)
I was also impressed with Joana's search-and-collate skills.
It's a real pity everything isn't together in one place. I assume there is some licencing issues with some art works. If something does appear in the future I would happily jump on it; I am already smitten with PF2's art so maybe we'll have more luck there?