Why Lightspress Is Done with Sales

I'm glad you're here.

This isn’t a rant. It’s a boundary.

For the past two months, I’ve run deep discounts on selected titles over on DriveThruRPG. Most had been available for years, allowing ample opportunity for folks to buy them. They were all marked clearly as being on sale. Each sale announcement had a start date, an end date, and a direct link. There were multiple emails sent out to those who’d opted-in the receive them. And still, the messages poured in.

“I missed it. Can you extend it?”
“Why isn’t [this title] on sale?”
“I thought the whole catalog was discounted.”
“Why did you remove it? That’s not fair.”

I’ve never experienced anything like it. Not during a release. Not during a site update. Not during previous sales. A handful of people misread the ad footer and assumed the product the advertisement ran under was supposed to be discounted, even though it wasn’t labeled or listed. That good-faith confusion I understand, and to be clear, that’s not what I’m talking about. This was something different.

Entitlement. Demands. Guilt-tripping.

Threats.

The sales ended when I said they would. Listings were up for at least a week, but usually two weeks or more. That’s not a flash sale. That’s not a sneaky trick. That’s more than fair. And somehow, that still made me the bad guy.

So here’s what’s changing:

There will be no more public sales. Not here, not there, not anywhere on any venue. If you want Lightspress books, they’re available. They’re affordable. They’re independently-made. Support a small creator by paying the asking price.

I’ll still send the occasional limited-time discount code for new releases, when it’s advantageous to have a bigger launch week for marketing purposes. That’s it.

These sales weren’t worth the headache. The frustration. The inbox full of caps-locked demands. If this sounds harsh, that’s because the experience left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m choosing not to repeat it.

If I ever remove titles from a catalog again, I’ll do it the way I did here in the last round of cleanup. One day, they’ll just be gone. No fanfare. No explanation. That elicited exactly one polite and curious email. No drama.

Thanks to everyone who supports small creators with grace and clarity. You’re the reason this work keeps going.

I hope you're doing better than I am today,
Berin