It comes with great joy that our good friend Rowan at MBPUK (Manual Booklet Prints UK), who is known for his fantastic Nintendo Switch Instruction Manuals, is launching his own online storefront. The website is MBPUK.net and it will have all of Rowan’s previously published manuals as well as any future manuals going forward.
Rowan started making and selling Instruction Manuals for select Nintendo Switch games on the popular artisanal marketplace website Etsy. With Etsy increasing their tax pricing, Rowan has decided it was time to launch his own website where he can manage orders and sell his products and offer more features like a reward program and pre-orders.
To learn more about MBPUK.net, we caught up with Rowan to ask him a few questions.
Miketendo64: Why have you decided to start up your own website to sell your manuals?
Rowan: It’s been something I’ve thought about having for a while much like looking into eBay, Amazon or other platforms if people want them there. I had no real push for a while as I thought Etsy was enough, when I did my tax return though and realized how much they take overall, kind of shocked me and made me feel a bit sick. They may be many small payments but they soon add up. They also don’t have features I or others to my knowledge, have been asking for many years. When they recently upped the pricing tax, it went from a browse and a thought to, I’m going to look into this now, Etsy for this work isn’t really a viable sustainable platform for what I want and the pricing I’d like it to be at, I need an alternative. Plus, more control, I have set up reward points for the manuals / booklets, newsletter stuff, pre-ordering etc. It’s good to have bits look and work the way you’d like, and hope it grows with new additions in future.
Miketendo64: Will you still sell via Etsy or will you be shifting focus solely on the MBPUK website?
Rowan: Yes, but Etsy will have raised pricing to combat the new fees and adjust for all their fees in total. To be honest, I don’t know what it’ll be yet but I really need to look into it a lot more. The website will be the cheapest from anywhere else, As I went with shopwired from shopify or such, I have a monthly and that’s it, no other fees apart from those small unavoidable ones involved with PayPal or stripe, so having no extra fees will keep the price permanently to where it is now, I hope.
Miketendo64: As well as new manuals, will the older manuals be available on the new website as well?
Rowan: 100% they’re all available on the website, as well as being able to Pre-order the next one coming, which I’m working on currently for it, so you’ll be able to get first dibs when I get it in hand essentially and not wait for an Etsy post etc.
Miketendo64: How will launching your own website affect pricing?
Rowan: The website will keep it to where it is currently / was. There are no extra fees with shopwired so I know the cost of it going in and out, I have a lot more control, only adjustment may be postage or such I hope unless the paper shortage gets drastically worse. Etsy and possibly other future platforms will have raised prices on a % that fits their fee deduction I guess, it’s something I’m looking into currently.
Miketendo64: Can you say what other projects you have in the pipeline?
Rowan: Well Kirby as you know, it should be ready for a print check later this week. Website needs a check to make sure Ordering is 100% good to go so that’ll be done over the next day or so. I’m aiming to go to more conventions as was my first in March (suggestions welcome), got a few possible but not 100% yet. More manuals / booklet making and normal work in general, haha. I did spend a few days dabbling with a game idea too, coding that was fun, if I have free time, I would like to continue it or something 🙂
If you are interested in picking up a couple of Nintendo Switch Instruction Manuals for your own collection, do be sure to check out MBPUK.net. Also, feel free to check out a feature article that we wrote about the manuals here.
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