DriveTHRU RPG have a standard rate, and a slightly cheaper one for - I think - 100 pages or fewer. Any rate get in touch with Meredith Gerber, their publisher liaison, she's very friendly and very helpful. Other than that, you're likely to have a local printers that work on similar price per page count lines, forex I use an outfit called Book Printing UK (no prizes for guessing where they're based!).
Looking ahead somewhat - if you're likely to be in this for the long haul - I recommend you contact Lightning Source. They're based in the UK but DTRPG use them for their POD fulfillment and, if you publish with them, if there are any goofs (and if my experience is anything to go by there will be many - one person I know on Twitter had to send back no fewer than seven proofs before they got it right) there'll be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, so if you've already got an account with LS that process will be a lot easier.
DTRPG's premium colour is basically indistinguishable from an offset printed book, so long as your book is set up right - thankfully they have a comprehensive tutorial on their help center that includes templates for each book size and for both Indesign and Scribus. If you're not working with those it's going to be quite a bit more difficult to get a quality product, though. For a 50-100 page book you're looking at a cost between $5-$12, depending on actual page count and page size. See this page for details: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/pub_pod_cost.php
Sorry, a lot of typos in that last post; I've gone in and edited, should be fully readable now. I'm currently on my phone in the Park; when I'm on my laptop I'll jump on this thread again and answer all your further queries.
Ok, I can answer three of them now. Set-up DTRPG require a format called PDF-X, whatever that is. Profit They take off 30% (for exclusive) or 35% (for non-exclusive, i.e. if you decide to go with lulu and/or Amazon as well) post production, so on the former basis, if you price your book at $20, and the print cost is $2, say, they'll take off $5.40, leaving you with a profit of $14.60. Quality Extremely variable. Ultimately that's the price you for doing it POD. But don't worry, it happens to everyone, even big name designers, and punters are on the whole reasonably tolerant.
Also, if you're selling the thing yourself it's definitely a good idea to go directly to the specific printers, but IMO drivethru definitely earns their cut of your sales in order to reach their audience (and use the built-in marketing tools).
You can theoretically print from a pdf made by word/Google docs, so long as you set the margins and bleed up properly, but to get a professional looking book you will need to be using Scribus at least (it's free and open-source). Again DTRPG's downloadable tutorials and templates are very good!
Amazon's new print on demand is great quality, affordable, and very easy to use. Format an ebook for the interior, and they help you design the cover and spine. Andrew G. Schneider started using it for his novels recently, and can offer more details.
James Iles Agree. I do the initial work in Word, and then hand over to my copy bureau guy to convert it into a usable format. But as you say, the best thing is to use their templates.
Monica Fulvio's comment reminds me, you may also want to look into producing your game books in an e-book format. Apparently they read much better on tablets etc. than PDFs. I don't have direct experience of that however.
I have a game in that range (~60 pages) set up for PoD on DTRPG, what would you like to know?
ReplyDeleteDriveTHRU RPG have a standard rate, and a slightly cheaper one for - I think - 100 pages or fewer. Any rate get in touch with Meredith Gerber, their publisher liaison, she's very friendly and very helpful. Other than that, you're likely to have a local printers that work on similar price per page count lines, forex I use an outfit called Book Printing UK (no prizes for guessing where they're based!).
ReplyDeleteLooking ahead somewhat - if you're likely to be in this for the long haul - I recommend you contact Lightning Source. They're based in the UK but DTRPG use them for their POD fulfillment and, if you publish with them, if there are any goofs (and if my experience is anything to go by there will be many - one person I know on Twitter had to send back no fewer than seven proofs before they got it right) there'll be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, so if you've already got an account with LS that process will be a lot easier.
Perfect!
ReplyDeleteDifficult in setting up? Quality? Upfront cost? Profit per unit (or some such)?
I've read some PoD books that are high quality and just look weird because they don't have an ISBN number.
DTRPG's premium colour is basically indistinguishable from an offset printed book, so long as your book is set up right - thankfully they have a comprehensive tutorial on their help center that includes templates for each book size and for both Indesign and Scribus. If you're not working with those it's going to be quite a bit more difficult to get a quality product, though.
ReplyDeleteFor a 50-100 page book you're looking at a cost between $5-$12, depending on actual page count and page size. See this page for details: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/pub_pod_cost.php
As far as upfront costs go, you only pay for the cost of printing and shipping your print copy - likely no more than $20.
ReplyDeleteSorry, a lot of typos in that last post; I've gone in and edited, should be fully readable now. I'm currently on my phone in the Park; when I'm on my laptop I'll jump on this thread again and answer all your further queries.
ReplyDeleteThanks, catty _big. I was wondering if you were taken over by a cat!
ReplyDeleteOk, I can answer three of them now.
ReplyDeleteSet-up DTRPG require a format called PDF-X, whatever that is.
Profit They take off 30% (for exclusive) or 35% (for non-exclusive, i.e. if you decide to go with lulu and/or Amazon as well) post production, so on the former basis, if you price your book at $20, and the print cost is $2, say, they'll take off $5.40, leaving you with a profit of $14.60.
Quality Extremely variable. Ultimately that's the price you for doing it POD. But don't worry, it happens to everyone, even big name designers, and punters are on the whole reasonably tolerant.
Also, if you're selling the thing yourself it's definitely a good idea to go directly to the specific printers, but IMO drivethru definitely earns their cut of your sales in order to reach their audience (and use the built-in marketing tools).
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols Other way round, I occasionally get taken over by a human 🚶😒.
ReplyDeleteSpecialized software needed or, are google's tools sufficient?
ReplyDeleteYou can theoretically print from a pdf made by word/Google docs, so long as you set the margins and bleed up properly, but to get a professional looking book you will need to be using Scribus at least (it's free and open-source). Again DTRPG's downloadable tutorials and templates are very good!
ReplyDeleteAmazon's new print on demand is great quality, affordable, and very easy to use. Format an ebook for the interior, and they help you design the cover and spine. Andrew G. Schneider started using it for his novels recently, and can offer more details.
ReplyDeleteI have printed books for personal use from The Book Patch twice and they're good
ReplyDeleteJames Iles Agree. I do the initial work in Word, and then hand over to my copy bureau guy to convert it into a usable format. But as you say, the best thing is to use their templates.
ReplyDeleteMonica Fulvio's comment reminds me, you may also want to look into producing your game books in an e-book format. Apparently they read much better on tablets etc. than PDFs. I don't have direct experience of that however.
ReplyDelete