Discussion of POD Tech

[beetle496]

The GURPS POD titles that I am interested in buying are 4e Steampunk 1, 2, and 3.

I cannot figure it out! Please help.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by beetle496

The GURPS POD titles that I am interested in buying are 4e Steampunk 1, 2, and 3.

I cannot figure it out! Please help.

Sadly, none of those appear to be POD yet. See the list here...
It takes time and money to set things up so its typically done a book or two at a time.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by beetle496

The GURPS POD titles that I am interested in buying are 4e Steampunk 1, 2, and 3.

I cannot figure it out! Please help.

Originally Posted by Refplace

Sadly, none of those appear to be POD yet. See the list here...
It takes time and money to set things up so its typically done a book or two at a time.

In addition, SJGames has yet to make any of their PDF only products available as PoD; the products they have made available were all originally released as printed books. This is likely because creating a PoD of PDF only products would require an extra step: creating a cover, which includes layout time and possibly licencing artwork, both of which are non-trivial additional costs costs.

So it seems unlikely that the Steampunk PDF releases will be made available in PoD anytime soon. This means your best bet would be to use a service like Lulu or your local copy shop to have the PDFs printed in book form.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

This is likely because creating a PoD of PDF only products would require an extra step: creating a cover, which includes layout time and possibly licencing artwork, both of which are non-trivial additional costs costs.

The output required for printing is usually double or so the resolution as for PDF (my PDFs are 144 to 150dpi; printing requires 300dpi for photos and 1200 for black/white line-art). If the original layout files are in hand - and they may not be - and all the original art meets spec, it does require separate cover files as you say.

If the art is the wrong resolution, or if there's no simple way to include a "bleed" zone on the existing layout, or any number of things, it gets messy quick.

[beetle496]

Thanks Eric for pointing me to this discussion.

It just seems very peculiar to me that SJG would not incorporate Amazon POD requirements for new releases. OTOH, it probably maximizes profits to have PDF as the only choice for a year or two, then once sales levels off, turn on the Amazon POD option.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by beetle496

It just seems very peculiar to me that SJG would not incorporate Amazon POD requirements for new releases. OTOH, it probably maximizes profits to have PDF as the only choice for a year or two, then once sales levels off, turn on the Amazon POD option.

I don't think it's a matter of "giving it a year or two" but instead a matter of resource management. There's one or two people at SJGames that prepare all of the PDFs and PoDs that SJGames releases. There is limited time and limited budget for these projects. Do they bring back books that have been out of print for 15-20 years or set up newer PDFs to be PoDs? To they spend their art budget on new PDFs or on setting up covers for older PDFs?

Right now it seems that they are choosing to get older books back in print on PoD. I would love to see them at least try to get some newer PDFs on PoD, if only to act as a viability test. Some likely candidates for this are the various series of PDFs: Action, After the End, Monster Hunters, Steampunk, and Power-Ups. They could do the Dungeon Fantasy series, as 1-4 already have covers and had a limited print run, but the DFRPG kind of steps on them, as does the old print run, so it a different product might be better. Of the others Power-Ups, After the End, or Monster Hunters seem like better choices to me.

[beetle496]

When you are in a hole, stop digging!

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

I don't think it's a matter of "giving it a year or two" but instead a matter of resource management. There's one or two people at SJGames that prepare all of the PDFs and PoDs that SJGames releases. There is limited time and limited budget for these projects. Do they bring back books that have been out of print for 15-20 years or set up newer PDFs to be PoDs?

Agreed, bringing back out-of-print books is a better use of resources.

My point was that new stuff -- the born digital materials -- should be supporting POD out of the gate. This is obvious enough that my assumption is that the new stuff not being available for POD is strictly a marketing decision.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by beetle496

My point was that new stuff -- the born digital materials -- should be supporting POD out of the gate. This is obvious enough that my assumption is that the new stuff not being available for POD is strictly a marketing decision.

Let me suggest an alternative possibility: supporting POD requires sufficient additional work over and above that necessary to publish a work as PDF that there's a cost decision to be made. Making the book in the first place and releasing it costs $X. Preparing it for POD, I very strongly suspect, costs an additional $Y because somebody has to spend the time undertaking the necessary additional tasks. Since POD sales don't appear to be a guaranteed money maker, it makes more sense to wait to see how well the PDF sells before spending that extra money. A book which sells a lot of copies as PDF is more likely to sell a significant number as POD and is therefore worth the added investment. Something which doesn't sell well as PDF is unlikely to sell better as POD and therefore is unlikely to make that additional investment back.

(What are those tasks? No idea. Maybe reformatting, maybe ordering and hand-checking a test copy, maybe wrestling with Amazon's upload systems, maybe doing the ritual dance to appease the spirits of the printer. But I'd put money on the supposition that there are tasks/additional costs, because it's glaringly obvious that if they could offer books as POD at no additional cost to them they're leaving money on the table every time they don't.)

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by beetle496

This is obvious enough that my assumption is that the new stuff not being available for POD is strictly a marketing decision.

Honestly, I think it's more a matter that they have not adjusted their production process to put the new PDFs into the POD stream during production; as I noted they have not released any of their PDF-only products as Amazon POD (they released a few earlier PDFs as "POD," but what they called "POD" was really limited print runs, not true POD like Amazon).

I agree, they probably ought to make that change, but they haven't.

[beetle496]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Honestly, I think it's more a matter that they have not adjusted their production process to put the new PDFs into the POD stream during production;

That makes sense. How new are the Amazon POD offerings? It is new to me, but SJG has been talking bout POD (in generalities) for years. I have the impression that the first Amazon POD offerings were a year or two ago. But maybe I am imagining that?

I agree, they probably ought to make that change, but they haven't.

Fingers crossed.