True Print on Demand for GURPS?

[demonsbane]

The POD subject has been discussed many times, but this makes me wonder if something has changed lately concerning technology and costs.

Not necessarily Drivethrurpg, but something along the same lines could be really great for only-PDF GURPS releases. Including Pyramid issues.

I mean, true Print on Demand, with SJG's design standard —without oneself arranging the documents at Lulu, setting the covers, the book spine text, etc.

Thoughts?

[Anaraxes]

The link seems to be broken.

Certainly I can see some minor value in having a standard, pre-configured set of POD options. If the POD vendor's interface had such a feature, then SJG or, for that matter, fans, could create those configurations to make it easier for others that wanted one-click purchases.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

The link seems to be broken.

Thanks for the heads up. I just fixed it.

[Anaraxes]

Do you know if the printing is done in-house? The link seems to be for retail purchase, so I didn't see a lot of details there on how the books are produced. WotC of course has the scale to do things that other publishers might find difficult. It probably takes the same one POD expert to set up the process and keep it going, whether that's selling ten copies or ten thousand. Without enough volume, you'd have to leave it in the hands of third-party POD services.

I was trying to think of ways to provide a consistent product with less work and knowledge required of the purchaser. Most POD services naturally want to give their customers more options and control, to suit a wider variety of buyers. But the spine, at least, ought to be part of the product, just like rest of the cover, so you don't have to craft your own. (Is spine art even a possible option in the PDF format? Not much use for display purposes, but as a POD input format, you'd want it.)

I can imagine different end-users having different preferences on binding types, and also for pricing options like B&W versus color, so some of the options will need to be retained.

[GM Joe]

For me, if there was just a POD-compatible cover (front, spine, and back as one image) included with PDF purchases, I'd be happy.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by demonsbane

The POD subject has been discussed many times, but this makes me wonder if something has changed lately concerning technology and costs.

Or it may just be that the numbers, so far as technology-related costs go, are pretty stable but returns on investment work out differently for Tactical Hasbros of the Coast, or whatever name they're operating under these days. They do vastly more business than SJ Games does, so they will likely realize far more sales per product with, very likely, about the same costs on their side as SJ Games would have to put into it, and putting out editions of old books allows them to cheaply tap into the OSR fad, making it more clearly a profitable arrangement for them. I'd love to see easy PoD for GURPS books, of course, but there's a world of difference between what makes sense for the big publishers and what make sense for SJ Games.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by GM Joe

For me, if there was just a POD-compatible cover (front, spine, and back as one image) included with PDF purchases, I'd be happy.

THIS. I've never done PoD with a GURPS book because of the covers. Make that available to me, and I'm PoDing all over the place.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Do you know if the printing is done in-house? The link seems to be for retail purchase, so I didn't see a lot of details there on how the books are produced. WotC of course has the scale to do things that other publishers might find difficult. It probably takes the same one POD expert to set up the process and keep it going, whether that's selling ten copies or ten thousand. Without enough volume, you'd have to leave it in the hands of third-party POD services.

OneBookshelf/DriveThru/RPGNow offers the POD service using Ingram's Lightning Source, and it's available for any publisher working with OneBookShelf that wants to use it, and can produce PDF files to the required specifications (which are apparently a bit more stringent than what's required for Lulu).

Edit: This means, of course, that SJGames or any other publisher could use Lightning Source directly if they wanted to do so. OBS just has an arrangement already, and offers a go-between if dealing with Ingram isn't your thing.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Do you know if the printing is done in-house?

I have no further data.

Originally Posted by GM Joe

For me, if there was just a POD-compatible cover (front, spine, and back as one image) included with PDF purchases, I'd be happy.

Yes, I also believe this would be an excellent idea.

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

Or it may just be that the numbers, so far as technology-related costs go, are pretty stable but returns on investment work out differently for Tactical Hasbros of the Coast

Very likely it's that. However I'm open to surprises!

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Armin

OneBookshelf/DriveThru/RPGNow offers the POD service using Ingram's Lightning Source, and it's available for any publisher working with OneBookShelf that wants to use it, and can produce PDF files to the required specifications (which are apparently a bit more stringent than what's required for Lulu).

Edit: This means, of course, that SJGames or any other publisher could use Lightning Source directly if they wanted to do so. OBS just has an arrangement already, and offers a go-between if dealing with Ingram isn't your thing.

After long and fretful consideration because I'm an amateur, I went with DTRPG for my own Kickstarter ("Dungeon Grappling"), mostly because even though a 50-page, premium grade, full-color book would be about $7 to print (and I could definitely get it cheaper, maybe by half, through PrintNinja if I wanted to wait the 7-12 weeks to take delivery and print through China), it shipped to the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Greece, Germany and more for less than $5 (for that particular book).

They seem to have a deal where they print locally in each area and distribute from there. I can ship five books of that size, for example, to the UK for that same price

I don't know about quality yet ('cause my art isn't in) but the DTRPG option for single copies seems like it's a very good method.