On Demand Hardcovers?

[seycyrus]

Craziness... I have a Campaigns and a Characters that I take down off the shelf about once a week, and read through before I go to bed. Had em for over 10-15 years. They are still in great shape.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by seycyrus

Craziness... I have a Campaigns and a Characters that I take down off the shelf about once a week, and read through before I go to bed. Had em for over 10-15 years. They are still in great shape.

I cannot speak for certain about who gets what from whom.

BUT


Offset print runs tend to be sewn bindings. My copies of Characters and Campaigns are sewn and basically indestructable. Most POD books are glued and not sewn, and tend to be much more fragile.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Offset print runs tend to be sewn bindings. My copies of Characters and Campaigns are sewn and basically indestructable. Most POD books are glued and not sewn, and tend to be much more fragile.

If anybody remembers the issues with the first printing of the Basic Set 4th Edition books, I'm pretty sure that was caused by them being glued and not sewn binding. For the slightly smaller Campaigns book the glued binding was OK, but the Character book was just big enough that the glued binding would sometimes come loose. After the first printing I believe they switched to sewn binding on all books.

[agamemnonymous]

I would prefer my collection to be exclusively full color hardcover. Since that's not practical for the shorter releases, I'd love series compendiums. If it's On Demand anyway, perhaps custom compendiums might be an option as well.

[hal]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

If anybody remembers the issues with the first printing of the Basic Set 4th Edition books, I'm pretty sure that was caused by them being glued and not sewn binding. For the slightly smaller Campaigns book the glued binding was OK, but the Character book was just big enough that the glued binding would sometimes come loose. After the first printing I believe they switched to sewn binding on all books.

My first copy had pages both out of sequence and missing a few pages. I still ended up buying another set. Back in those days, I was a Die Hard GURPS Fan who firmly believed that every dollar I spent on GURPS products, even if it were a dud, still kept the factory open (so to speak) for the next book that would NOT be a dud. To this day, I have only two really bad "Disappointments" - one of which was GURPS BANESTORM and the other was oddly enough - GURPS MAGIC.

I have both in Hard Cover format, and I've held onto them for all this time. Hell, I think I have THE PRISONER (Soft cover) just because I remember the TV series. Above all though, I always bought at least two books of the good stuff because I was always lending books out.

Those hard covers mean something to me, and were it not for the fact that I have already purchased so many, I might be tempted to buy more. Truth is? I miss that odd feeling of knowing PRECISELY where a given paragraph would be found, which page (odd page or even page) and where relatively that section would be - an ability that I never did develop with PDF books.

**Shrug**

GURPS and I have been together since Man To Man first came out and I melded Man To Man with THE ARCANUM magic system. I still remember my first paperback 3rd edition books that fell apart if I sneezed on them. I still remember my first 3rd edition Revised.

So - for hard cover books on Demand? I would want to buy a NEW GURPS MAGIC revised in Hard Cover. I'd LOVE to buy any future GURPS MEDIEVAL in hard cover. I just recently purchased the Anniversary Edition of Harn World and LOVE the book. I've picked up the Hard Cover copy of C&S Fifth Edition as well as the Anniversary Edition of THE ARCANUM in Hard cover.

On that note, I will return to being somewhat quiet. :)

Still on my quest to reconcile GURPS VEHICLES 2nd edition rules, GURPS ROBOT rules, and somehow cobble something together that suits me better than the Robot rules from GURPS ULTRATECH for 4e. Maybe someday. Or not.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

Hey, all! The following isn't a set-in-stone definite plan, but more of a chin-stroking "Hmm... maybe?" contemplation.

Do folks here have any thoughts about making more hardcovers available as part of our On Demand program?


I'm putting feelers out about the general idea primarily because – if we go this route – it won't be trivial; we'll have to reformat books for the different hardcover specifications, which will take time. And the books themselves won't be cheap (you can compare the Girl Genius formats above as an example).

Again, we're absolutely not making any promises here. Even if we do pursue it, it won't be overnight. But I figure tossing the question out in a public forum like this is an easy way to get some feedback from some of our most dedicated and knowledgable fans.

I will say that the only way I will buy anymore PoD (hard or soft) is in color.

The PoD books don't index nearly as well as the original versions that include section coloring on the edges to make quick access to various parts easier from the moment you pick it up.

I have a few PoD but have been generally ...meh... about the Black and white format.

I like having the physical book, I won't pay for the B&W anymore though. I'll just stick to PDFs I guess. Id much rather see resources spent on updating core gameplay, like the desperately needed update to Magic and spells in general, my set of home brew corrections and changes is fast becoming its own replacement book.

[namada]

Originally Posted by bocephus

I will say that the only way I will buy anymore PoD (hard or soft) is in color.

After replacing 3 of my B&W softcovers...yup. I'm 100% there.

I don't want anything in B&W anymore, at least in print. It's just too good to have color to be worth paying for B&W. I don't care who you are, where you live, or how poor you are, it's worth investing that extra for color.

[sparcipx]

Originally Posted by namada

After replacing 3 of my B&W softcovers...yup. I'm 100% there.

I don't want anything in B&W anymore, at least in print. It's just too good to have color to be worth paying for B&W. I don't care who you are, where you live, or how poor you are, it's worth investing that extra for color.

Unless, like me, you're colour-blind.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by sparcipx

Unless, like me, you're colour-blind.

I'm not colour-blind, but my colour discrimination is poor enough that the colour chapter borders in GURPS books are confusing rather than helpful.

[oma]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

If anybody remembers the issues with the first printing of the Basic Set 4th Edition books, I'm pretty sure that was caused by them being glued and not sewn binding. For the slightly smaller Campaigns book the glued binding was OK, but the Character book was just big enough that the glued binding would sometimes come loose. After the first printing I believe they switched to sewn binding on all books.

This may have been the problem. Both of my books seem to be glued by also have a mesh spine. Not sure if that is sewn. Regardless, they are almost unusable. Thankfully not ALL of my GURPS books are like that, but I do have to be careful with them. My softcover Magic book has held up the best and I have abused it quite a bit, yet it continues to hold together.

I'd love Full Color Hardbound books that are quality. If quality is achievable within say a 20%-30% increase in cost, I'm all down for it. If it is 50% more than a standard hardcover, well, I would be iffy at that point.