GURPS On Demand

[Willy]

That´s the old problem with small production lines and scalability. A printed version allways needs more money pre production work and investment, even if all runs well and you even sell enough to make another print of the same version viable, downloads are by far cheaper in production.

You have to pay only for the writing, editing and layout, no further costs than the serverinfrastructure SJG already has. The costs for SJG are nearly the same if SJG sells 100 or 10K of a product, it´s nearly worldwide available with no shipping costs and hazards, if there is a update you just swap the file to the new version on the server and that´s is. Yes economical it makes a lot of sense to go this way.

While I love paper books there is little chance that I buy ever a POD product, because I can print my personal version, If I need it and that´s just due to bad eyesight and easier reading.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

POD usually is more expensive per copy. It's less of a risk because you don't have to guess how many copies you're going to sell.

Yes I realized that if you are going to sell out everything you print then PoD is not the way to go. But when measuring risk you take into account everything you said. So maybe for the basic set books you print them yourself but for other books maybe PoD is the way to go.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Willy

While I love paper books there is little chance that I buy ever a POD product, because I can print my personal version, If I need it and that is just due to bad eyesight and easier reading.

I guess we differ on that. I think if absolutely nothing could be bought in physical form that would be a big negative for me. I like the small focused pdfs though because I know I probably have zero chance of getting them in physical form anyway. The DM focused books are far easier as pdfs. That is why I bought magic in pdf and physical. And I'm not sure I can print my own book that cheap but I suppose I should look into lulu.com as it's been recommended.

I think stuff like city stats, boardrooms and curia, etc.. are very GM focused and I can get by just fine without a physical copy. That is true for most adventures but if the map were really nice then that would be a reason to have a physical copy but that would be the only reason and the pdf advantages probably outweigh that most of the time.

[thorr-kan]

One "On Demand" question I've been meaning to ask: Why use Amazon for POD rather than DriveThruRPG for POD, since the PDFs are already available through DriveThruRPG?

I realize the answer is a business reason of some type, but I'm just curious. And if the answer is "We won't discuss that part of the business," that's cool, too.

[Baldo]

Originally Posted by thorr-kan

One "On Demand" question I've been meaning to ask: Why use Amazon for POD rather than DriveThruRPG for POD, since the PDFs are already available through DriveThruRPG?

Amazon PODs come from Poland, this means NO Customs tariffs for EU customers like me (to my knowledge, DriveThruRPG PODs are printed in the UK, and Brexit turned most books from the UK into a bad deal...).

[philreed]

Originally Posted by thorr-kan

One "On Demand" question I've been meaning to ask: Why use Amazon for POD rather than DriveThruRPG for POD, since the PDFs are already available through DriveThruRPG?

Complexity. The DTRPG process is fiddly and requires more effort.

[thorr-kan]

Originally Posted by philreed

Complexity. The DTRPG process is fiddly and requires more effort.

Complexity combined with a small number of employees with better things to do equals business reasons. I figured it was something like that. Thanks, Phil.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Arcanjo7Sagi

Wouldn't that be a feature of the GURPS fan subculture? Because in other RPGs, like D&D and WoD/CoD, until recently it wasn't uncommon to re-release books for recent editions. In Werewolf, The Apocalypse, for example, if I'm not mistaken, the Book of Wyrm has versions for 2E, 3E and W20. In Mage, The Ascension, there was recently M20 version of the Technocracy book.

A lot of the V20/W20/M20 stuff has been Kickstarter driven, I bought into a lot of them before I faded because I realized I never actually read them, much less played them. But with Kickstarters I assume the big advantage is that not only do you find out how many people want it in the concrete "will pay for it" sense, they pay up front, even at the risk that the end item may never materialize.

[Prime Evil]

Originally Posted by Baldo

Amazon PODs come from Poland, this means NO Customs tariffs for EU customers like me (to my knowledge, DriveThruRPG PODs are printed in the UK, and Brexit turned most books from the UK into a bad deal...).

Amazon PoD is great for those of us in Australia, as it means we don't have the international shipping costs and delivery times associated with printing in the USA or Europe. I've bought a couple of PoD books recently and have been happy with the quality. I'm looking at picking up Ardonirane for TfT and a couple of the GURPS Conan solo adventures when I get paid next. I simply wouldn't be able to afford this so often if I had to ship them in from another part of the world - the shipping costs are a killer.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Prime Evil

I simply wouldn't be able to afford this so often if I had to ship them in from another part of the world - the shipping costs are a killer.

Thank you for posting that! This is exactly why we've been trying to find ways to get titles into the GURPS On Demand program. We want the books to be available across the world, and this approach means more can be spent on the actual books and help many save money on the shipping side.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/ondemand/

We will absolutely keep adding books to the program when possible.