I have access to a few good artists and writers and was thinking it would be cool to do a monster book or Book of Bad Guys for d20. I was wondering if any of you have an idea of how much it would cost to produce such a book and how to get it to the shops. The ideal format is hardback, full color. Also, if that doesn't seen doable, how good is the PDF market, is it even worth putting out material PDF?
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PUBLISHING a Monster Manual
- Thread starter Romus
- Start date
Sir Whiskers
First Post
I can't speak to the cost issue, but for myself, I have plenty of monster books. Once I add templates and such, I don't really need more. OTOH, well-written, interesting, sometimes offbeat npc's (whether humanoid or monstrous) would definitely be worth a look. Just my two cents...
DragonLancer
Adventurer
NPC's I could do myself so they fit the campaign easier, but you can never have enough monsters.
the Jester
Legend
I too am always up for another book o' monsters.
Npcs tend to need too much tweaking for me to buy a book of 'em.
Npcs tend to need too much tweaking for me to buy a book of 'em.
Ed Cha
Community Supporter
You'll need to figure out how many pages this thing is going to be. Generally, 750-1000 words per page is the norm, but with a monster book a lot more space is going to be taken by illustrations and margins. Calculate how much you'll pay for art, layout, graphic design, and editing. Then get printer quotes. You'll also have to budget for shipping costs, advertising, LLC set up, etc. Of course, you'll need a Web site, too, if you don't already have one.
I wouldn't suggest doing this on your own. You might want to consider submitting your idea to an existing publisher instead. You'll most likely make money that way and get your book in the hands of more people than you would doing it all yourself.
If it's under 64 pages, I'd go for a PDF. Otherwise, it's too large for most people to want to download. I don't know too much about the PDF market though.
I wouldn't suggest doing this on your own. You might want to consider submitting your idea to an existing publisher instead. You'll most likely make money that way and get your book in the hands of more people than you would doing it all yourself.
If it's under 64 pages, I'd go for a PDF. Otherwise, it's too large for most people to want to download. I don't know too much about the PDF market though.
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