DriveThruRPG Print-on-Demand Prices Going Up By As Much As 50% In The US

DriveThruRPG has notified creators that the costs of its print-on-demand books will be increasing significantly. The price increase has been attributed to increasing supply costs in the US. The price increase comes into effect on April 1st, and mainly affects books produced in the US.

• Black-and-white hardcover books will increase from 20%-50% in the US, depending on the size of the book, but only 3-4% in the UK.
• Black-and-white softcover books will see an even greater increase in the US.
• Standard color books will increase by 12%-13% in the US, but only 3% in the UK.
• Premium color books will decrease slightly in the US but increase slightly in the UK.

DTRPG uses Lightning Source as its printing partner, which has a printing facility in the US and in the UK.

Here are some examples of how much books will now cost to print in the US:

Black-and-white:

• 100-page black-and-white hardcover will increase from $8.60 to $11.14.
• 300-page black-and-white hardcover will increase from $13.08 to $19.04.
• 100-page black-and-white softcover will increase from $3.76 to $5.69.
• 300-page black and white softcover will increase from $8.32 to $13.73.

Standard Color:

• 100-page standard color hardcover will increase from $11.90 to $13.45.
• 300-page standard color hardcover will increase from $22.98 to $25.97.
• 100-page standard color softcover will increase from $7.13 to $8.05.
• 300-page standard color softcover will increase from $18.43 to $20.81.

Premium Color:

• 100-page premium color hardcover will decrease from $20.05 to $19.
• 300-page premium color hardcover will decrease from $49.50 to $41.
• 100-page premium color softcover will decrease from $15.87 to $13.75.
• 300-page premium color softcover will decrease from $44.87 to $35.75.

Due to increasing supply costs in the US, Black & White print costs in the US will increase significantly, from around 20% for low-pagecount hardcover titles up to about 50% or slightly more for large hardcover books, and with softcover titles seeing an even greater increase.

UK print costs for Black & White books will also increase, but only by 3-4%.

Standard Color print costs will increase by roughly 12-13% for US printing but only around 3% for UK printing.

On the whole, Premium Color print costs will decrease slightly for US printing but increase slightly for UK printing.

• Example 1: A 180-page large premium hardcover currently costs $32.10 to print in the US; after April 1, that same title will drop to $27.80.
• Example 2: In the UK, the same 180-page book currently costs £20.23, which will increase to £20.93 starting in April.

While this directly affects customers in the US, it also has a potentially disastrous effect on those who are currently running Kickstarters which are fulfilling via DTRPG after April 1st, as the printing costs of their books will be significantly more than budgeted for in the Kickstarter. With the price of a print-on-demand print run increasing by as much as 50%, this could cause some crowdfunders to actually lose money, depending on their margins.

 

[The Soloist]

Does Free League print in the US?

No, they print in China, then ship to the US and use a hub to ship to Canada.

 

[Morrus]

No, they print in China, then ship to the US and use a hub to ship to Canada.

So they’ll be affected by the tariffs on China then.

 

[Koloth]

A price increase was probably coming anyway. My electric company announced a 10% increase for this year after a 3% increase last year. US Postal rates and those from private companies are also higher. Insurance cost have been increasing. The timing of this is probably so folks blame the tariffs but even if the tariffs get fully canceled, I would expect much of this increase to stay in place.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Basically all Geek hobbies are going to be hit with a sack of doorknobs. Hard to discuss the reality of any of this without it becoming intensely political. Simply put, domestic production doesn't exist to work around tariffs in a meaningful way immediately. It would take time and investment. So the end consumer, us, will have to make calculations as to purchases. If you budgeted say $250 for all gaming purchases over 2025 (a made up number), and previously that could be 6-10 purchases, now it will be 3-6 for the year. And since many likely will have to reduce their games budget due to larger concerns like food, utilities and housing, keep trending that number down. Hard to say whom this will most hurt. Might be that people will just make a couple big purchases. Might be people will aim smaller and hold off on big buys till things change.

I recall trying to discuss online the impacts of tariffs on gamer consumer prices, last year and had a bunch of people with strong (supporting) views of the current administration shout it down as "not going to happen". It isn't so much an intensely political discussion as much as it is just some people seeing their reality denial brought home.

 

[Morrus]

I recall trying to discuss online the impacts of tariffs on gamer consumer prices, last year and had a bunch of people with strong (supporting) views of the current administration shout it down as "not going to happen". It isn't so much an intensely political discussion as much as it is just some people seeing their reality denial brought home.

Keep the politics out of it please. Yes, it’s difficult, but please do it nonetheless.

 

[Incenjucar]

This is going to be a real nasty hit to game stores, book stores, and anything that prints guides for things they sell.

I'm glad my FLGS sells food and gaming space so there's a solid chance they can weather this, but this is going to hurt hobbies from every direction.

 

[Staffan]

DTRPG prints and ships from the UK for Europe, so for these books at least it won’t matter much. Yet.

And a lot of TTRPG Kickstarters bound for Europe are printed in the EU or China.

In the medium term, I reckon that it will lead to price increases due to indirect effects. For example, let's say you're printing a book in the US and selling it to a US customer. That won't be subject to any direct tariffs. But AFAIK the US imports a lot of paper from Canada, so the price of paper is going up, which means the printer will charge the publisher more, which means they'll have to have a higher MSRP. So even if you buy PDFs, you'll probably be seeing some price increases.

 

[M.T. Black]

This is really annoying. One reason I've given my products B/W interiors is because it was so much cheaper. I really enjoyed giving my customers good books at relatively cheap prices.

One thing that puzzles me - if these price increases are tariff-related, why did B/W go up more than color? And why did premium color go down? It's peculiar.

 

[Morrus]

In the medium term, I reckon that it will lead to price increases due to indirect effects. For example, let's say you're printing a book in the US and selling it to a US customer. That won't be subject to any direct tariffs. But AFAIK the US imports a lot of paper from Canada, so the price of paper is going up, which means the printer will charge the publisher more, which means they'll have to have a higher MSRP. So even if you buy PDFs, you'll probably be seeing some price increases.

Well yeah, that’s literally what this thread is about. The price of printing in the US going up.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

No, they print in China, then ship to the US and use a hub to ship to Canada.

They might stop doing that, and instead ship to Canada from Europe. Either way it's going to be expensive.