D&D 4E 4E at the printers...but we don't see it until June?

[Filcher]

Shipping from China, via boat. I've actually seen books held up in customs of all things.

 

[unobserved]

Weren't few pages we have seen at DDXP a kind of press test thingies? I mean, the process of proofchecking the printouts might be as well going on for few weeks already and we got the announcement that FINAL version of the books started to be printed en masse right now.

I wasn't at DDXP so I don't know what was on display, but it's entirely possible that what was on display was just some high quality color laser prints of pages in the book that they were working on.

And yes, proof-checking will have been going on for week in house, but you always, always, always need to do another round when it comes back from the printer. If not for facts and content correctness than at least to make sure that all the colours, layouts, fonts and bleeds were correctly converted from your design documents to the print-press.

"At the Printers" can be a very misleading statement. It could mean that all of the pre-press and colour correction has been done and they are now printing it (or as other people pointed out, waiting to be printed based on the printers schedule) or it could mean that they have completed "work" on the book and have sent the *complete* books to to the printer for the first time to begin the pre-press checks.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Shipping from China, via boat. I've actually seen books held up in customs of all things.

Yep, it really can take that long. This isn't a simple Print on Demand job with a spiral binding (at least I hope not).

 

[unobserved]

Shipping from China, via boat. I've actually seen books held up in customs of all things.

I could be wrong, but based on the complexity of these books I doubt that they would be shipped from China. Not that China isn't capable of printing something high-quality, but with a amount of back-and-forth that will need to go on for all the colour correction and touch-up in the artwork that appears on every page, WotC will probably be going with as local a printer as they can find.

As I said, it's almost a guaruntee that they'll have more than one person at the printers during the entire time that the books are coming off the press to make sure that each and every section prints correctly.

I could see mass-market paperback novels and such being printed in china no problem. low quality paper, page after page of just one font, same margins on every page, no bleed, huge volume, no problem.

But not books like this. They'll be done local.

 

[trancejeremy]

I think really big stuff like the Harry Potter books, get printed up to 6 months in advance.

Don't forget shipping as a big factor. Not from the printer, but to the stores. Products like this that have street dates will ship to stores about a month early so they can use the cheapest shipping possible to save money.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

ok, so it will take 10 weeks to print, but still why no digital pdf? I mean thats done, right?

 

[unobserved]

ok, so it will take 10 weeks to print, but still why no digital pdf? I mean thats done, right?

Minus any last minute changes or corrections; sure. But I think WotC would rather launch a product that people can purchase and hold in their hands without having it spread like wildfire all over the internet before the presses have even had a chance to start rolling.

I guess that's the same reason that movie studio's don't release movies for rent until they've hit the big screen, and TV shows don't make episodes available for download before they've aired, and, well, every other book publisher in the world not releasing their books until they've been printed.

Sounds like smart business to me, but maybe I'm just old fashioned.

 

[Ryngard]

I think really big stuff like the Harry Potter books, get printed up to 6 months in advance.

ACTUALLY I have a friend (one of the gaming group) that worked at Berryville Graphics where the HP books were printed. They printed them mere weeks (2-3) before release date. It was NUTS. He'd have to work 12-16 hours, they were under guard (even to the bathroom) to make sure they didn't steal it, etc.

However, a text novel is a far different beast than a full color gaming manual. As a Print Shop owner, I'd say three month turn around for all three core books is a GOOD time.

Plus you have to schedule things. They may be ready to sell in mid-April but the schedule is May so they sell in May. That's how WotC employees can start talking about (I have the finished copies on my desk... etc) them like weeks before we can buy them.

Its a tricky business but its proper.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

I really have no clue, but I would imagine that it makes sense from a marketing perspective to release the digital pdf's and physical books at the same time. Especially since it's vastly easier to pirate ready-made pdf's than it is to make your own pdf's to P2P with.

Not that I would do that, but it's inherently easier to illegally distribute digital information. So that factor, combined with no physical books for weeks upon weeks, would likely cut into WotC's profits a fair bit as people gobbled up the pdf's to get their first look.

Edit: I feel it's important to clarify that I haven't distributed illegal copyrighted stuff on the internet. I'm just a computer science guy, so I understand that something legally distributed digitally is easier to illegally distribute digitally than something that was distributed legally.

 

[breschau]

I'm hoping that someone with more of an insider's view of the publishing world can explain that. In my mind, once the books have been printed you need, maybe, a month to check the first-run proofs for errors, and start shipping to distributors. Why, if the books are going to the printers now, will it take 3 months for them to be available?

Not a gripe, not a rant...I'm just genuinely curious.

-F5

The very first step of sending a book to the printer is to get proofs back. There's a 2 day turn around for that and the full-run is printed.

Many full-color hardback books are printed over seas (re: China) it takes about 2 months for the books to reach the States, then you have to distribute them through to the books stores, which takes a few weeks or a month. That's how you end up with books on the shelf at some stores before their release, because more often than not, if the book's on time, it's sitting in the store room waiting for release day.

I could be wrong, but based on the complexity of these books I doubt that they would be shipped from China. Not that China isn't capable of printing something high-quality, but with a amount of back-and-forth that will need to go on for all the colour correction and touch-up in the artwork that appears on every page, WotC will probably be going with as local a printer as they can find.

There's no printer in the States that can match the quality and price offered by off-shore printing. The cost of the book would nearly double if it were printed in the States.

As I said, it's almost a guaruntee that they'll have more than one person at the printers during the entire time that the books are coming off the press to make sure that each and every section prints correctly.

Not really. The printers are professionals who know how to do their jobs.

But not books like this. They'll be done local.

As per above, many/most of the high-quality color books are done in China or off-shore. Next time you hit a book store, find the gardening books, and coffee table books with all the photos. 90+% of those will have been printed in China. It's industry standard.

ok, so it will take 10 weeks to print, but still why no digital pdf? I mean thats done, right?

Yes. The digital pdf and the InDesign files (along with all artwork and font files) was likely sent the day they made the "at the printers" announcement. It's this kind of printing lag that you can see in publishers like Green Ronin. They release the pdf a bit ahead to catch any big mistakes (and the gamers fill threads with found typos and other mistakes), then they send it to the printer. It's really smart, because the hardcore pdf crowd partially covers the cost of printing the physical book. But, WotC doesn't want the book out as pdf yet, so we wait.