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.

 

[Lidgar]

Wow, glad I just pulled the trigger the other day on a bunch of Shadowdark POD stuff. Right now their POD prices are very reasonable.

 

[J.Quondam]

How strange. There's a handful of items on my dtrpg POD wishlist, so I'll go ahead and pull the trigger. Thanks for the heads up.

Is this industry-wide? Any idea if other print services like Lulu, etc, will be affected?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is this industry-wide? Any idea if other print services like Lulu, etc, will be affected?

Yes. A large percentage of books sold in the US are printed in Canada. This is a tariff-related issue. Big printing projects from major publishers are often printed in China, so expect to see increases across the board for books.

 

[J.Quondam]

Yes. A large percentage of books sold in the US are printed in Canada. This is a tariff-related issue. Big printing projects, from major publishers, are often printed in China, so expect to see increases across the board for books.

Ah, right. I was expecting that for large-scale publishing. For some reason, though, i thought small-volume orders were mostly printed in the US for US customers, so I figured that would remain mostly unscathed. But I figured wrongly, apparently. Ink, equipment, etc, costs, I guess.

Sigh.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ah, right. I was expecting that for large-scale publishing. For some reason, though, i thought small-volume orders were mostly printed in the US for US customers, so I figured that would remain mostly unscathed. But I figured wrongly, apparently. Ink, equipment, etc, costs, I guess.

I believe that, in some cases, tariffs in publishing are applied multiple times, with wood from the Pacific Northwest going into Canada (tariff), getting turned into wood pulp, turned into paper, bound into books, and then sent back across the border (another tariff).

(Something similar happens with car parts, which can cross the border into and out of Mexico multiple times before they finally get put into a finished car and sent back to the US. Apparently parts manufacturers are trying to get exemptions, but the effectiveness there is TBD.)

 

[Bedrockgames]

Been going over this notification tonight

 

[jdrakeh]

Hmm. I was considering pulling the trigger on some more RPGs that I will definitely never run/play. Perhaps now is the time.

 

[Scribe]

 

[Joshua Randall]

When you put it like that…

BUY! BUY! BUY!