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]

I am not a customer of these but I gotta ask... can someone explain (possibly not just "guess") why the premium printing prices are going  down instead of up like the rest?

We've talked about it earlier in the thread.

 

[Li Shenron]

We've talked about it earlier in the thread.

OK thanks. I do not see it and I think I know why, my bad.

 

[Maccwar]

For some reason the DTRPG print on demand prices seem to have jumped dramatically in the UK, at least for some of the D&D books.

Back in September I bought the rules Cyclopedia hardcover for £21.19, today that same book is now £30.62

Some of the softcover items I ordered are now fractionally cheaper, I think this might be mainly the hardcovers.

 

[aramis erak]

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.

And that's all before considering that the administration is also targeting all the social safety nets, and also looks to be going after Federal Employee Retirement System, too. (We've two disabled vets in the house, and 5 disabled persons of 7 total. The two non-disabled are non-drivers, and we live a day's hike from employment opportunities.)

RPGing as a hobby has a surprisingly high number of persons making use of the various social safety nets.

 

[ced1106]

Many RPG's are available as PDFs, and, if you don't actually play the RPG, then you don't really need it, do you??? Yes, a tangible physical book is nice, but hardly essential if you're not playing the game. When you do regularly play RPGs, how many systems do you play a week? One? Two? Certainly not so many that you're buying hardbacks every month that you're actually playing, not just reference books you might find useful in your campaign.

 

[Professor Murder]

Many RPG's are available as PDFs, and, if you don't actually play the RPG, then you don't really need it, do you??? Yes, a tangible physical book is nice, but hardly essential if you're not playing the game. When you do regularly play RPGs, how many systems do you play a week? One? Two? Certainly not so many that you're buying hardbacks every month that you're actually playing, not just reference books you might find useful in your campaign.

That all may be true for you, certainly. But physical media is superior in that when I have it, I own it.

As for owning games I will never play or run, yeah, but I like to READ games. It makes me a better GM all around to be exposed to numerous ideas, even if they are paths I don't go down.

But the final point this position is overlooking is that PDFs are way underpriced. Which is good for consumers but bad for game publishers. And if they were to become the default model, they need to go up quite a bit to make game production feasibly profitable.

Again, we are avoiding the elephant in the room by not discussing politics, that's fine, but the mentality that people should learn to be happier with less is a trap. People should not be happy at all with these events and should think sincerely about what's about to happen to this hobby.

 

[Morrus]

That all may be true for you, certainly. But physical media is superior in that when I have it, I own it.

The same is true for a PDF. Once you've downloaded it, you've got it. On your computer, on a thumbdrive, wherever.

 

[Sacrosanct]

The same is true for a PDF. Once you've downloaded it, you've got it. On your computer, on a thumbdrive, wherever.

You also get free errata and updates (in most cases), which you don't get with a physical book.

 

[Professor Murder]

You also get free errata and updates (in most cases), which you don't get with a physical book.

For me, this is a double edged sword. One of the things that soured me on 4th Ed is that they kept making small changes. I sometimes feel that, similar to video games, having online access for publishers to make later changes means they can feel encouraged to release an incomplete product and patch it later or can feel the sway of the crowd and keep tinkering with the book.