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.

 

[Morrus]

I thought the thread was about specifically POD pricing going up? I was pointing out how it would also affect pricing of regular PDFs.

PDFs? I can’t see how it would.

 

[Staffan]

PDFs? I can’t see how it would.

As I wrote, higher paper prices leads to higher MSRP, and PDFs are often priced at MSRP minus so-and-so many percent (often 30%). Of course, if you set the price of the PDF independently of physical MSRP it shouldn't change, but that's generally not what I see – at least not unless the price is artificially lowered because the publisher wants a cheap entry point in the hopes of selling adventures and sourcebooks (Paizo does this, with PDFs of both rule books and adventure path installments costing $20 despite rulebooks usually being 400+ page behemoths that cost $60 in hardcopy and APs being 96 pages and costing $30 in hardcopy).

 

[Sacrosanct]

PDFs? I can’t see how it would.

It crossed my mind that loss of book sales means I need to up PDF price to make up the difference.

 

[Earl of Fife Games]

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

I'm not 100% sure that's true. Maybe it is now, but as of Vaesen at least, they were using Lavonia, which is in Latvia. I looked at Blade Runner and it doesn't specify. I know Modiphius uses Standart.

As far as PDF prices, I saw a "fairly big publisher" state they may have to raise PDF prices to subsidize their decline in print revenue. I don't know if others will follow this trend or if it will be needed.

 

[The Soloist]

I'm not 100% sure that's true. Maybe it is now, but as of Vaesen at least, they were using Lavonia, which is in Latvia. I looked at Blade Runner and it doesn't specify. I know Modiphius uses Standart.

As far as PDF prices, I saw a "fairly big publisher" state they may have to raise PDF prices to subsidize their decline in print revenue. I don't know if others will follow this trend or if it will be needed.

It says printed in China on my Dragonbane box.

 

[Sacrosanct]

FYI, books printed in China are legally required to disclose it on the front page. So that’s the place to check

 

[DarkCrisis]

It seems that only a really really stupid narcissist with a lot of power they don’t deserve could cause something like this to happen. Just a guess though. I wonder what the reason actually is.

 

[Umbran]

It seems that only a really really stupid narcissist with a lot of power they don’t deserve could cause something like this to happen. Just a guess though. I wonder what the reason actually is.

Please don't.

 

[Earl of Fife Games]

It says printed in China on my Dragonbane box.

Might just be a boxed set thing. Walking Dead was printed at Standart according to the book.

 

[Morrus]

Might just be a boxed set thing. Walking Dead was printed at Standart according to the book.

Seems likely. Standartu doesn't do boxed sets. We print books with Standartu (as do a lot of UK/EU publishers) but for our starter sets etc. we have to go to China.