There's some discussion about printing and shipping costs for offset hardcover RPG books going round right now, prompted by WotC's announcement of a price rise for Dungeons & Dragons books, and so I thought I'd share some information about the costs involved.
We (EN Publishing) have printed and shipped books very similar to those produced by WotC--hardcovers, 200-600 pages (depending), full-color, offset print runs. Basically the exact same type of book, quality, binding, etc. Of course, we produce at a much lower scale than WotC--where we might print and ship 2,000 books they print and ship many, many times more; and we're just a tiny publisher, we don't have the clout to get the best deals! I only know what we pay, and have no secret information about WotC's figures, but I figured I'd tell you what the numbers are for us, and you can extrapolate as you wish.
That's where economies of scale come in. Just at the scale we operate at, the per unit cost of printing a book drops drastically depending on how many I print. At 500 units, we might be paying close to $10 per book. At 2000 units it's about $5 per book, give or take, assuming a 230-ish page book (our 600+ page Adventurer's Guide was $7 per book for 5,000 units; our softcover adventure Memories of Holdenshire was about $2 per book for 4,000 units). At the tens of thousands (or more!) of units scale that WotC operates at, it's significantly less. I can't tell you what, but I guarantee they're paying a lot les per unit than we are. Printing costs aren't the biggest cost in making a book!
Here's some printing costs we've paid (very roughly). Note we added ribbons to the hardcovers.
Depending where you get your books printed, the price may vary a bit. We print in the EU. In China, it's cheaper, and in the US it's a little more expensive. But what you save on printing, you might pay more for in shipping, and shipping costs are very high right now.
(As a fun side exercise, the same books done via print-on-demand at premium quality are $40 for the 230-page hardcover, $93 for the 600 page hardcover, $60 for the 370 page hardcover, and $20 for the 120 page softcover; as you can see, PoD prices are many times those of offset printing because your economy of scale is '1'.)
Once the books are printed, they'll be sitting at the printer on a bunch of pallets in big piles. Those pallets of books need to go to distribution hubs--your warehouse, perhaps, or a fulfillment partner's warehouse, or Amazon, or a distributor. Depending on where you are printing and where your warehouses are (and for WotC, one assumes various areas globally) that will involve overseas freight shipping by boat. For us, we had to send a bunch of pallets of books by ship from Europe to the US, and a bunch by truck from Europe to us in the UK. It ain't cheap! We paid about $2 per unit in the end for Dungeon Delver's Guide. Depending where WotC prints, there will be transatlantic shipping to Europe, possible across the Pacific from China, or shipping from the US to other locations around the world. When we print and ship from China, it costs us probably 2-3 times as much or more in shipping, and that cost fluctuates a lot right now, especially over the last 3 years.
That gets some big piles of printed books into warehouses. Then, of course, you need to get them to customers, stores, and so on.
A distributor will often handle the next bit. They'll take around 50% of the cover price of the book. I don't know what arrangements WotC has, but I expect they're better than those that small publishers like us get. Still, it's a big chunk of the RRP. So for a $50 book, very very roughly, the distributor gets $25, you pay, say, $5 in production and shipping (likely much less if you're printing at the scale of WotC), leaving you with $20. Of course, those are not the only costs in making a book--that's just one cost out of many. A lot of stuff has to come out of that remaining $20!
We (EN Publishing) have printed and shipped books very similar to those produced by WotC--hardcovers, 200-600 pages (depending), full-color, offset print runs. Basically the exact same type of book, quality, binding, etc. Of course, we produce at a much lower scale than WotC--where we might print and ship 2,000 books they print and ship many, many times more; and we're just a tiny publisher, we don't have the clout to get the best deals! I only know what we pay, and have no secret information about WotC's figures, but I figured I'd tell you what the numbers are for us, and you can extrapolate as you wish.
That's where economies of scale come in. Just at the scale we operate at, the per unit cost of printing a book drops drastically depending on how many I print. At 500 units, we might be paying close to $10 per book. At 2000 units it's about $5 per book, give or take, assuming a 230-ish page book (our 600+ page Adventurer's Guide was $7 per book for 5,000 units; our softcover adventure Memories of Holdenshire was about $2 per book for 4,000 units). At the tens of thousands (or more!) of units scale that WotC operates at, it's significantly less. I can't tell you what, but I guarantee they're paying a lot les per unit than we are. Printing costs aren't the biggest cost in making a book!
Here's some printing costs we've paid (very roughly). Note we added ribbons to the hardcovers.
| Book size | 500 units | 1000 units | 2000 units | 4000 units | 5000 units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 230 page hardcover | $10 per book | $8 per book | $5 per book | ||
| 600 page hardcover | $7 per book | ||||
| 370 page hardcover | $5 per book | ||||
| 120 page softcover | $2 per book |
Depending where you get your books printed, the price may vary a bit. We print in the EU. In China, it's cheaper, and in the US it's a little more expensive. But what you save on printing, you might pay more for in shipping, and shipping costs are very high right now.
(As a fun side exercise, the same books done via print-on-demand at premium quality are $40 for the 230-page hardcover, $93 for the 600 page hardcover, $60 for the 370 page hardcover, and $20 for the 120 page softcover; as you can see, PoD prices are many times those of offset printing because your economy of scale is '1'.)
Once the books are printed, they'll be sitting at the printer on a bunch of pallets in big piles. Those pallets of books need to go to distribution hubs--your warehouse, perhaps, or a fulfillment partner's warehouse, or Amazon, or a distributor. Depending on where you are printing and where your warehouses are (and for WotC, one assumes various areas globally) that will involve overseas freight shipping by boat. For us, we had to send a bunch of pallets of books by ship from Europe to the US, and a bunch by truck from Europe to us in the UK. It ain't cheap! We paid about $2 per unit in the end for Dungeon Delver's Guide. Depending where WotC prints, there will be transatlantic shipping to Europe, possible across the Pacific from China, or shipping from the US to other locations around the world. When we print and ship from China, it costs us probably 2-3 times as much or more in shipping, and that cost fluctuates a lot right now, especially over the last 3 years.
That gets some big piles of printed books into warehouses. Then, of course, you need to get them to customers, stores, and so on.
A distributor will often handle the next bit. They'll take around 50% of the cover price of the book. I don't know what arrangements WotC has, but I expect they're better than those that small publishers like us get. Still, it's a big chunk of the RRP. So for a $50 book, very very roughly, the distributor gets $25, you pay, say, $5 in production and shipping (likely much less if you're printing at the scale of WotC), leaving you with $20. Of course, those are not the only costs in making a book--that's just one cost out of many. A lot of stuff has to come out of that remaining $20!
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