logic of low POD sales?

[HinterWelt]

I didn't think RPGMall offered glossy covers.

Sorry, my POD was done through Lightning Source, a POD/electronic distribution company. I ship books to RPGMall straight from the printer.

Bill

 

[Dimwhit]

Sorry, my POD was done through Lightning Source, a POD/electronic distribution company. I ship books to RPGMall straight from the printer.

Bill

Bill, you do glossy hardcovers with Lightning Source? We use them for Trade Paperbacks, but the hardcover samples we got from them didn't thrill us. You get good quality on those? Can you give me a few hardback titles you have them print?

Thanks.

 

[HinterWelt]

Bill, you do glossy hardcovers with Lightning Source? We use them for Trade Paperbacks, but the hardcover samples we got from them didn't thrill us. You get good quality on those? Can you give me a few hardback titles you have them print?

Thanks.

Sorry, Glossy soft cover, L1S, CMYK cover. The titls of the book is Tales of Gaea. It might be in your FLGS if you have one. We found the softcover stood up nicely to Shades of Earth done by Bang. As i have said, few retailers could even tell the difference. We were very pleased with the quality. The service...another story. They had a problem with the RIP process they were using and the background on our pages. They kept running out of memory on thier printers. It took us some time but eventually we got there.

I would not recommend them for hardcover. Their price is prohibitive and any samples we got were terrible. Bang on the other hand has done some nice work. Their bindings seem strong and proces are beyond competitive. You do need to keep an eye on them though, as they do not send you blue lines unless specifically instruct and are reluctant even then. The proofs they send are run on a digital laser. Not the same.

Sorry for all the confusion guys.
Bill

 

[Dimwhit]

Sorry, Glossy soft cover, L1S, CMYK cover. The titls of the book is Tales of Gaea. It might be in your FLGS if you have one. We found the softcover stood up nicely to Shades of Earth done by Bang. As i have said, few retailers could even tell the difference. We were very pleased with the quality. The service...another story. They had a problem with the RIP process they were using and the background on our pages. They kept running out of memory on thier printers. It took us some time but eventually we got there.

I would not recommend them for hardcover. Their price is prohibitive and any samples we got were terrible. Bang on the other hand has done some nice work. Their bindings seem strong and proces are beyond competitive. You do need to keep an eye on them though, as they do not send you blue lines unless specifically instruct and are reluctant even then. The proofs they send are run on a digital laser. Not the same.

Sorry for all the confusion guys.
Bill

OK, that makes sense. The hardcopy samples we got from LS weren't great either. They do a good job with out novels, but like you, we've had customer service issues. But I find that if I send them perfect files, there doesn't tend to be an issue. It's getting perfect files together that is the issue...

Never heard of Bang. If their prices are reasonable for hardcover, we might look into them.

Thanks for the info!

 

[HinterWelt]

Never heard of Bang. If their prices are reasonable for hardcover, we might look into them.

Thanks for the info!

Contact info for Bang:
Bang Printing
3323 Oak Street, PO Box 587
Brainerd, MN 56401
PH800) 328-0450
FAX218) 829-7145

Phil Wagner
philw@bangprinting.com
http://www.bangprinting.com

We have had pretty good experiences with them. The trick is to make sure of your proofs. It is about a six week turn around on hard cover and about 3 on soft. I don't want to lead you astray, some companies have had bad experiences with Bang but they seem to work with you to get them resolved.

Bill

 

[Dimwhit]

Thanks Bill! I'll chat with my partners and see what they think. I appreciate the info.

 

[Fast Learner]

Self-edited, I've removed my lengthy reply to Dana.

Suffice it to say that in my opinion, Dana does not know anything currently useful about inexpensive offset printing in the 21st century.

 

[philreed]

I've had extensive work experience on and off over the last 20 years, in all aspects of the field.

is it just me or does Dana's experience cover anything and everything and continue to lengthen so that what is 6 months to me is several years for Dana?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Moving back onto topic...

I have bought POD novels, but have never purchaed POD gaming material.

The largest chunk of this is the PDF materials I buy tend to be items that I print up piecemeal. For example Philip. J. Reed's Campaign Planner, Silverthorne Games' Book of Templates Delux, Ambient's Librum Equitus Compiled, and World Works cardstock terrain. I like being able to pick and choose what gets printed. (Major excetion to the piecemeal printing - Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe by Expeditious Retreat.)

The Auld Grump

 

[Sir Whiskers]

So why don't they sell?

Is it the lack of instant gratification that PDFs offer?
Is there a perception that POD products are poor quality?
Is the option simply not being used enough to have gained popularity?
Does the (generally) small size of PDF products make them not cost effective in POD format?
Is it simply that RPGnow has become the place for PDFs, and the people who go there are just not interested in printed products?

For me, the number one reason is lack of availability. I've seen a number of pdf's at RPGNow which I would prefer to have in print, but the option wasn't available. Of course, this problem is probably due to my next point:

I will not pay the same price for POD material that I pay for typical retail books. A friend picked up a POD book for me and my immediate reaction was that it was well done, but not that much better than what I could have done at work (I worked at a copy center at the time). As an example, Sidewinder: Recoiled is $37.00 POD. Should I buy that, sight unseen, or spend my money (say $39.95) on a hardback book I can first leaf through at the store? I understand that even at $37 the publisher probably isn't making much gross profit, but my buying decisions are based on how much value the product has for me, not how much I'd like to help out a publisher.

As a general rule of thumb, for any publisher considering POD, figure out what the cost of your product would be. Then honestly compare the product's value to three other normal products on the market at the same price point. Be sure to discount yours slightly for being POD, since it really isn't quite as good as offset printing. Then ask three friends/colleagues who haven't slaved over the product which item they'd spend their money on, if they could choose just one. Then make your decision.