PDF to Print: cost?

[invokethehojo]

So I'm working on my own game that I hope to sell as a PDF online with the hopes of making enough money to then do a print run to put in stores. I'm still early in this process and I was just wondering if anyone can tell me what I might expect it to cost me to do a print run. I don't know what a print run would normally be, on the one hand I would guess 500 to 1000 books, on the other hand I see sales for PDF's from new companies aren't usually that high, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Any help?

 

[Kazoo]

Free. A lot of companies like lulu.com allow printing on demand.

 

[invokethehojo]

Thanks, but I'm more looking into what it would cost to get my PDF product printed into a softcover book that I can put on a shelf in a store for people to flip throught before they decide to buy it. I'm also not sure if the printing and distribution go hand in hand (as in one firm does both) or if that is seperate.

 

[afstanton]

Distribution is a completely different can of worms from printing. I don't know what the current rule of thumb is, but for a while it was that the printing cost per copy should roughly be 10% of the sale price. (A $50 book should cost $5 to print.) In general, you won't get that kind of efficiency with a small print run, and you should definitely shop around. Many companies have their stuff printed outside the US and shipped here.

You really need to plan out each step of this before committing a largish chunk of money to it. I made that mistake 8 years ago, and I have a lot of books in storage as a result. Unlikely that I'll ever sell them, and I still owe the money for it.

Take the time to make the layout look good, and be willing to spend the money on good artwork, especially the cover.

Keep asking questions. There are people here who can help.

Good luck.

 

[afstanton]

What might work is to put it up on Lulu first and see how well it does there. Get a few hardcopies from there to take to conventions and/or send out to distributors to try to get some interest as a test market, and only then ramp up to full production.

 

[EP]

What might work is to put it up on Lulu first and see how well it does there. Get a few hardcopies from there to take to conventions and/or send out to distributors to try to get some interest as a test market, and only then ramp up to full production.

Agreed. In order to make worth your effort, you'll more than likely have to run in the thousands to keep your costs low(er) but if the demand for your product is too low, you're left with a lot of Christmas gifts in storage. Starting off with Lulu will give you an idea of how risky this venture would be and doesn't run you into debt if it doesn't pan out. Remember than even the big boys keep their fingers crossed for 5000 sales and they had to become big boys before they could make those numbers.

 

[invokethehojo]

Thanks you guys. I didn't know a place like lulu existed, that will be a huge help.

I'm just getting started here, my time table is probably 2 years before I look at putting out my finished products, so I'm asking around to get an idea of what I'm getting into and how much capital I need to have. I've helped my father run the family business most of my life, so I have a little experience in most aspects of product development and promotion, but I haven't done anything outside of manufacturing besides bieng the editor for my highschool literary magazine 10 years ago. Of course I've played RPG's my whole life, and they are my passion, so with my father nearing retirement I figure I better give my own dream a shot before I have to step in and take over the reigns of his.

 

[EP]

I'm just getting started here, my time table is probably 2 years before I look at putting out my finished products, so I'm asking around to get an idea of what I'm getting into and how much capital I need to have. I've helped my father run the family business most of my life, so I have a little experience in most aspects of product development and promotion, but I haven't done anything outside of manufacturing besides bieng the editor for my highschool literary magazine 10 years ago. Of course I've played RPG's my whole life, and they are my passion, so with my father nearing retirement I figure I better give my own dream a shot before I have to step in and take over the reigns of his.

Really, that's the best reason to get into this: passion. At least, that's what I'm hoping too. When you have a realistic expectation for results (which is little), it's really requires passion to push forward and keep it up.

 

[Dredan]

Print-on-deman info

Agreed. In order to make worth your effort, you'll more than likely have to run in the thousands to keep your costs low(er) but if the demand for your product is too low, you're left with a lot of Christmas gifts in storage. Starting off with Lulu will give you an idea of how risky this venture would be and doesn't run you into debt if it doesn't pan out. Remember than even the big boys keep their fingers crossed for 5000 sales and they had to become big boys before they could make those numbers.

What was stated is somewhat true, I just published my Campaign Setting "Dredan Realm of Metal & Myth". It is published under the OGL from Wizards of the coast. As for Print on demand, there is a ton of different websites all over. My suggestion is that you try 48hrbooks.com, they have a nice calculator where you input your pages, how much is color and they will tell you right there what your price is. BTW they do their print runs from PDF. So you upload a finished PDF and that is how they print. Good luck!

 

[EP]

OBS (AKA OneBookShelf, who runs RPGNow and DriveThruRPG) are supposed to be close to having POD up and running on their sites again. When that happens, you'll be able to set up PDF and POD sales simultaneously and the market has changed since this last happened. For small time publishers like ourselves, it can be a huge boon with little capital.

Mind you, you're looking at having something two years from now, so I'm sure there'll be different options by that time.