Hardbacks worth the time/money?

[jeremycoatney]

-Hello,
     Here is a question I've been thinking about for some time. Is it worth making hardback copies of books? For clarification, is it worth it to the public is more what I'm asking. Would you honestly prefer a book to be in hardback instead of some other binding style? Would you be more or less likely to buy a book in hardback as opposed to perfect binding(typical soft back) instead?
     It doesn't make a lot of difference to me in terms of time and money because I only print books that have been paid for already, but I do create master copies of each format of the book so that I can show them to people who might be interested, and I will probably drag spare, unpaid for, copies to conventions with me in the future. This makes me wonder; if someone is going to buy a book in the first place, are they more likely to buy a paperback or a hardback? What do you think?

[Josh Roby]

...is it worth it to the public is more what I'm asking.
Would you honestly prefer a book to be in hardback instead of some other binding style?
if someone is going to buy a book in the first place, are they more likely to buy a paperback or a hardback?

Those are three very different questions.

Is it worth it for your consumers to have a hard binding versus a soft binding?  What's going to get the best use?  For my money, the most functional binding for gaming books is comb bound.  I love my printed-out pdfs that I got comb bound at the store downstairs from my work.  These are awesomely handy, lie flat, and very flippable.

Would I buy that spiral bound book off of a shelf?  It would have to have some awesome lay out and art for me to do so, especially if the book's available as a pdf, because then I could do the printing and binding myself for a fraction of the cost.  Would I prefer a hardbound?  Maybe.  Would I prefer a hardbound at the price difference you're going to have to charge using POD?  Maybe not.  And I'm the lesser case, because...

Is "someone" (by which I'm assuming we mean the generic gamer customer) going to buy a hardback over a softcover, given a price difference of five to ten bucks?  My money says no -- the softcover sells faster due to the lower price point.  By which I mean somebody else's softcover sells over your hardback.

In the end, though, you really need to make these decisions based on the game you're talking about.  There is no rule that applies to all roleplaying game books (except, perhaps, be careful not to lose your investment).  Look at the product -- is it more fitting that that product should be hardbound, or softbound?  Or spiral-bound?  What's going to express to the potential customer what it is that they may be buying?  What's going to clash and give the wrong impression?  Then consider all those questions in combination with cost and price concerns.  This really is a big picture question -- it is not just a little add-on feature that you can have or not have without changing the nature of the product you're selling.

[jeremycoatney]

     Yeah, I agree, I suppose it's not really one question, but it's not too bad to combine them into one post.
     You make a good point about comb/spiral binding versus paperback or hardback. Many people find the spiral/comb books to be more functional, but won't actually buy one because of various reasons, my personal favorite being people expressed the opinion that they look amatuerish.
     Actually, I'm not charging any different for going with a POD versus a regular printer though. This is because I set myself up with a specific price in mind for each type of binding in advance, which was low enough not to make people think I was 100% crazy, yet high enough that I make around the same amount of money off of a single print as multiple prints. The result is of course different between the hardback plan (not implemented), and the paperback plan, but to the customer the difference is invisible. The thing that makes the most difference is that POD charges more over time for shipping than a single shipment of books through a normal printing company. I don't charge customers for shipping though.

[Andrew Cooper]

Here are a couple of previous threads on binding methods, if you're interested.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19015.0
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=8623.0

[jeremycoatney]

     Thanks, I'll take a look at them.

[Nathan P.]

I agree that your format decision should come from you, not what you think others will want. As an isolated data point, I sell more of the perfectbound version of Timestream than the coil-bound, despite the 10$ price difference (which is the opposite of what I expected).

So, research your options, decide what makes sense for your publishing goals, and go for it. Thats worked pretty well for me so far.

[Editor Drew]

Hi there...I'm an editor at a major publishing house and for what it's worth there are several items that I consider when proposing the kind of binding for one of my books.  Here's a short list:

1) LOT print run - To estimate the cost of binding and the cover, an inital estimate must be considered in terms of the print run of the text.  If you are going to press with 10,000 copies vs. 1,000 copies, the cost differential between a form of hardback binding and a softcover or spiral bound may drive profits down or push up the price of the text.

2)  The size of the text - Depending on the size of your text, a hardback cover with stitched binding may be necessary for the stability and durability of the spine.  Many books over two inches thick (1300-2000 pages depending on the weight of the paper) will have the binding stitched for added support regardless of the cover stock.

3)  Market - this is a big one as others have pointed to in previous posts.  Does your market dictate a hard cover?  Hard cover texts still convey to the consumer that the contents within are generally of a complex or scholarly nature (graduate or post-graduate level) compared with soft cover books (undergraduate).  Most consumers still regard the spiral bound or perforated/hole punched page texts to contain basic content, presented in a user-friendly fashion...these kinds of bindings and pages are reserved for our workbooks, instructor's manuals, and test banks.  Also, will your publication be on a bookstore shelf somewhere?  If so, spiral bound texts are a poor substitute for either hard bound or softcover texts because there is nothing to print for reference on the spine

4) There are many different kinds of covers out there and weather you go with hard or soft cover you must also consider what will be best to print your front and back cover designs on. For instance, only certain kinds of laminate covers can be used with foil or holograms.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions.

[jeremycoatney]

If so, spiral bound texts are a poor substitute for either hard bound or softcover texts because there is nothing to print for reference on the spine

     You know, that's the single most popular objection to them that I've heard.
     On another note, I had no idea that the book's binding could become unstable because of the size of the text, but my book isn't big enough to create that necessity. It's only around 210 pages long, nowhere near long enough to make it unstable.
     Well, thanks for the advise and info, I believe I have enough information to make my choice, especially being as most people seem to think it should ultimately be my own choice. Do I really want a hard back version? Honestly, I'm not partial to them, so I suppose not. Of course that's why I woundered what other people thought about it.

[MatrixGamer]

No one mentioned perfect bindings real drawback - the pages come out with regular use. That's why I moved to smyth sewing - whither the book is in a hard or soft case, a sewn book's pages will not come out.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games