Does (Book) Size Matter?

[Justin D. Jacobson]

On a slight tangent, I wonder how d20 products would go down in a different size? There has been decidedly little exploration of this by publishers.

The only thing that specifically comes to mind (other than Mongoose's pocket-version rules-rehashes) are the Heroes of High Favor line by the guys at Bad Axe. Perhaps they'll chime in?

[baron samedi]

Brent,

Many publishers set an additional cost for games over 300 pp. My first published RPG had 500 pages, and my small-press editor had me break in down in two 250 pp. to keep the costs down. (The continuity seemed broken, however). My second book, a campaign for Mechanical Dream, was 7"x7" circa 200 pp. and high cost too, but the format wasn't in conformity with the rest of the line, which made it ugly IMHO and poor to handle. I suggest you keep a standard format if you plan on doing many books, different sized books for a same game look awful on a shelf.

I suggest you think your size and page count thoroughly first, because games over 300 pp. of any format can be a problem, depending on book format. From actual experience, Dogs in the Vineyard's format is quite handy for IRC play with only a hand available... :)

Good luck!

Erick

[baron samedi]

BTW, I'm going for A4 (European) for my next game because of the page count (200 pp.) ; I think small size does it good for small quantities of text, which could make a 8x11 book look anemic, but a 6x8 book look good, as said earlier.

One thing I learned from The Forge also : wide margins make for an easier read. It seems counter-intuitive as it's less dense, but it does make reading more fun after a few pages, compared (for example) to Testament D20's extremely dense size 8 text in two-column 8x11 format. The book is great, but I'm reading it two pages per day because of eye fatigue...

:)

Erick

[Zach]

One poster above, Andrew, even experienced an increase in book cost with the smaller format, though I wonder if design changes and/or printer's setup charges had more to do with this than raw cost of ink and paper--we await the case study.

While I was checking out local printshops for alternatives to Lulu (but still wanting to keep the 6" x 9" format), several of them balked at the non-standard size. A true 8.5" x 11" sheet, folded in half was much cheaper than the 6" x 9". The reason that I was given was that they would be chopping a different size of paper down to size and be left with a lot of useless scraps. While a book equal to half of a  8.5" x 11" was cheaper than the full-sized option, anything "weird" was much more expensive.

(In the end I stuck with Lulu for Intergalactic Cooking Challenge.)

[andrew_kenrick]

While a book equal to half of a  8.5" x 11" was cheaper than the full-sized option, anything "weird" was much more expensive.

I suspect that's the reason too. I do know that many printers balked at the idea of such a small size book, and several told me that I'd have to place a substantial minimum order with them, so a higher unit cost is in line with that.

[Valamir]

It will all depend on the printer and what they normally do.  There is nothing inherently unusual about small size.

8 x 5 1/4 is standard Trade Paperback size, found in large quantity on the shelves of any chain book store.
8 1/4 x 5 1/2 is standard Digest (i.e. Reader's Digest) size.  Fallen out of use but it used to be a common magazine format.
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 is standard half letter size.  I've never had a printer balk at giving me quotes at that size.
A5 is (I believe) the European paper size closest to these dimensions and is pretty common.

6 x 9 is a fairly unusual size.  Mailers come in that size, with the implication that the item being mailed should be smaller than that in order to fit.  So printing at that size you'll probably run into greater variety in pricing between printers who are more able vs. less able to accomodate.

[Luke]

Burning Empires is 656 pages of digest hardcover.

I for one am of the heretical viewpoint that such a pagecount should get full-size book, or something in the middle, ala Eden's Witchcraft, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, etc.
For reasons of ease of perusal.

Guy, I think it's awesome that you posted off-topic in this thread just to complain about the size of Burning Empires (which I you haven't seen). That rocks. Dro should take lessons from you.

rock!
-L

[Steven Stewart]

Just an observation, or a strange fact,  but the smaller digest size, or even paperback size of books is extremly common for Japanese TRPG. While I can't read Kanji at all, every time I go to the game store I pick up a few of the Japanese RPG to look at their sheer differances in presenting a different format for the same type of product. Its very easy to find the english section of the gamestore, go look for the large tall books, while native Japanese books are much smaller usually magna sized. Which probably makes sense, also most if not all the illustrations are magna as well.

As a consumer I actually prefer the smaller sizes and weights. I think one of the most important aspects of a book is its strength and ability to be handled roughly, and constantly shoved in and out of bags, flipped through a lot rather than its size. A smaller tougher book is better than a larger weaker book.

Cheers,