Cafe Press publishing

[talysman]

we've known it was coming soon for a while now, but Cafe Press just put up information on their website about selling print-on-demand books through them. you can do set-up right now, but they won't actually start selling the product for you until july 28th.

Cafe Press books

their base price is based on binding ($5 for 'wire-o" or saddlestitch, $6 for perfect binding,) plus 6 cents per page. perfect binding, when it's available, will have a minimum page count; perfect and wire-o have pretty high maximums, but saddlestitch is a pretty low maximum.

my question is to people who have priced other print-on-demand services. how does this compare to other services? you would, of course, have to cancel your store after six months of no sales to avoid their new charges, but this is balanced by not needing to pay any set-up fees for printing at all. does the pricing compare favorably or poorly to other services?

[rpghost]

Appears to be about 2 times the cost of other print on demand publishers including RPGMall.com

James
http://www.rpgmall.com/pod.php

[Paul Czege]

I agree with James. It doesn't look the least bit competitive to me. John, do you know if they're printing these one at a time, as orders come in, or if the shop owner is paying up front for printing multiple copies that are being warehoused by CafePress?

Paul

[jdagna]

I guess the question is whether the page count refers to page numbering or physical sheets of paper.  If it's only physical sheets, then they're slightly on the high end.  If it's page numbering, they're way out there.  Either way, you can find much better pricing.

[Mike Holmes]

If it's only physical sheets, then they're slightly on the high end.

Even this way, James' version is still about half the price. The RPG mall deal is really excellent from what I've seen.

Mike

[talysman]

I agree with James. It doesn't look the least bit competitive to me. John, do you know if they're printing these one at a time, as orders come in, or if the shop owner is paying up front for printing multiple copies that are being warehoused by CafePress?

it's the standard CafePress setup: you pay nothing, just upload your source files and set your sell price. CafePress prints them when someone orders the product and ships it out for you. you get the difference between your sell price and the base price (minus some percentage, which is a rule they added recently.)

so it does have certain advantages, but I still think, judging by what people have said here, that I will go with someone else for my RPG products, probably RPGMall, although I will have a CD component that will have to be done some other way. I would have liked to be able to sell a book-and-cd product (cd sleeve in the back cover,) but I don't know of anyone doing anything like that for POD. I will have to put off those plans for later.

thanx for the info!

[Paul Czege]

Hey John,

I would have liked to be able to sell a book-and-cd product (cd sleeve in the back cover,) but I don't know of anyone doing anything like that for POD.

You might contact Andrew Cameron at Express Media and ask him if they do that kind of thing: ASCameron@ExpressMedia.com

Their website (http://www.expressmedia.com) leads me to believe they might: "We specialize in just-in-time manufacturing and delivery of information products: books, diskettes, CD-ROMs, and the final assembly and packaging of multimedia kits."

I used them to print My Life with Master...the books having just arrived to me today. Their prices are exceptionally competitive.

Paul

[rpghost]

...people have said here, that I will go with someone else for my RPG products, probably RPGMall, although I will have a CD component that will have to be done some other way. I would have liked to be able to sell a book-and-cd product (cd sleeve in the back cover,) but I don't know of anyone doing anything like that for POD. I will have to put off those plans for later.

Actually, RPGMall does offer that option. I think it's like a $1 for the cd to be attached. Check out the worksheet for price.

James

[Clay]

For the rates that Cafepress is offering, you can go to your local copy shop and get them printed.  It starts to add up pretty quick to do it this way, too.  I had a set of user manuals printed for a client and got a bit of a shock when I got the bill.

Go with someplace like rpgmall, which isn't raking you over the coals so hard.

[rpghost]

Go with someplace like rpgmall, which isn't raking you over the coals so hard.

Yeah, we just gently drag you across them. :)

James

[talysman]

For the rates that Cafepress is offering, you can go to your local copy shop and get them printed.  It starts to add up pretty quick to do it this way, too.  I had a set of user manuals printed for a client and got a bit of a shock when I got the bill.

Go with someplace like rpgmall, which isn't raking you over the coals so hard.

although (as I've said) I will probably go with RPGMall, I would just like to make something clear: CafePress is not actually "charging" you for their services. they charge the customer for the service, deduct their base price and fee, and give you the remainder. this can be very important if you are starting from a zero capital position: local copy shops and other options require capital, CafePress doesn't.

but if you have the necessary money to get X books printed, then capital is not a problem, and CafePress is not the best option, based on James and others have said about RPGMall. likewise, if you have unusual product needs, such as I have for a couple products, CafePress is just not going to be an option.

my question (which James answered) was meant to be about how CafePress would compare to RPGMall in a situation where I was ordering the books in advance. everyone is right about this being too high of a printing cost, but we really have to be careful not to misconstrue their services

[rpghost]

Since the average cost of 10 books (our minimum) is about $25-30, if you don't have that or can't come up with it - one has to wonder how creative or serious you really are. I mean, come on- can't you mow a couple lawns and earn that extra cash?

I'm not meaning any disrespect here, but people complaining about a $30 investment in their future business just makes no sense to me. Sure it might take a while to sell the hard copies - but you'll have them for customers who want them. You'll be able to reqest copies for youself to hold and impress your friends. Mostly, you'll get on our convention table with the book. Find me a lower buy-in ... In the case of Cafe Press - you are the marketing angent, you have to convince people to buy. RPGMall on the other hand helps you.

James