Ashcans for Dummies?

[chris_moore]

My buddy Michael and I want to make an ashcan of our game, psi run, for this year's Gen Con. Only, we know less that jack squat about this process. I mean we're at Square Zero. Could someone point us to some help?  And I mean the most basic type of help?

thanks,

Chris

[Jason Morningstar]

Hi Chris,

Do you need help with laying out your game?  Help with getting it printed?  Can you be more specific?

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hey Chris,

I would PM Paul Czege. Here's a link to the Ashcan Front Website that has a Frequently Asked Questions List on the front page.

[chris_moore]

Clyde:  Thanks, I'm on my way to that site.

Jason:  I need help laying out my game, from the start.  I have a Word document of my game.  What do I do now?  I feel like I should know more about this after reading the Forge for this long, but, I don't. 
Kind of embarrassing, but I really like this game. 

Thanks,

Chris

[Jason Morningstar]

OK, that's a good place to start.  What are your goals?  For an ashcan, there's no need to make it beautiful.  For reference, I've seen Eric Provost's ashcan for The Infected, and it's very straightforward - just letter-sized pages in a binder.  You can do basic layout in Word - making columns and text boxes - and if you have a desire to make it fancier, you might check out the open source layout app Scribus, which is pretty cool.

You could probably ask for help from more experienced layout guys as well, maybe in the Connections forum - I'm not an expert but I'd be glad to help you if I can.

Does this help? 

[chris_moore]

Yes, Jason, that helps a lot.  Thanks!

Chris

[timfire]

How long is your book? As long as it's under, maybe, 50 pages, it's pretty easy to make a 8.5 x 5.5 (a normal 11 x 8.5 page folded in half) saddle-stitched (aka stapled) book at Kinko's.

I've done this, and I like to have them print the pages from a PDF file, rather than copy it (there are various PDF utilities, such as CutePDF that allow you to "print" a file to a PDF). I think the ink quality is better when they print it, rather than copy. When you do this, you need to make sure the pages are in the correct order for when you put the book together. They may be able to re-order the pages for you, I'm not sure, I just did it myself. If you want, you can have them print out the cover on cardstock, 110 lb cardstock is good (but I would buy my own from Office Depot or where ever and bring it in, it's cheaper that way). Depending on size, it'll cost you $1-2/book. If you want a color cover, that will probably add a $1 or so a book.

One word of caution, though. Make sure they SCORE the book before they fold it. Scoring involves pressing a groove into the spine so it folds easier. If they don't--and I learned this the hard way--the spine will develop cracks.

[lumpley]

Cultivate a sense for the possibilities of this kind of publishing. Look at the fliers and zines in indie music stores. I like to flip through graphic design magazines - there's a shelf called "urban" on the magazine rack at my local bookstore, it always has interesting stuff on it. Also whenever I'm in a copy shop I look at all their sample bindings and show-offs and stuff. I'm like, velobind? That's interesting...

I spend a certain amount of time every week just daydreaming about what game books might look like.

An ashcan doesn't have to be beautiful, but you want it to put its foot forward, you know? You want it to look like itself, so that people who'd be interested in your game will also be interested in your book as an object. Your game, your writing, and your physical book should all seem like one thing, not three things trying to share space.

Think about art, even for an ashcan. Think about art that you can make yourself, art you can get from friends, and public domain art, even if your budget includes possibly buying art. Especially think about graphics! Illustrations are good but good graphics are good too.

8.5"x5.5" is a good and super easy size for a stapled booklet. If your game's a little longer, you can go up to 8.5"x7" (half legal), fit more text into the same number of pages. The book's thickness is a real concern if you're saddle stapling. My copy shop won't make booklets over 48 pages (that is, 12 sheets of paper).

You can go up to 8.5"x7" just because it's cool, too, of course. It doesn't have to be for length reasons. Also, your copy shop will certainly be able to trim your book down - think about every size from like 6"x4.5" up, probably maxing out at 11"x8.5".

Then, make mockups! Do what you can in Word, print copies, fold and hand-cut them, mark them up so you can see what you're thinking. Get second opinions but don't take them too seriously. Once you have something pretty good, THAT's when I'd ask a skilled person for input. They'll be able to tell you ten things that you didn't know that'll make your book better, but because you held off they'll be talking about YOUR book, not some imaginary book in their head.

-Vincent