Hardcover recommendations

[Emily Care]

I'm looking for information on sources of hardcover printing for a game book, other than Lulu. Have you used a different printer? What was the quality like? Cost? Customer service?

I'm working on revising my trio of relationship games (Breaking the Ice, Shooting the Moon and Under my Skin) for publication in one volume, and ideally I'd like to have them available in hardcover. The volume will likely be 150-200 pages, digest sized. 

I searched for discussions on this, and I found only older, more general conversations, or ones focusing on Lulu.

Many thanks!

[Simon C]

I'd buy that! Sorry, I can't be more helpful than that.

[Gregor Hutton]

Hi Em,

I had gone to Fidlar-Doubleday last May for quotes when exploring a 3:16 hardback and they sent me a sampler of cloth covers. Paul at Contested Ground Studios then went and got the Hot War hardback (link to thread about it with images) done at Fidlar-Doubleday and was very impressed by the quality.

My quotes for the 3:16 hardback were (and do get updated ones as these were from last year...)

Printed Hardcover:
96 pages @ $6.61
128 pages @ $7.79

Cloth Hardcover:
96 pages @ $7.56
128 pages @ $8.74

To print and insert one color page just add $0.75 to the book price of any option. There are set-up fees and proof fees to consider too: The text would be $30.00 then $0.12/page for a printed text proof. The cover would be $65.00 set-up and then $30.00 for stamped proof and $20.00 for printed hardcover proof.

I guess Publishers Graphics are another option, but I hadn't explored it with them.

Doing a hardback is still on my radar, I think the Hot War one is very classy.

[Malcolm Craig]

Hi Emily,

Here's some figures on a hardback of similar size to your one. As Gregor mentioned, we had the hardback edition of Hot War printed through Fidlar Doubleday. The cost per book (for a run of 25 - 99 books) was $11.60 per 204 page unit. This included foil stamping on both the spine and cover. The additional setup costs were as noted by Gregor. Oh, and the cost also includes shrink-wrapping the books in sets of five.

One thing we didn't get from Fidlar was dust jackets. We had those printed here in the UK, at a cost of about $0.65 each.

The quality of the finished books was excellent and I can heartily recommend Fidlar Doubleday.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Malcolm Craig]

Oh, I should also note that these were cloth hardcovers, not printed hardcovers. Should have mentioned that in my initial post.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Emily Care]

Thanks for the information, Malcolm and Gregor. Malcolm, was it difficult to find a place to print the dustjackets? Or is that a standard service? Especially since yours were cloth...? And OMG foil?! They must look spectacular.

Thanks, Simon! That's very useful information too!!!

[Malcolm Craig]

Hi Emily,

We actually used a poster printing supplier to do the dust jackets. They printed and trimmed them, then supplied them to us flat. Then we folded them (or, to be strictly accurate, Paul folded them) into the correct shape. As we only had 50 copies done in the initial print run, the folding wasn't too onerous a task. If the quantities were any larger, it might be worth sourcing dust jackets that come pre-folded. I actually think that Fidlar Doubleday offer this as an option, although I'm unclear on that point. Kory at Fidlar is extremely helpful and should be able to give you any information your require. His email address is: kcogdill@fidlardoubleday.com

The foil blocking (we actually chose to use flat black, rather than metallic) on the cover and spine did work out very well and gives the entire product a very handsome look.

If there's anything else I can help with, feel free to ask more questions.

Cheers
Malcolm