printing costs breakdown

[Matt Wilson]

I was looking for certain bits of publishing info in the resources section and didn't see it, and I'm a bit surprised.

I do a lot of printing-related stuff at my job, and didn't see much up as far as what the costs of printing something are. How much is this kind of binding, how much more if you want to do a bleed, that sort of thing. What's cool about digital offset, etc.

If this is available and I missed it, good. If not, I'd be happy to write something up, if there's interest.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Please do write up a summary for us! That would be excellent.

One thing that bears emphasizing, though, is that most of these costs (to the client) are not fixed. I've found paper costs, labor costs, and any number of other influences on the printer's bill to fluctuate a lot. That's why bidding is such a big part of paying for print, especially at the small press level.

Best,
Ron

[Matt Wilson]

Hi there,

Please do write up a summary for us! That would be excellent.

One thing that bears emphasizing, though, is that most of these costs (to the client) are not fixed.

Good point, and that's probably one more thing that the would-be published game designer might not know. "What, there's bids?" I'll put some info together.

[Mike Holmes]

That's excellent. I found that getting a game published, I had no idea what to expect as far as printing costs. When I finally settled on what seemed to be the most reasonable printer, the cost was much higher than I anticipated. Leaving me to believe that perhaps I had been taken. Even at this point I can't be sure.

Also, when doing this, I had to learn the lingo. Could you give us a little glossary?

I don't know why we didn't think to ask for this a long time ago.

Mike

[Alex Knapik]

This link might be useful: http://red.beat.com

People from alt comics publisher Highwater Books put this PDF together about publishing your own minicomics. You can skip the first 14 pages unless you're into home-made minicomics like me, but Jordan Crane's 'Print' section is pretty worthwhile if you're serious about working with a printer on a book. It's got some printing term definitions and the numbers Jordan talks about for alt/indy comics are similiar to minipress game books.

I also strongly believe that his comments about artistic presentation *should* be applied to people making indy games - the biggest weak spot I've seen in minipress RPGs is lack of attention of physical presentation and graphic design.

http://red.beat.com/pdf/reproguide.pdf