Digest size printing

[Matt Wilson]

Offline, Ralph has told me that he had some difficulty getting Universalis printed in Digest size.

Can anyone else comment on their experiences? I think for the amount of text I have, it'd be a good size. Am I going to end up paying more, or fighting more with the printer?

Thanks.

[Dav]

I can only speak of my own experiences.  When we printed Legends in digest size, the cost, with full color cover and about 160-180 pages ended up being about $2 per book.  

We used Patterson Printing (www.patterson-printing.com) based in Michigan.  LOVE THEM.  They are not only genuinely excited to attempt something different, they want to work WITH you to make your product the best it can be.  Very good people, mensch even.

I would suggest looking into them if digest is the way you want to go.  They have a really flash site (not the language, per se, just cool) and it allows you to submit for a quote online.  

Dav

[HinterWelt]

Patterson was very competitive in their quote. So was Bang Printing out of Minnesota. We just got our proof back from Lightening Source and it was beautiful. Lightening Source does to a number of sizes including digest.

Bill
HinterWelt Enterprises
The Next Level in RPGs
William E. Corrie III
www.hinterwelt.com   
http://www.hinterwelt.com/chargen/

[Valamir]

Hmmm.  Perhaps my email wasn't clear.

I didn't have any trouble at all getting it printed in digest size.
Its just that digest size is not concidered an attractive format for the traditional distribution channels.

[rpghost]

The alternate form is something that I hear some people telling me is a bad thing as it's harder for the game stores to put them on the shelves. I donno if that's true or old hat knowledge or what... we did a 5.5 x 8 printing of the GM Mastery book and it sold rather well. Alliance sold out of them... but then again Alliance was stupid and only ordered a couple hundred. But I'm not sure form factor plays a large part in the retailers buying decision (which is ultimately what you're concerned about, right?).

As far as my personal input... if a book is a heavy read (lots of text) and doesn't have a ton of art, it's a great form factor to use.

James

[HinterWelt]

Oh, Sorry. We have always been told that non-traditional sizes are not good. Retailers dislike them and players can feel as though they are not buying a "Full" product. Personal experience with retailers (and as a retailer once) is that some do not care.  A portion of the decision depends on their displays and how your product fits into it all. When we were retailers we did not care since we had open face displays.

From distributors, fulfillment houses, and retailers we have talked to it is considered an unattractive feature but not one that would stop them from carrying.

Just my experience and I do not claim to have met all in the industry. 8-D

Bill

[Valamir]

Yeah, the impression I got was not that it was a deciding factor, but that you're basically starting with 1 strike against you with a non standard format.

[Dav]

We've never had any complaints about the digest-size.  The overall impression was that it was cool because it wasn't common.

Then again, distributors know better than to bitch at me, or I cut them... literally.  1000's of distributors, I don't need them all.

And retailers, I've found, bitch at anything, so I never pay any attention.  They'll order what their customers tell them to order, and customers don't seem to have a great issue with size, format, or any of that flash by-and-large... Especially in supplements.  In core books, or stand-alones, sure, go flash; supplements, they just want the meat (damn cannibals).

But that is a tangent, and we only type secants here...

I wouldn't be overly concerned with gossip or the like... I buy games for the game, not the format, and I've found most gamers, in the end, are the same way.

Dav