The design history of SNAP (a generic “system” to build & run Narish games) I can trace back to this May 2001 post, but the publication history . . . let's see, 2 Gen Cons back it was a failed publication, last Gen Con I barely got a not-what-I-really-wanted version ready, and despite a lot of chaos in the last year, it looks like I've met my revised publication goals for this Gen Con.

Before we get to the cautionary tale of last year, some background on my publication strategy: for quite a while, it's been my plan (good or ill) to really SELF publish this.  I own a Canon i9900 printer, capable of printing on paper up to 13 x 19 in size.  15ish years back, I did small-scale tech writing and publishing using the then-newborn PC/Laser printer combo (Ventura Publisher, and download those custom fonts to your HP, oh what fun!), creating product manuals for custom-developed department-level DB apps. I know a couple people who've stayed current with the onward march of desktop publishing, and one guy agreed to bring me up to speed on InDesign and etc., so the project was an opportunity to learn some stuff I wanted to learn and get the book done. 

My girlfriend and I are also amateur (VERY amateur) photographers.  We have great fun with a couple different versions of the Panasonic FZ-series superzoom cameras (when she worked at IBM, she got a GREAT discount from Panasonic, for some reason).  Over the years, we've manged to get a few shots that are pretty (IMO) nice, so my book was to be illustrated with digital photos – interior color!  And large format, maybe 9.5 x 13!  I also took a bookbinding class somewhere in this time frame, so – build my own hard covers!  Super-cool.

Now last years’ cautionary tale begins.  Having experienced a TOTAL failure the year before, I did have several layers of backup plans, but they ended up being just BARELY enough (and left me with a product I was less than thrilled with).  Problem one – the “help” on InDesign never materialized.  Lesson – if you ain’t paying someone else, you really are left with just the SELF.  Problem two – I waited too long to engage my “use a local printer” backup, and they dropped the ball, too (proof was butchered, and their turnaround time was going to make it impossible to get things done in time). 

Third backup plan – print it myself, just using (as it turned out) MS Publisher.  By now, the time was running short.  Scrambling, I was unable to find any commonly available text (non-photo) 13 x 19 paper – but that’s OK, the hardcover idea is out due to time constraints anyway.  11 x 17 is easy enough to get, and I picked up a case of 32/80 Brilliant White, Smooth Monadnock Paper Astrolite at a good price.  That’ll let me print an 8.5 x 11 pamphlet, which I thought would be fine.  It turns out that I don’t like 8.5 x 11 as a gamebook format (and very few Forge games are printed that way), but I was thinking a bigger photo would be a good thing.

But the text pages are only part of the book, I still needed a cover stock.  My local printer had given me 100ish sheets of 11 x 17 standard C1S (coated one side) stock to make up for their fiasco, but of course a little research revealed that’s no good in an inkjet (I still have it, somewhere – no idea what to do with it).  Since the plan was to print photos, I found a quality 76# two-sided matte photo paper (apparently, they don’t have it in 11 x 17 anymore)  that looked like it would work and wasn’t overly expensive.

Add a long-reach stapler, and I was ready!  Ready to make a pretty basic, 8.5 x 11 stapled pamphlet, but – ready.   I started with the covers – since I was doing this by hand anyway, I thought “hey, every cover, a different photo!  And no title - JUST the photo!”  While I like the look, it turned out to not work well at all in the rack at the con – some identification on the cover is just a good idea.  And matte – while again, I like it – may not have been the best choice, either.  But those realizations came later.  I ran the cover stock through the Canon once, printing the picture, and then set to laying out a back with basic info, the name, etc.  By now, I had only a few days left.  So of course, Windows chose to glitch then.  I recovered, and printed the back on a few pictures to confirm the layout.   Then it was time to import the text into MS Publisher and start getting it minimally laid out (no pictures, no style, no where near enough time, and in the process I managed to screw up some sections of the text with old, unedited versions – argh!).

Printing this was a huge relief (I didn’t find the text problem until after the con, though I had my suspicions), but – slow.  I was out of time, even after pulling an all-nighter or three.  My flight was on Tuesday, so – final production would have to happen in Indy.  Which meant Kinkos, with copier-quality paper and printing for the interior, and – ah, shit.  I never did finish printing the back covers.  I only have one or two of ‘em.  Getting THAT done at Kinkos was annoying (damn good thing I emailed the .pub file to my Yahoo account), and twice as expensive as they told me it would be.  I spent way too much of Wednesday and Thursday at Kinko’s (oh, demo materials – my local print shops’ attempt to “help me out” on those was a disaster too).  But I had my book (and I ran way-too-long demos).  And thanks to the curiosity and kindness of Forge-folk, I sold some of ‘em.  I was exhausted the whole con, demoralized, not nearly as effective at promoting the game as I thought I should be, but – I learned some stuff.  Hopefully.

Wow, that’s much longer than I thought.  I’ll post here about my adjustments to this year’s SNAP printing before the con, but there’s some demo-prep I really ought to finish first . . .

Gordon

Gordon I feel your pain!

I really like printing and book binding but they are exercises in frustration. All that work to climb the mountain only to see the next valley and the mountain beyond it. There is a lot of learning along the way though. Please come by my booth (Hamster Press Booth 122) and we'll talk about printing and book binding. I'm further down the road on this learning and would love to help other book binders along in making art games. (You've not yet encountered the fun to be had with laminators!)

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

I'm partially interested in self-printing and binding. Can either of you guys post some photos of your finished work? Especially the hardcover stuff? I really enjoyed Chris' posts about his printing and binding process and I'd love to see what the quality looks like. My wife and have thought about producing a small quantity oddly shaped hardcover book.

Chris - Yup, if you don't enjoy it, at least in that not-all-fun-but-damn-I-DID-it way, this is a very, very stupid idea.  That's part of my reason for posting it here.  And I've read with great interest many of your posts about printing and binding (reading and not posting is all I've been able to squeeze in of late).  You're obviously more skilled and experienced at this, and if I go with anything more sophisticated than a staple binding, I'll need all the help I can get. 

Adam - My only finished hardcover was a (non-game book) class project, given as a gift.  Maybe at Christmass/New Years I can get a photo of it . . . Pictures of the SNAP softcovers should be up at www.snap-game.com in a few weeks.

Gordon