Topic: printing costs breakdown
Started by: Matt Wilson
Started on: 9/19/2002
Board: Publishing
On 9/19/2002 at 4:54pm, Matt Wilson wrote:
printing costs breakdown
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.
On 9/19/2002 at 4:57pm, Ron Edwards wrote:
RE: printing costs breakdown
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
On 9/19/2002 at 5:10pm, Matt Wilson wrote:
RE: printing costs breakdown
Ron Edwards wrote: 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.
On 9/19/2002 at 8:53pm, Mike Holmes wrote:
RE: printing costs breakdown
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
On 9/26/2002 at 8:11am, Alex Knapik wrote:
PDF Guide to Reproduction from Red Ink
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