Important notice about print-on-demand - PoD book printing

#1

TL;DR: Order any books you want from Drivethrurpg without any delay.

There is something important going on with Drivethrurpg.com (and maybe possibly with similar print-on-demand services) and I’d like to warn everyone.

The following is quoted directly from Drivethru’s publishing area (emphasis mine):

Starting July 1st, premium color book titles will be printed on different presses. This change will reduce the cost of premium color books by roughly 6 percent, but it may well result in a reduced vividness in color. Black-and-white and standard color books will not change presses; however, due to commodity price increases, the price of these books will rise by roughly 2 percent, effective July 1st.

If any of you guys want to buy some physical books, it seems that now is the perfect time. After July 1st, either the prices will go up or the quality will go down.

In the publisher email they sent to me, Drivethru says that they don’t yet know how much the quality of color books will drop. It may be something noticeable or not but if you want to play it safe, go and buy whatever you need before the end of this month. Don’t forget to take printing queue into account, it may take well over a week for a book to be printed.

This may not be such an issue for ICRPG books (including mine) because the bulk of the books are usually only black and there is not much color anyway. So, that is up to you. I just wanted to let you know.

Happy gaming!

#2

Me, an Argentinian who can’t buy anything overseas :sob:

#3

Well, I can’t buy anything overseas either, so you are not alone.

#4

Did they say if it would affect card printings as well?

#5

Any strong recommendations?

#6

@bleaquehaus
AFAIK card printing isn’t affected. See below.

@inmatarian
What do you need?

#7

Just received an email from drivethru concerning card printing.

There is a price hike coming to card printing. Effective after July 1.

If you were thinking about ordering some cards, do it now! Orders before July 1 won’t be affected.

After this date, publishers (like me) will have to increase their prices.

All hail inflation!

#8

Starting July 1st, premium color book titles will be printed on different presses. This change will reduce the cost of premium color books by roughly 6 percent, but it may well result in a reduced vividness in color . Black-and-white and standard color books will not change presses; however, due to commodity price increases, the price of these books will rise by roughly 2 percent, effective July 1st .

How do you know which are the Premium colour and which are the standard B&W and color ones?

I imagine the Core, Magic, Worlds softcovers are all standard. Also, anyone know if the hard cover WAR || Maker premium or standard?

I had ICRPG core first through Amazon (without PDF) and when I got Worlds and Magic thru RPG …Thru… I was totally disappointed by the reduced vividedness of the colours (red n black) already in comparison. :cry:

#9

Very easy. Each physical item being sold on Drivethru lists its print quality (underlined green):
ss

ICRPG Core etc. used to offer both premium and standard colors for a while. Not sure what the current situation is. Just find them and look for their description as I’ve shown here.

Hmm this would be bad but as publishers we cannot do anything about this.