Just In Time Printing

[djkester]

I've read a couple of posts up here regarding the printing cycle for Hero Games and I actually admire the directness of the responses from Steve.

My question is of a similar nature to others but I feel compelled to ask it anyway because I just love having books and not PDFs. At least until a worth while android tablet can get created.

Would HERO Games consider using a just in time printing company like Lulu for those of us who just have to have the printed book for products that are currently out of print or yet to be printed?

I realize that the cost of just in time printing is not nearly close to the cost of standard printing but I for one would consider the printing of the PDF to be a personal expense and not a part of my product purchase price. At least enough to consider the option.

In any case I love the products here and the high quality standard that the company goes for.

[Steve Long]

We continue to keep our eye on just-in-time printing methods, but so far we're not yet satisfied with the quality or the cost. For now we prefer to stick to traditional printing methods for our books -- but I wouldn't be surprised to see a better solution rear its welcomed head someday in the not too distant future. ;)

And as for a desire for a worthwhile Android tablet... amen, brother. :thumbup:

[BobGreenwade]

Lulu's cost isn't too terrible. It could work for those projects that, though big enough for print, otherwise would only appear as PDF downloads -- and of course you can still make them available as PDF downloads. For example, you could possibly do updates for Terran Empire and/or The Turakian Age and do them via Lulu -- they'd be a little more expensive than a regular Hero book of the same size, but at least you wouldn't have to worry about things like warehousing a large print run.
I'll let you know what the quality's like when the approval copy of Realm Hunter: Pursuit of the Silver Dirk arrives (probably some time early next week) -- unless of course you decide to check it out for yourself. Which I hope you do. ;)

(I do understand that what I say won't necessarily change your mind, but I'm glad to see that said mind is open to such ideas.) :D

[mayapuppies]

If you have a print copy of any of the D3 Games titles, then you can tell the quality of Lulu.

[Steve Long]

For example, you could possibly do updates for Terran Empire and/or The Turakian Age and do them via Lulu

The difficulty here is that for a project to be worth my time to work on, it either has to be really small (like an HPA), or extensive enough to turn into an actual printed book. Trying to produce things for POD means taking a lot of my time for books that won't earn enough money compared to other things I could do with the same time.

[djkester]

I'll let you know what the quality's like when the approval copy of Realm Hunter: Pursuit of the Silver Dirk arrives (probably some time early next week) -- unless of course you decide to check it out for yourself. Which I hope you do. ;)

Bob, I read novels nearly 100% on my Kindle. Do you have a PDF version available for purchase or better yet a Kindle version?

Dave

[djkester]

The difficulty here is that for a project to be worth my time to work on, it either has to be really small (like an HPA), or extensive enough to turn into an actual printed book. Trying to produce things for POD means taking a lot of my time for books that won't earn enough money compared to other things I could do with the same time.

Steve, thank you for the response. Being a business man I totally understand the time for reward that must go into the planning of the projects. My question was more related products that are already produced or will be produced than those that might be produced.

[TOTALLY OFF TOPIC]
Also, on the Android front. I have a strong reason to believe that Motorola is coming out with an Android Tablet this next year. Also, since I work in the business of building mobile applications development I'll be able to provide a solid review once these devices arrive. :)

I do have a lot of experience with the iPad and although I like the form factor the device IMO is pretty light weight in terms of features and memory. Additionally, I'm not super fond of their applications release model.

Well back to the topic.

[BobGreenwade]

The difficulty here is that for a project to be worth my time to work on, it either has to be really small (like an HPA), or extensive enough to turn into an actual printed book. Trying to produce things for POD means taking a lot of my time for books that won't earn enough money compared to other things I could do with the same time.Part of why I was suggesting these was that they could (potentially) be updated by just applying 6th Ed stats and leaving the rest of the text intact.

For that matter, you might even just leave the 5th Ed stats in, and use the original layout; if you're not going to update them at all, put them on POD once your stock runs out. That way they can continue to be available with minimal investment and fuss.
Bob, I read novels nearly 100% on my Kindle. Do you have a PDF version available for purchase or better yet a Kindle version?There's a PDF download available, currently at $1.96 (through the rest of the year).

[mattingly]

If you have a print copy of any of the D3 Games titles, then you can tell the quality of Lulu.
Actually, that's not quite true. Lulu does not actually print any of their own books. Instead, they seamlessly farm the job out to one of their partner print companies. So from order to order, you can't be sure that the same company printed the same book.

BlackWyrm uses Print On Demand technology for many of our projects, and is getting pretty savvy on the ins and outs of the process.

[ghost-angel]

Where lulu prints depends mostly on where you order from. Even in the US you can get one of several printers.

[JohnTaber]

DriveThruRPG will have print services going live any day now...but I am not sure if the Hero products will be supported. Not sure if the printing extends to every product or not...not sure how it works. :)

[BobGreenwade]

I'll let you know what the quality's like when the approval copy of Realm Hunter: Pursuit of the Silver Dirk arrives (probably some time early next week) -- unless of course you decide to check it out for yourself. Which I hope you do. ;)I got two separate shipments of the book, from two different printers (as ghost-angel implied). The first was acceptable to above-average in quality (the paper is a tad darker than I'd like, not that I'd expect anyone else to notice or care much); the second was just what I'd expect from a top-quality printer. (I've already given one from the second set to my local public library.)