Print on Demand Prices Changing in April

Hello Publishers,

I hope that your February is going fantastic!

This is a quick update for print on demand books as we prepare for the following print cost changes in April. We do not have a definite date yet, but as we get closer, we will notify you as soon as possible.

The short version is that Lightning Source has implemented a pretty significant change to their print cost structure. As a result, there will be a few changes coming to our sites soon:

·       Short books of all types will generally decrease substantially in cost as the fixed price for low page count books goes away.

·       B&W books will be 10-15% cheaper.

·       Standard Color books will be 10-35% more expensive.

·       Premium Color books will be 15-30% cheaper.

    There will no longer be a "Medium" size for Premium Color books. The 6"x9", 6.14"x9.21" sizes will now be considered small, and the 8.5"x8.5" size will now be considered large.

Changes to Book Print Costs

You can compare the new cost formulas below to the current costs here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/pub_pod_cost.php

The new cost formulas below apply to all available page counts.

·       Black and White (Small / Softcover): $1.55 + $0.0138 per page

·       Black and White (Small / Hardcover): $5.98 + $0.0138 per page

·       Black and White (Large / Softcover): $1.61 + $0.0202 per page

·       Black and White (Large / Hardcover): $5.98 + $0.0202 per page

·       Standard Heavyweight/70 (Small / Softcover): $1.55 + $0.0316 per page

·       Standard Heavyweight/70 (Small / Hardcover): $5.98 + $0.0316 per page

·       Standard Heavyweight/70 (Large / Softcover): $1.61 + $0.0503  per page

·       Standard Heavyweight/70 (Large/ Hardcover): $5.98 + $0.0503 per page

·       Premium (Small / Softcover): $1.55 + $0.0676 per page

·       Premium (Small / Hardcover): $5.98 + $0.0676 per page

·       Premium (Large / Softcover): $1.61 + $0.0905 per page

·       Premium (Large / Hardcover): $5.98 + $0.0905 per page

·       Premium Color Landscape will have the same price as other Premium Large formats.

·       There will be no more Quantity Discounts for bulk orders over 50 copies.

Updating Site Prices for POD

In April, when we update print costs for your POD books, we will adjust the site price on your titles automatically so as to maintain the margin you have set for that printed format. As part of this site price adjustment, we will try to maintain similar price points that still end with $X.95, $X.99, or $X.00 to stay as close as possible to the prices you have set currently.

For example, if you have a 300-page, hardcover, premium color, 8.5x11” book on site now, the current print cost of that would be $39.90. After the April cost changes, the print cost will drop to $33.13.

If you currently have the print margin on this title set to $20.09, then its site price to customers would be $39.90 + $20.09 = $59.99.

With the April update, our code will first attempt to maintain your margin of $20.09, re-setting the site price initially to $33.13 (new print cost) + $20.09 = $53.22.

As that site price does not match the format of your former site price ($59.99 follows the $X.99 format), then our code will adjust your margin from $20.09 to $20.86, so that your new site price becomes $33.13 + $20.86 = $53.99.

Of course, after the April update, you are free to further adjust your margins (and resulting site prices).

We think this automatic price reset is the easiest and most effective process for us and you. We welcome your feedback.

What if I planned my KickStarter?

Many KickStarters print runs may benefit from the cost reductions, but if you already planned on a larger (i.e., higher page count) standard color book, you may be facing a sizable cost increase.

We will work with you on grandfathered pricing if your KickStarter launches on or before March 1st, 2019. If you are within that date range, please contact your Publisher Service Representative so we can work with you through your fulfillment.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through e-mail during normal business hours.

Yours,

Meredith Gerber

Tiny Trove: Coming Soon to DriveThruRPG

Ogden, UT – February 28, 2019

Gallant Knight Games and DriveThruRPG are pleased to announce a new community content program, centered on the TinyD6 ruleset: Tiny Trove!

 

The minimalist TinyD6 ruleset has been a hit since it’s launch, and now fans can create their own content centered around Tiny Dungeon 2e! Now, Gallant Knight Games and DriveThruRPG have partnered to let independent content creators publish material utilizing the TinyD6 ruleset and set in the top quality variety micro-settings published in TinyD6 products!

 

Tiny Trove features:

·       Self-publish service for tabletop RPG material set using Tiny Dungeon 2e

·       Creators themselves set the price for the material they publish and receive 50% of the revenue

·       Access to over templates and art packs that will evoke the feel of Tiny Dungeon 2e

·       Additional content supporting other TinyD6 game lines will roll out beginning with Tiny Frontiers: Revised in May, 2019 and continuing forward.

About Gallant Knight Games

Gallant Knight Games is a tabletop gaming company dedicated to high-quality roleplaying games and card and board games. Founded in 2015 by Alan & Erin Bahr, Gallant Knight Games publishes it’s flagship TinyD6 line, featuring Tiny Dungeon 2e, Tiny Wasteland, Tiny Frontiers: Revised, along with other games such as Cold Shadows, For Coin & Blood, Beach Patrol, and many more. www.gallantknightgames.com contact: alan@gallantknightgames.com

About DriveThruRPG

DriveThruRPG.com is part of a family of premiere online marketplaces including RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, DriveThruCards, DMsGuild, DriveThruComics, DriveThruFiction, and Wargame Vault. Together, we have been selling digital and print-on-demand comic books, roleplaying games, and fiction since 2001. As of 2016, we have launched multiple community content programs as well as our Community Card Creator for fans to create content for some of their favorite roleplaying and card games. www.onebookshelf.comContact: meredith@onebookshelf.com

DriveThruRPG Responds to Current Industry News

Thanks to everyone for your patience as we deliberated on the situation that has unfolded regarding Zak Smith (aka Zak Sabbath). At DriveThruRPG, we want to do our part to keep bad actors out of the roleplaying community, and we don’t want business relationships with such people. As such, you’d think there wouldn’t be much deliberation needed on our part. However, the situation posed a number of challenges for us to consider in terms of precedent and collateral impact on other parties.

I have decided that we will not accept future titles for sale on DriveThruRPG (or our other marketplaces) if Zak is a contributor on the title. If any publisher has a title-in-process to which Zak is a contributor and this policy would impact you financially, then we’d ask that you please reach out to us via the publisher services link to have a dialogue about that title.

For titles currently on our marketplace in which Zak is listed as a contributor, we have checked those publisher accounts, and none of these titles have us paying money directly to Zak. While it is likely that Zak does earn a royalty on some titles sold on DriveThruRPG, any such royalties would be paid directly by the publisher of the title, not by DriveThruRPG.

Further, whatever royalty Zak might get from any publisher on our store is unlikely to be the entirety of what we pay that publisher. We do not feel it’s fair to penalize financially those who worked with Zak in the past, including both publishers and possibly other contributors earning income from these titles. Therefore, we expect publishers to make their own decision to continue selling these titles or not, presumably after consulting with all other contributors.

For our part, we will be identifying all titles to which Zak contributed and diverting all of the revenue shares that DriveThruRPG might make from sales of these titles as a donation to RAINN (https://www.rainn.org/).

I’ll try to pre-emptively answer other possible questions below.

When this happened, why did you not suspend sale of Zak’s titles while you deliberated?When we expect that it will take us a few days to deliberate on a title reported for offensive content, our policy is to temporarily suspend sales of that title. In this case, though, it was not the content of any particular title under discussion, and we did not find any titles where we directly paid Zak for ongoing sales during our deliberation.

So DriveThruRPG is now banning certain creators? Will whoever the “outrage brigade” complains about next be banned as well?
We all share a responsibility for the health of our hobby. Any demographic measure we’ve ever seen on the roleplaying hobby shows women are under-represented. Things won’t improve if people shirk the responsibility to make our hobby inclusive.

Zak Smith has a long and well-documented history of behaviors antithetical to a healthy community. In light of recent allegations, which we find credible, we think our business and our hobby is better off without him, so we’re doing our part.

We already have a small list of other bad actors in the industry with whom we refuse to do business: people who have repeatedly abused crowdfunding platforms for personal enrichment, who repeatedly engaged in IP violations, who have repeatedly treated our staff or customers in unacceptably unprofessional ways, and so on. If you repeatedly act like a jerk (or worse, a predator), we won’t wait for other people to complain about you. We’ll just quietly stop doing business with you.

Why are you not banning his existing titles?
Because we don’t want to hurt other people who also contributed to those same titles just to diminish Zak. Banning those existing titles risks doing just that.

Thanks,
Steve Wieck
President
OneBookShelf / DriveThruRPG

January 28th, 2019: Sites Down / Server Migration

Our Tech Team will be using their spell slots in the server dungeons to improve our sites on 

Monday, January 28th! Please mark your calendars!

The site could be down for 12 hours while our tech team migrates from our dedicated servers to the cloud. After the server transition, DNS propagation time will determine how quickly people can reconnect to the site.

New Year | New Game Sale!

Our New Year | New Game Sale is underway on DriveThruRPG.com, DriveThruCards.com, and DMsGuild! Feel free to use the following banners to promote your titles on your social media platforms or newsletters. 

This sale is from January 3rd - January 14th, 2019.

Publisher Resources and Information

• We ask that publishers do not use the Send Customer E-Mail tool until next week as we are sending the Newsletter today and want to give the sale some breathing room. 
• If you would like to track your click-throughs, don't forget to check out our Marketing Analysis here to add on an SRC (source code) to the end of your link. 
• If you have an affiliate account with us, do not forget to utilize that link in your promotions as well. If you're not an affiliate with us already, please check out our Affiliate System. 
• If you are not in the sale but would like to run your own, we encourage you to do so through the Manage Sales option.
• We use specific filters to find titles for the sale and all publishers in the sale are Opted In to our site-wide sales. You can change this through the Opt-Out Opt-In Tool. This is a good time, too, to make sure your titles are properly filtered into the correct category. 

DriveThruRPG.com has six deeply discounted bundles as well as thousands of titles on sale.

Link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/featured.php?promotion_id=NYNG2019

FB Post

All Tier 1 adventures are on sale at DMsGuild.com as well as a few surprises!

Link: https://www.dmsguild.com/rpg_newyear.php?&filters=0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_45775

Tons of amazing titles are available at discounted prices at DriveThruCards.com!

Link: https://www.drivethrucards.com/sale.php?&filters=0_0_0_0_45776

RPGNow Merging with DriveThruRPG on February 2019

Hello Friends,

Recently, we sent out an e-mail explaining RPGNow will be merging with DriveThruRPG and what that means for both publishers and customers. I wanted to make the e-mail more accessible, just in case you haven't received it.

Yours,
Meredith A. Gerber
RPG Publisher Service Representative

===

Starting in February 2019, all elements of the RPGNow tool pages and storefront will redirect to similar pages on DriveThruRPG.

You most likely know this, but since RPGNow and DriveThruRPG first merged as businesses back in 2006, they have shared all the same tools and digital inventory. On the front end, they looked and behaved like two separate sites, but essentially, they have just been two faces of the same site for many years. The only real differences were the color schemes and logos.

You might have some questions about the coming change, so we’ve done our best to anticipate and answer them below.


Customers: How will this affect me?
In almost every way, you’ll be unaffected. Your entire library of purchases from RPGNow is already available to you on DriveThruRPG (as it always has been!), and you can log in to DriveThruRPG using the same account you’ve always used on RPGNow, just as you could before.

Even your old bookmarks to pages on RPGNow.com will still work: They’ll automatically be redirected to the same page on DriveThruRPG.

Customers: But where will I go to get my gaming purchases?

No worries. As far as buying titles, the publishers and catalogs available on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow have always been identical, so anything you’ve bought on RPGNow before, you could also have bought (for exactly the same price) on DriveThruRPG.

In short, you’ll still be able to get the same stuff, from the same publishers, using the same tools you’ve always used. You’ll just be finding them on a slightly different-looking storefront.

Publishers: How will this affect me?
In most ways, you’ll be unaffected. Your entire catalog of titles from RPGNow is already listed on DriveThruRPG (as it always has been), and you can log in to DriveThruRPG using the same account(s) you’ve always used on RPGNow, just as you could before.Even your old bookmarks to pages on RPGNow.com will still work: They’ll automatically be redirected to the same page on DriveThruRPG.

Publishers: What about sales reporting? Will my past sales be combined?
Yes, as far as sales records and your titles’ metal rankings, we will be merging those together.Starting in February, your sales records will show combined sales of each title across both the deprecated RPGNow site and DriveThruRPG, together. The number of unit sales will also be combined, so if you had metal rankings for titles on one or both sites, there’s a good chance you’ll find that your rankings on some titles will have increased on DriveThruRPG.

Publishers: What about my Publisher Promotion Points and marketing impressions?
No worries. Your Publisher Promotion Points (PPP) are already shared across sister sites. They are compiled by publisher, not by site.

If you have used your PPP to purchase site impressions for banners or featured product messages on RPGNow, you will also be reimbursed, commensurately, for those expenditures on DriveThruRPG. 


Why is this happening?
Here’s the big picture: In the 12 years since RPGNow and DriveThruRPG merged, the growth of RPGNow has tapered off constantly, while DriveThruRPG has continued to grow strongly, year over year, since it launched in 2004. We’ve reached the point where RPGNow rarely draws new customers or publishers and sells less than one-tenth the volume of titles purchased on DriveThruRPG.
To be honest, we have known this moment would come for years now. We’ve just finally decided it’s time to put the RPGNow brand out to pasture and merge it with DriveThruRPG.

Print on Demand Playing Cards Cost Comparison

Introduction

Over three years ago, we compared the print costs for cards among the leading printers of print on demand (POD) or short run cards for the tabletop game community. Among our findings: DriveThruCards, at the time, offered the best pricing for print-on-demand cards.

But that was then. What about now?

We thought it time to revisit our competitors', and our own, pricing. Plus, since that time we've introduced custom-printed tuckboxes, embossed stock, and (soon) an option to have high-volume deck + tuckbox orders shrink-wrapped.

As before, we compare single deck printing costs (for, say, a prototype) and a few higher volume runs (as might be used for convention sales or KickStarter fulfillment).

All data here is current as of May 2018.

Comparing Print on Demand Card Costs

  54-card Poker (Premium stock)

	DriveThru	Game Crafter	PrinterStudio	MPC	Print&Play
1 deck (cards only)	$     4.86	$      6.17	$     13.80	$  13.20	$   14.85
100 decks	344.00	437.00	705.00	635.00	965.25
250 decks	860.00	1,092.50	1,450.00	1,225.00	2,227.50

1 deck + tuckbox	7.11	8.96	23.80	23.20	18.10
100 decks + tuck	534.00	672.00	875.00	805.00	1,121.25
250 decks + tuck	1,335.00	1,680.00	1,800.00	1,575.00	2,544.38

  54-card Poker (Embossed / Linen stock)

DriveThru

Game Crafter

PrinterStudio

MPC

Print&Play

1 deck (cards only)	5.13	6.92	15.80	15.00	9.42
100 decks	398.00	512.00	825.00	735.00	612.30
250 decks	995.00	1,280.00	1,700.00	1,450.00	1,413.00

1 deck + tuckbox	7.38	9.71	25.80	25.00	12.67
100 decks + tuck	588.00	747.00	995.00	905.00	768.30
250 decks + tuck	1,470.00	1,867.50	2,050.00	1,800.00	1,729.88

  80-card Tarot (Premium stock)

DriveThru

Game Crafter

PrinterStudio

MPC

Print&Play

1 deck (cards only)	13.60	17.61	16.75	16.15	34.65
100 decks	780.00	1,009.00	1,115.00	1,130.00	2,079.00
250 decks	1,950.00	2,522.50	2,600.00	2,625.00	4,851.00

1 deck + tuckbox	16.10	20.40	31.75	31.15	n/a
100 decks + tuck	1,005.00	1,244.00	1,370.00	1,385.00	n/a
250 decks + tuck	2,512.50	3,110.00	3,125.00	3,150.00	n/a

Fine print
There's a lot of fine print to allow for as close to apples to apples comparisons as possible.

DriveThruCards pricing reflects pricing that is announced to take effect 10-17-2018 (current pricing is even lower).

Card stocks
DriveThruCards: Premium stock = 11.6-pt. thickness, 320 gsm black core. Embossed stock = 10.7-pt. thickness, 310 gsm black core. (Embossed is not a true Linen stock.) Both stocks are finished with a low-gloss UV coating.

Game Crafter: 305 gsm black-core matte. UV coating = $0.10/sheet. Linen finish = $0.25/sheet.

PrinterStudio: Smooth finish: 300 gsm, aqueous coated. Linen finish: 310 gsm.

MPC (MakePlayingCards): Smooth finish = 300 gsm blue core. Linen finish: 310 gsm black core.

Print&Play: Premium = 310 gsm, glossy finish, black core. Linen = 270 gsm, glossy finish.

Additional costs and details
Game Crafter's price includes a fee of $0.89/deck added to each game. The Game Crafter's Tarot tuckbox is for 90 cards. Shrink-wrapping is included in all prices except for the 1-deck price from DriveThru (DriveThruCards does not offer single-deck shrink-wrapping). Shrink-wrapping on high-volume DriveThru orders is $0.40/deck; opting out of shrink-wrapping further improves DriveThru pricing.

Conclusions

DriveThruCards continues to offer the best pricing for print-on-demand cards.

I know we're the ones writing this, but our intent was to provide an unbiased analysis. We merely pulled pricing information available on each printer's site and compiled the data to get the cost comparison.

Beyond Pricing

As before, it's worth noting some more details about each of the above-compared companies.

The Game Crafter: Solid reputation. They offer a bunch of other game components (rule booklets, game boards, two-piece boxes, dice, mats, counters/punch-outs, and pawns/meeples). If you have a full-on board game with loads of pieces-parts, then the Game Crafter's likely got you covered.

PrinterStudio: Offers printing on plastic (PVC) cards. They don't offer nearly as many pieces-parts as The Game Crafter, but they do offer custom-printed rubber game mats and personalized poker chips. (Also offer other "photo gifts" like jigsaw puzzles, greeting cards, clothes, and bags.)

MPC: Offers five different card stocks (in addition to white plastic) and a glossy finish. Packaging options are many, including full card deck shrink-wrapping and a tin box option. Can also add on a small booklet and purchase uncut sheets. They offer various volume tiers (up to 15,000 decks).

Print&Play: Like The Game Crafter, they offer a bunch of other game components (rule sheets and rule booklets, game boards, dice, counters/punch-outs, paper money, wood cubes, and pawns/meeples (wood and plastic)). Seems to really cater to those with multi-component board game prototyping needs.

DriveThruCards: Of course, we're a bit partial to DriveThruCards, but we think we can be fair in critiquing our own card offerings.

     What we do well

• We wanted to do POD cards really well. And we think we do that. Our card stocks and quality of printing are top-notch. (But don't take our word for it: many publishers and designers tell us this.)
• We use ink-based HP Indigo presses instead of toner-based printing.
• We offer custom-printed tuckboxes with a unique no-glue design that makes for a sturdier package than tuckbox offerings from the competition. 
• We have earned a reputation for high-end personal publisher/customer service.
• You can print any number of cards in your deck; there's no sheet multiple you need to meet. (So you're not spending money on "empty" sheet slots.)
• Our marketplace is easy to find and hundreds and hundreds of publishers who have opted to sell their card titles on site earn extra sales regularly. Across our DriveThru sites, we pay millions in earnings to publishers every year.

     What we don't do as well

• We don't offer board game materials (including rule sheets/rulebooks).
• To get the best printed results, it's ideal to use InDesign or Scribus to prepare your print-ready PDF. (We do have a deckbuilder tool that works well for image upload, but the best results are seen when card PDFs are professionally prepared.)
• Our publisher-facing interface is super powerful. It can also be a bit, ahem, challenging to learn. (However, we offer walkthroughs and are willing to help as needed.)
• We offer only one volume discount tier (at 5,000 total cards).

For more about printing with DriveThruCards, go here and here.

Your comments (and corrections!) are welcome.

Brian Petkash and Steve Wieck