Everyone assumes that the printing costs are going to be the big expense, but it’s not. Incidentally, this is why a lot of people charge more than you think is “fair” for PDFs. One, because it’s been a while since I had to get a printing quote, two, because I don’t know what kind of run they printed, and three because it’s not as much as what we’ve already spent. Suddenly the buying public seems pretty small, doesn’t it?Īnd keep in mind, those 1,000 books aren’t even the actual break even point, because I never spoke about what printing costs. Now filter out everyone who only buys the core books. Now filter out the ones who aren’t into vampire (this is where I filter out, and I buy a lot of other white wolf games). Now filter out the ones that really only play DnD. Think about what population of the consuming public games. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’d like everyone to stop and think for a moment.
So to just BREAK EVEN on that book, you’ve got to sell around 1,000 copies at $30 a pop. And if it was a fuller sized 256 pager, double that to about $60,000. Which makes me the small potatoes cost at a mere $400-$600 bucks for a book of that size.Īll told, before we even go to the printer, you’re looking at a cost somewhere in the range of $30,000 to produce that single book. Someone of my skill is gonna run you between $3 to $5 a page (and I charge well below what I could). A book like DnD 5e is going to have a much higher art budget. Given that a book is going to have around 4 pieces of art per signature (that’s 16 pages for standard printing), we’re talking a other $10k for an art budget, and that’s on the low end.
#Wold rpg save editor full
But then we have artists, who are going to get around $150-200 for quarter page art, around $400 for half page art, and upwards of $800 for full page art (again, industry standard, this isn’t exceptional and I’m actually aiming at the lower end). We haven’t illustrated, layed out, or printed this book yet and we already need to sell almost 500 copies just to get our money back. So, just for the writing and editing, we’re looking at about 12k - 14kc in cost. And we haven’t even gotten to the art and the layout yet. Double that for the editor and we’re talking $12k to $14k just for writing and editing alone. At the going rate, you’re talking over 7 grand in cost just for that first draft at standard industry rates. Most RPGs average about 600 words a page once art and such has been placed in. For writers that’s usually 6-10 cents a word (and the same for editors). This is also going to explain why PDFs aren’t all that expensive, either.įirst up, you need to pay the writers, game designers, editors, and artists for their time and effort. All right, let me explain a few things about producing an RPG book and explain why that price is quite fair.
0 kommentar(er)
