Cepheus - printing at online printing service

[dr fre0n]

He everyone,

I was considering buying Paul Elliott's Hostile through lulu.com for an hard copy.

is lulu.com doing a good enough job printing these type of campaign material reference ? Are they rendering the colors? How about the cover?

I just want to evaluate if I would rather buy the PDF and print it myself, or go through the printing service.

Any pro/cons ? Thanks for feedback

fre0n

 

[dr fre0n]

I will try it through lulu.com and share my thoughts afterward, if anyone is interested.

 

[Sstefan]

I am interested in your opinion of their efforts

 

[middenface]

Hopefully the POD will be ready in the next week or so.
Moon Toad is publishing it, there will be a few error fixes and one clarification in there. Nothing too major.

 

[Stainless]

Can you clarify? Is the POD by Moon Toad that you refer to independent of the LULU version? Or is this the usual POD via DriveThru? Or os this just an update of the LULU printing?

I'm curious about HOSTILE but I've been spoilt by hard copy comes with free pdf sales for most of my rpgs. Having to pay twice for HOSTILE (once for book, once for pdf) is stopping me from pulling the trigger on it.

 

[middenface]

Argh, sorry. I am doing the POD of the Cepheus Engine SRD. Not hostile. I worked on Hostile.
Sorry.

I do have a copy of the Hostile Lulu print. I like it. BnW though. It does include the extra pdfs that are with the DTRPG copy.

 

[Stainless]

Thanks, and sorry for the confusion. That's interesting; it comes with the pdfs. There's no mention of that on the Lulu page or Paul Elliot's page.

 

[Mithras]

A bit of clarification, if it isn't too late! The POD of HOSTILE is in B&W and took a lot of effort to tweak the dark and gritty illlustrations to render acceptably in print. The cover is lively and glossy, the book is an inch thick, and it includes in the back of it all the material that came as extra PDFs when you get the PDF version of HOSTILE. Thats what makes the book so meaty!

I'm really happy to answer any other questions (if it isn't too late!), get in touch through the Zozer Games website:


https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/contact.html

 

[dr fre0n]

Hey Everyone,

glad to see some interest here - I will share with you how it went and my first impressions.

First, thanks Mithras for the follow up - I decided to go with it without the full answers - as someone using POD for the first time, I was a bit unsure - but also like to live dangerously so here we go.

I went through with lulu.com to buy a printed copy of Hostile (by Zozer/Paul Elliott).

Transaction went easily - I am not US based, there was no hassle due a extranational delivery, nor any extra border fees.

As Mithras mentioned in this thread, the book is thick with material - glossy colored cover, paperback - and graytone for figures and illustrations inside (very neat), similar to other recent source material from MgT or the like. Binding look sturdy enough. Overall a good quality printout.

But I am a real fan of retro scifi and of colored illustration as it add to the mood of the ruleset right - those green over black terminal style old school computer reports, and well you know what I mean. I have a Shadowrun source book - full colored and the t5 source where there was some colored illustrations - which I love looking at - really add flavor to me and my group. I was thinking about it oh well, it is fine I guess.

Then I stumbled upon a thread somewhere on the net where Paul was mentioning how we could obtain the original PDFs (was unsure if it was still valid when I read this) from him upon providing proof of transaction. I contacted him, it was fast and I really enjoyed having a short chat with an author of fun stuff I am buying - as in 5* would do business again.

I opened the main Hostile.PDF document - and gosh with colors it is gorgeous. I would have definitely paid the extra at lulu for this. Yet with the PDF it help to have the flavor anyway. There is a few extra PDF's included, such as a character sheet, some practical side rules, ship and colony plans - nice complement.

I think the main challenge was to find the proper information comprehensively. DrivethruRPG description had a bit, some in the feedback thread, some on Paul's webpage and then lulu.com. I think it would be helpful for prospective buyer to be able to easily learn most details before making his decision by beefing up the description of the product, especially first time buyers. Some of the main elements were missing/unclear for me back then:

1. PDF's and extra are included with the POD
2. PDF's are fully colored
3. Optimized graytone illustrations in the book
4. Glossy colored paperback cover

I don't know for others, but I would really like the be able to have an option for a full colored printout at the POD service, when there is so much efforts by authors/artists put in an original colored version.

Nevertheless I am very glad and satisfied of what I got, the book + the 'surprise PDF's'!

 

[Mithras]

Hi!

I agree with everything you've said! There are reasons I work with Lulu, but it does make the process of letting people know about a complimentary PDF difficult. Particularly as Drivethrurpg have a standing rule not to allow links or references in any product to other websites or POD publishers (understandably).

I wanted a full colour HOSTILE. Really wanted one. But the cost at no profit margin was looking like £48 (just to me). The cost to a customer would have been, what, £54-58??? I didn't think anyone would touch it at that price ....

I'm pleased you're happy with the game, though!

"PDF's and extra are included with the POD
PDF's are fully colored
Optimized graytone illustrations in the book
Glossy colored paperback cover"
-I'll look into clearing up these issues, making it clearer for customers. Thanks for the feedback, it's very helpful

Paul Elliott/Zozer Games

 

[dr fre0n]

Hello Paul,

thank you for your insight particularly regarding the author/publisher side of things. I vaguely assumed (without a clue mostly) there was some type of rules with the various publishers, since you get to sell a PDF and a book of that PDF through a POD, exclusivity etc..

To already have a deal with lulu is very cool - I'd rather have a print copy like I did than PDF only - but now even best both were included! I tried to assess the price of buying the PDF and printing it myself at a local printing service, it would have cost possibly more than I was able to afford. I was not sure how much it was on your side, thanks for providing estimates.

Hope to see more of your work, will consider diving into Far Horizon and Orbital 2100 by the meantime.

cheers,

fre0n