Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possible?

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slimykuotoan
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Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possible?

Post by slimykuotoan »

...
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by slimykuotoan »

Ah k. That answers that.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Treebore »

Yeah, pretty sure they've been asked before, and typically do not. There has been an occasion or two where they have offered customization options for us to choose from, but thats the closest I have seen.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by slimykuotoan »

Too bad. You'd think it'd make sense from a sales point o' view: everyone who owns the products, repurchasing to tweak those products.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Treebore »

slimykuotoan wrote:Too bad. You'd think it'd make sense from a sales point o' view: everyone who owns the products, repurchasing to tweak those products.

They could definitely do it, using POD services to provide that service to us, but they are also pressed for time getting out what they are committed to putting out, so probably couldn't afford to put in the man hours it would require to set up custom orders.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

slimykuotoan wrote:Too bad. You'd think it'd make sense from a sales point o' view: everyone who owns the products, repurchasing to tweak those products.

It would only make sense if the person would pay for the expense of the time put in to create a one off, custom book. Which would probably be at LEAST several hundred dollars.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by slimykuotoan »

Hmm, I wonder.

I'm thinking more along the lines of: hard cover/ soft cover, one cover paired with another interior, etc.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

slimykuotoan wrote:Hmm, I wonder.

I'm thinking more along the lines of: hard cover/ soft cover, one cover paired with another interior, etc.
That alone would take several hours to put together + back and forth comm. Looking at a few hundred to do one off based on worth of persons time alone. (you must factor INTO the cost, lost productivity on the persons normal job too.)

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by slimykuotoan »

Several hours? It'd be pairing a print they've already done with a hardcover they've already done.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

slimykuotoan wrote:Several hours?
Yep. They don't have a set up to produce books one at a time in house. Or anywhere else for that matter. So, hours...
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by slimykuotoan »

I'm... skeptical.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

slimykuotoan wrote:I'm... skeptical.
Oh well. That doesn't change the facts above.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by slimykuotoan »

Still... skeptical.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Treebore »

Me too. I find it hard to believe merging one PDF with the cover PDF of another takes hours. Maybe 15 minutes, but not hours. Especially since for POD services the cover and interior content print versions are separate files to begin with. Which is why I can select full color or black and white, with a soft or hard cover. There are 4 separate files put up for me to choose how to mix them. How do I know that? Because people who offer their products via POD only have told me that is what they have to do.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Warunsun »

The Trolls are very busy at the moment. :) They are working on several outstanding projects that I think we all want to see them succeed with. Honestly, a custom order takes a lot of time for one person. And they are constantly offering nice upgraded books in their Kickstarters. I prize my special Nordica book and am looking forward to getting the three sisters in limited edition. So special books are available often (and to multiple recipients).
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

Treebore wrote:Me too. I find it hard to believe merging one PDF with the cover PDF of another takes hours. Maybe 15 minutes, but not hours.
I though everyone was talking about a physical book, not a PDF.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Treebore »

Arduin wrote:
Treebore wrote:Me too. I find it hard to believe merging one PDF with the cover PDF of another takes hours. Maybe 15 minutes, but not hours.
I though everyone was talking about a physical book, not a PDF.
We are, and I am talking the Trolls using POD options rather than doing it in house.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

Treebore wrote:
We are, and I am talking the Trolls using POD options rather than doing it in house.
I was talking about using their printer/binder company not POD cheap stuff. In which case you are looking at several hours. At least.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Treebore »

Arduin wrote:
Treebore wrote:
We are, and I am talking the Trolls using POD options rather than doing it in house.
I was talking about using their printer/binder company not POD cheap stuff. In which case you are looking at several hours. At least.
Well, I wouldn't call POD "cheap stuff", its not cheap. Plus I have been happy with all the POD soft and hard covers I have bought over the last few years. Jut got an L5R 4E book, Strongholds, this past week. Its not done with the same paper, etc... as the ones AEG had printed, but I am pretty happy with it. At least is not pulling apart like the core book did as soon as I started reading through it.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Sir Ironside »

Well I'll disagree that there is a viable market for customized books. The cost would obviously have to be more and people seem fine with the traditional way that you will not find that many people willing to add cost to something they can get cheaper.

The other thing about POD's (Even short runs.) is the margins are horrible. It is not a bad idea if your a really small company or just a single creator trying to get your stuff out there, but if you are a larger company why in the world would you want to do something that will make you very little money (Even possibly lose money considering the time you'd have to account for each time you accept a new customized order.) and take away sales from your much more profitable regular run. That doesn't make any sense.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

Treebore wrote: Well, I wouldn't call POD "cheap stuff", its not cheap.
I do. They aren't of the same quality as a well bound hard cover. I would NEVER consider them a replacement for such. They are okay for getting something you couldn't normally get in dead wood form or, if you are wanting a cheap paper back type book.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

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Sir Ironside wrote:The other thing about POD's (Even short runs.) is the margins are horrible. It is not a bad idea if your a really small company or just a single creator trying to get your stuff out there, but if you are a larger company why in the world would you want to do something that will make you very little money (Even possibly lose money considering the time you'd have to account for each time you accept a new customized order.) and take away sales from your much more profitable regular run. That doesn't make any sense.
When I was at Random House (a slightly larger publisher than TLG) we were getting into POD big time. There were lots of books in our catalog that we didn't get enough orders for to do a "normal" (for us) print run of 100,000 copies, so we used POD right in the DC to print small runs of 100 or 200. Before we started doing this, we had some back orders going back 10 years or more, waiting for enough orders to do a regular print run. We knocked out most of our back orders in a short period of time after we started doing POD. We even had the POD machines hooked right up to the conveyor system for our re-orders warehouse, so the books automatically dropped into the conveyor system and were routed to their correct pick location by the computer without any manual intervention. The computer scheduled the needed print jobs and the books then showed up in the picking area just in time to be picked and packed for shipment, literally "hot off the press". :-)

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

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Arduin wrote:I do. They aren't of the same quality as a well bound hard cover. I would NEVER consider them a replacement for such. They are okay for getting something you couldn't normally get in dead wood form or, if you are wanting a cheap paper back type book.
The ones we were producing at Random House were indistinguishable from a book produced at a full run bindery. Matter of fact, I'd bet you've looked at, or even bought, a POD book in recent years that you didn't realize was POD.

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

mmbutter wrote:
Arduin wrote:Matter of fact, I'd bet you've looked at, or even bought, a POD book in recent years that you didn't realize was POD.
No, I haven't. Everything I've bought in the last several years have been offset printed. It IS possible that people who are not familiar with the subject sometimes can't tell the difference though. But, I can tell easily at a glance.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

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Arduin wrote:No, I haven't. Everything I've bought in the last several years have been offset printed. It IS possible that people who are not familiar with the subject sometimes can't tell the difference though. But, I can tell easily at a glance.
Stuff printed on a digital press is pretty good quality. Like I said, there are quite a few Random House products that are now being done this way.

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Arduin »

mmbutter wrote:
Stuff printed on a digital press is pretty good quality. Like I said, there are quite a few Random House products that are now being done this way.
Stuff where you need less than 500-1000 copies can be done that way.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by mmbutter »

Arduin wrote:Stuff where you need less than 500-1000 copies can be done that way.
Yup. That's why Random House does their POD that way.

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Julian Grimm »

The last POD book I bought (BFRPG if anyone is counting) came out pretty nicely compared to some S&W POD stuff I bought. In my opinion POD is getting better as far as quality goes but it is not 'there' yet. I do have hope though. Considering that I can now order a pizza for carryout online (made to my specs) and have it ready in 13 minutes shows that it could eventually be possible with books. The more automated the process the less time you will have to put into a product.

In a few years we may just be able to order a PHB with choice of cover, B&W art and wider margins with a few clicks and have it in a week. While someone who wants color, gloss and another cover style can have theirs.
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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by Troll Lord »

What exactly do you mean by customized orders? To put a book together with content that you want? Like say, you wanted some material from the Crusader put in a PH. That kind of customization?

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Re: Serious question for the Trolls -Are custom orders possi

Post by slimykuotoan »

Hey Steve, thanks for the reply!

For me personally, I was thinking a new C&C Players Handbook cover, with a black and white interior; that would be awesome.

Raising that idea, would perhaps be PHBs with custom covers, like perhaps artwork from a C&C published adventure, thrown on a PHB. For example: the Wicked Cauldron cover on the new players.

But custom orders like what you've mentioned, would also be something to drool over...

I would sooo play more for a core book that would be tailored to my needs and likes. :)
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