Economics of Printing Rulebooks

[muggins]

I wanted to share an interview we did with Rich Clarke of TooFatLardies over at Goonhammer.com. I shared it in this specific forum because I view this one the most, and a lot of what we do with Goonhammer Historical is in this period.

https://www.goonhammer.com/goonhammer-historicals-the-economics-of-printing-rulebooks/

I know it has 'hammer' in the title but I believe we've been doing a lot of great work at GH, and we have a ton of new content waiting in the wings. Check it out here: https://www.goonhammer.com/category/other-games/historicals/

[Pattus Magnus]

I found that very interesting. Some folks on LAF have published rule sets and already have first hand experience with the economic side of things, but as a player and collector, there are some background details I hadn’t considered. It won’t stop me grumbling when a rule book I am looking for is out of print, of course!

[Hitman]

I agree with Rich on every aspect. Rule design is the easy part. Completing all of the other steps is very time-consuming but necessary. Since Covid, my local publishing company that I used closed down, making it an unfeasible endeavour to continue getting rule sets printed. Also, the cost of postage, at least in Canada to ship world-wide, has made it pretty much impossible to sell as it adds nearly another 50% of the cost of the rules to the total.

[Vis Bellica]

Rich is spot on the mark with everything he says. I still have boxes and boxes of unsold army list books in the attic, representing a sizeable chunk of lost cash. That's why everything I do now is a pdf publication.

[muggins]

I appreciate all the feedback! I have never published anything myself (or done any wargaming business, tbh) so I am always curious about how it works.

[Elk101]

That was a really interesting interview, thanks.