OK, following on from this thread I thought it might be worth a revisit with up-to-date info.
I very recently had my latest printing of Best Friends done by Fidlar Doubleday.
I thought I would get a quote from them, and they alluringly can make matte laminate covers, which appeals to me. In the meantime RapidPOD had a disaster with their printer and it was out of action, so they were taking on no new work anyway. The quote from Fidlar was acceptable, not as low as RapidPOD but not excessively far away.
So, the books arrived today in the UK (and have been in Wisconsin at IPR since July 26), how did I get on?
The Good
1. Speed of printing. The whole thing was done quickly and efficiently after I sent them the PDF files for the cover and text.
2. Quality of communication. Really great communication and so very responsive. I dealt with a couple of people there (my account handler and someone in finance) and they were universally great.
3. Covers and Spine. Really nice feel to the cover and the spine is bang on. The binding looks good too. The colour on the covers is good and the black is solid (though I wonder if a glossy shine rather than matte would be better for Best Friends?).
4. Delivery and Admin. Books delivered really quickly to the warehouse, invoice sent in a timely manner, paper copy pops through my door promptly and all with no fuss. Really great compared to some other printer experiences I've read about. No worry waiting on books either, so I've not aged the usual fiver years per printing.
Room For Improvement
1. Price. More expensive than some competitors (but way cheaper than Lulu), so if you are looking for the cheapest deal it's not here. I think the books worked out at about $3.30 a pop for 200, and that includes 2 set-up fees of $40 each for the cover and text block.
2. Text block print quality. The digital print of the text is not as sharp, or strong, as the RapidPOD printings, but it's not terrible. It does make the small text in Curlz font look spidery (for example the words "Best Friends" in the text). The paper has less "show-through" than earlier printings, which is a plus though. It could be that it would be stronger if I removed half-tones from my text block -- I'll follow up on this with my contact.
Overall?
Very, very good. Highly recommended and completely stress free!
Fidlar...
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Mon, 06/08/2007 - 12:22.
Oh, Contested Ground Studios got their books printed by Fidlar Doubleday too.
Malc hasn't seen these yet, but perhaps Paul or Iain will chime in with their thoughts?
I've seen Mob Justice, Cold City Companion and the new Cold City print, but I'll hold off until one of the others chips in first.
Filar-Doubleday were an
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Mon, 06/08/2007 - 14:26.
Fidlar-Doubleday were an excellent company to deal with. Their customer service was absolutely top notch. I you sent en email during business hours (in the US), that email was answered within the hour. The kept strictly to the timescales they had set themselves, for example:
The proofs for Mob Justice and the third printing of Cold City were to be ready on a Friday and dispatched by UPS 2 day service the same day. True to their word, we had the profs in our hands on the Monday.
Their prices were not as cheap as some, but the main attraction initially was the ability to get matt laminate covers done for our books. Apparently, they all look great, although I don't actually get to see what they look like until Gen Con!
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
The Companion...
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Mon, 06/08/2007 - 14:52.
...looks particularly beautiful with its yellowed matt cover. Really, really, really nice.
Mob Justice looks fantastic
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Mon, 06/08/2007 - 22:35.
Mob Justice looks fantastic with the matt cover, really brings out the front cover. Quality of prinitng looks fine and I have no objections, though I am not well schooled in such things.
All the best
Iain
Mob Justice now available!
'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.
I have no complaints about
Submitted by Paul CGS on Tue, 07/08/2007 - 11:48.
I have no complaints about Fidlar at all. The price was not the cheapest around, but I would rather pay more if quality and excellent customer service was delivered. In this case it was, there are no books I received that are unusable (this was not the case with Rapid POD) and the customer service was second to none from the initial quotes right through to delivery. We will probably use them for all our book printing in the future.
Sounds good. Gregor, are you
Submitted by Tim Gray on Tue, 07/08/2007 - 20:49.
Sounds good. Gregor, are you able to give us the Lulu cost for that book for comparison?
Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk
Comparisons
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Tue, 07/08/2007 - 23:06.
OK, the LULU cost calculator tells me that 200 books (without shipping) would be $3.65 a pop.
Fidlar Doubleday worked out at $3.05 a pop (without shipping) and that includes having a matt laminate cover. (The books were $2.64 each plus $80 total in setup fees.)
I actually got my numbers a bit wrong above, as I got 210 printed rather than 200 -- so including shipping, getting books shrinkwrapped and all that -- it worked out at $3.21 a book.
Last time I used RapidPod they were about $2.60 a book including shipping.