RPG: DriveThruRPG Warns Publishers Of Rising Print On Demand Costs In The US
DriveThruRPG sent out a newsletter warning RPG publishers of a sharp increase to print on demand costs in the very near future.
April showers might bring May flowers, but it seems like they’ll also bring with them increased costs to Print on Demand products, rising anywhere from 20-50% depending on the book. According to a publisher’s newsletter from DriveThruRPG, US black & white print costs will “increase significantly” in the coming weeks. Citing “increasing supply costs”, DTRPG warned publishers that both hardcover and softcover titles will be hit.
Increasing costs and supply chain issues have been a problem for many industries for a while now. But it seems likely that this is a tariff-related issue. For one, many books sold in the US are printed in Canada. Some of Monte Cook’s Numenera and Cypher books, for instance, and many of R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk books spring to mind.
Even print houses in the US import paper. The print supply chain includes goods that may cross the northern border multiple times. Whatever the case, the increased rates are likely to take effect on April 1st. Here’s what we know so far.
DriveThruRPG – Print On Demand Costs May Increase Up To 50%
Here’s relevant text taken from the publisher’s newsletter:
“Due to increasing supply costs in the US, Black & White print costs in the US will increase significantly, from around 20% for low-pagecount hardcover titles up to about 50% or slightly more for large hardcover books, and with softcover titles seeing an even greater increase.
UK print costs for Black & White books will also increase, but only by 3-4%. Standard Color print costs will increase by roughly 12-13% for US printing ut only arund 3% for UK printing.
Though the costs are going up, DriveThruRPG has said in the newsletter that it won’t adjust selling prices, except in cases where the new printing cost exceeds the current sale price. According to a reddit post, in some cases the increase may be as high as 75%.
Even if it’s a “mere” 20-30% increase, I can’t imagine any publisher – especially smaller ones – eating a huge loss to profit. The industry is small enough outside of the giants. I’d say you can expect to see prices increase as costs do. So if you’ve been thinking about buying a book via print-on-demand, you may want to nab it sooner rather than later.
More on the story as it develops
