FLGS Profit Margins
guildofblades:
If case bound means the same thing as hard cover, then yeah, you face a mighty challenge trying to POD print them and still be able to wholesale the product. There are no POD printers that can do hard covers anywhere near affordably.
Perhaps you should have a regular perfect bound edition that you can sell both direct and via wholesale. Then have a special edition that is the hard cover that is only available direct from you (or direct from your Lulu store front, that is).
Lighting Source can offer distribution through the book industry. They are owned by Ingrams Book Distributors, who is the worlds largest book distribution company. That industry works on slightly smaller margins, on average, than game retailers, but they are offset by the fact they get returnability on many of the mainstream products they sell. Your POD book wouldn't have returnability (as I know) it, and hence it would largely be a "special order" item by most stores and chains. Still can lead to some sales, but its a definite restriction to broader sales. It should also be noted that very, very few game retailers order product from Ingrams or other book distributors. And typically when they do its to order some WOTC product as a hedge against broken street dates, not as a means to order small press or indie games.
Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.guildofblades.com/retailgroup.php
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com
iago:
Agreed. Options are pretty much either give up your dreams of doing hardcover via POD, give up your dreams of selling to retail, or make your peace with selling a thin hardcover for $50. (Though that said you MIGHT be able to get a dollar or two margin back by picking a POD provider other than lulu to print a hardcover.)
It's rough.
Thunder_God:
David, I ran some numbers for you.
X=Final price.
Y=Print cost. The different Ys mark that the printing costs are different.
Z=Profit.
If printing via Lulu, normally:
3X-8Ya=10Z
If Printing via Lulu retail (note, they take 20% off of what you make post Retail discount, which is set at 50% flat, but their printing costs is also much much lower than what it is normally. I don't know what stipulations they make on retail, and what sort of retailer you need to be in order to apply for these orders):
4X-8Yb=10Z
If printing via someone who doesn't take from your profit directly, and you still want to offer 50% retailer discount:
X-2Yc=2Z
If you want to calculate costs while taking into account that there will be people taking a percent off of your MSRP (The X), but an unknown figure. This is basically what was done above, but not simplified:
X-[(Percent of discount*X)+Y]=Z
If you go through multiple steps, and you also go through people who take from your profit, or from your profit before selling to retail:
The Lulu Retail figures (both someone who takes from your MSRP and from your profit) are: X-[X/2+Y+0.2*(X/2-Y)]=Z
The Lulu non retail figures (as above, but they don't take your retail discount into account when calculating how much to take from you): X-[X/2+Y+0.2*(X-Y)]=Z
Hope this helps.
David Artman:
Lulu looks better; thanks for the math, Oni and Guy.
I like the idea of soft-cover retail; hard cover "direct buy" "special edition." It prevents me from "competing" with retailers (as they wouldn't want the hard cover for low margins), still gives me a tidy profit on each sale of it, and maybe some customers will want to buy it just to get more money direct into my hands (it can happen!). The hard cover could even become the more-attractive option, given that that the price differential can remain low, if I'm not trying to pad to account for retailer gross margin.
I'll concede the observation that game retailers don't look to Lightning Source; hopefully they will get setup and deal with Lulu, if approached--I doubt there's retailers watching What New at Lulu (or whatever) for new offerings.
I reckon I've got enough numbers to go forward with a publishing plan. Thanks, everyone, for your help and advice!
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