The thing about print on demand is that it's still too expensive on the really small quantities (at least with this vendor), and the pricing is heavily dependent on how many you run at once. So a possible approach would be to solicit orders (from our distributors, and maybe we could do it for mail order as well), and then produce the right quantity simply to fill those orders.

Why not just PDF them? Well, the problem is that we don't have digital files for most early books, like these ones. The POD vendor can work from either digital files or from a hard copy, while generating PDFs would necessitate scanning all these pages and either making a PDF of graphics (the raw scans) or OCR plus proofreading (ugh!).

So my question is, anybody interested in some of the old titles? Ones that would be suitable include The Tempest, Covenants, The Maleficium, Pax Dei, and Shamans. Also, would you mind if we didn't have color covers, but something a bit plainer? Pricing would be comparable to new books today (probably $25 for Maleficium, less for smaller books).

I was thinking we could even call the whole series "Ars Magica Classic Reprints Series" or something, maybe issue them one a month over a period of time next year.

Feedback?

However, how about a compilation of the old adventures. Trial by Fire, The Tempest, Deadly Legacy, Storm Rider, Black Death?

I would be interested in these two. Throw some more names out and I might be up for them too.

Mark

Maybe with a few pages of updated material?

"The Bats of Mercille" should actually be turning up in the next few months as a PDF. Lisa Stevens found the old WriteNow files and e-mailed them to me. Looked like they were the first ones (from the 1988 version, not the 1989). I've been updating them to 4th ed (and incorporating some of the 1989 version changes and edits -- though the 89 version is woefully flawed, since it's missing stats), and plan to put together a little file to sell through RPGNow.

> However, how about a compilation of the old adventures. Trial by
> Fire, The Tempest, Deadly Legacy, Storm Rider, Black Death?

Well, the only one on the list that is out of print is The Tempest; the rest are still in stock in our warehouse, and mostly in ample supply. I've already thrown away enough of some of them to pare us down to a 5 year supply at current sales levels.

Anything that involves updating/revised material requires an investment of far more staff time and resources. For that investment, we should either do something new (as is the current plan) or at least consider revisions of sourcebooks that have more potential market and utility (which is the plan further on down the line).

The POD method would actually require less staff effort than creating PDFs of these particular books, since they would be like facsimile reproductions (except changes to the cover and legal page, and any ads that were in them originally).

I've gotten some information from a local "print on demand" vendor, and it's led me to consider an idea for Ars Magica: to do some special small-run reprint editions of some pre-Atlas titles that are out of print.

Why not just PDF them? Well, the problem is that we don't have digital files for most early books, like these ones. The POD vendor can work from either digital files or from a hard copy, while generating PDFs would necessitate scanning all these pages and either making a PDF of graphics (the raw scans) or OCR plus proofreading.
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Two questions:

Would the POD books be the same format as the originals, or would they be a slightly smaller scale (a la Lightning Source)?

And will the quality of a copy of a copy be as good as the original printings?

Spike Y Jones, whose collection is probably near-enough complete that he won't be in the target market

They would be slightly smaller -- 10 7/8" x 8 3/8" rather than a full 8 1/2" x 11" -- I expect. We could reproduce at the original size, and just trust that the extra 1/8" isn't going to crop anything, but I think a safer bet will be to go with

The covers would definitely be different. I'm actually thinking of using a plain cardstock cover (maybe ivory or off-white or something), rather than a full-cover laminated cover, for (1) savings and (2) it would look distinctive. Plus, I'm most uncertain about getting a good reproduction from the covers (which have to be redesigned anyway in order to have a new ISBN and publisher info, etc.). I've asked for some samples of the different cover options.

> And will the quality of a copy of a copy be as good as the
> original printings?

The short answer is no. Copies of the originals would be scanned for the reprints, so there has to be some image degradation. (And if I had digital files, I'd be selling them as PDFs.) On the other hand, some of these books were done in the ancient camera-ready copy paste-up days -- The Tempest, for example, was printed out on a 300 dpi laser printer, and that laser output was used for the films that the original printer used. The 3rd edition-era stuff, though, was output to film (as you can tell by the quality of the halftones).

I've asked for some more samples. I'm interested in evaluating the cover options, and also seeing if they can do a good job of reproducing halftones (we don't want unsightly moire patterns).

:)

Sign me up!!!!
That is the only remaning item I have left to get!

Ed C.

If they reached Australia, and more specifically if they reach Mind Games Melbourne, then I'd definitely buy all of them. I'd definitely try to get them, but a lack of ability to pay for things over the internet (no credit card) means that going through my FLGS is the only option.

~Alex

Being relatively new to ArM, I'd be interested in some of these titles (although being new, I'm not entirely familiar with all of them and would have to decide how many I'd pick up once I'd seen more about them).

Chris

If I had a choice, I would actually prefer pdf files. But if that would be more expensive, I don't see the point. But it just seems so convenient.

-Albert

Shamans are not completely out of place in Mythic Europe as a whole, but they would be in a French village...

But if you placed Tempest, Covenants (taken it you mean the Lion Rampant publication) in POD in Warehouse 23, I would be interested.

Now if you can get Order of Hermes (LR) as well for POD, I would be very happy indeed

Gary

If you'd like, you can give me contact info on your local game store, tell me what books you want that they haven't been able to get, and I'll call the store and their distributor(s) and make sure they get them for you. I'd love to, in fact.

> But if you placed Tempest, Covenants (taken it you mean the Lion
> Rampant publication) in POD in Warehouse 23, I would be interested.

Yep, the Covenants book by Lion Rampant, and we'd definitely be using W23.

However you'd think that Atlas books could arrive in a western city of over a million people within a few months of release.

In Australia, the distributor Walrus & Carpenter orders direct from us. They did order The Bishop's Staff on May 7, 2002. They also re-ordered it on June 14, and they have bought Blood and Sand as well.

Another Australian distributor that carries us indirectly is Jedko. They currently are ordering through a west coast US distributor, I believe, because their freight forwarder is apparently very expensive when it comes to consolidating small orders from multiple vendors.

If you e-mail me contact info for the store, I'd be happy to forward it to both distributors.

I know of instances (can't discuss beyond that) of stock having to be purchased from a Melbourne store (with excess) to fill customer orders. I don't know how Walrus & Carpenter goes with the rest of the Altas range, but they seem to be not really interested in non-hot items like Ars.

I hope I'm wrong.

In a lot of instances where shops have used Jedko, a cut into there profit margin just to get stock, Mind you doing this all the time is not good for business.

This isn't an uncommon problem in Australia, The retail industry is plagued by too many middle men distributors in the chain. In know in the direct comics distribution industry this radically changed a few years ago.

I don't think the shop has an email address (well not that I'm aware of).

The fact that Walrus RE-ordered The Bishop's Staff suggests to me that they are doing a reasonably good job of making ArM available.

A lot of time, unfortunately, people blame the unseen middlemen as the easy way out. (It's more comfortable to say, "My darn distributor doesn't stock that title!" instead of "I don't think it's worth my time to special order that one book; wouldn't you rather buy the stuff I do have on my shelves?") Too, there could be an out of stock period, especially if a book does better than expected. (The reorder on Bishop's Staff could have indicated that; moving goods all the way around the globe does take a little while...)

In any case, I'm always happy to track down these situations. In particular, it's good to let a distributor know that their customers may be losing sales and not realizing it, if consumers go looking for books in their stores and leave to order it on the internet when the can't find it...all without saying a word, most of the time.

If you would like to contact Jedco/Milsims here are there details:
Military Simulations
134 Cochranes Road, Moorabbin Vic 3189, Australia
Phone 03 9555 8886 Fax 03 9553 3339
Email sales@milsims.com.au
Site Address: http://www.milsims.com.au/

The Auld Grump

~Alex