Who prints the OOTS books?

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but just out of curiosity, who is The Giant's printer for the OOTS books?

[BRC]

a secret village of Gnomes with ink stained fingers.

[David Argall]

My copy of Start of Darkness says "Published by Giant in the Playground Games".

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

My copy of Start of Darkness says "Published by Giant in the Playground Games".

The books are self-published, so Giant in the Playground Games is listed as the publisher, but Rich still needs to print the book, and I was curious as to who prints the books. Thanks anyway though.

[SPoD]

I'm not sure it's in Rich's best interest to tell us, if he didn't decide to put it in the books in the first place. For all we know, he's used several different printers. All we know is "Printed in the U.S.A." and that's pretty much it.

[DreadSpoon]

The printer probably has changed. Past news articles have expressed great dissatisfaction with "the printer," and said company has probably been replaced.

Here's one such article quickly found on google: http://www.giantitp.com/LostBooks.html

Printers are a dime a dozen, really. The hard part of publishing a book isn't find a printer; it's finding a publisher (usually necessary for at least getting an ISBN, as buying them one at a time is usually prohibitively expensive -- not sure how the Giant managed) and a distributor (e.g. APE Games in this case).

[Lissou]

The printer probably has changed. Past news articles have expressed great dissatisfaction with "the printer," and said company has probably been replaced.

Here's one such article quickly found on google: http://www.giantitp.com/LostBooks.html

Printers are a dime a dozen, really. The hard part of publishing a book isn't find a printer; it's finding a publisher (usually necessary for at least getting an ISBN, as buying them one at a time is usually prohibitively expensive -- not sure how the Giant managed) and a distributor (e.g. APE Games in this case).

Well, some ISBNs are free... (although I don't know if it's the case for US ones) but maybe he bought several at a time? You don't need to have the title or number of pages yet when you get an ISBN (I've looked it up when I needed one, and in France they give you 5 at once or something) and he knew he'd need at least... let's say 5, at the time he needed the first one (he probably planned that many books altogether, if you include prequels and stuff, even if he didn't think he'd have as many books as there will probably be in the end).
Or he did buy them individually. Not sure how expensive it is, but if they sell well it might be worth it anyways.
Or there is another option we don't know about.

Oh, and @post starter: I forwarded your question in the War and XP thread because I thought maybe it was suitable, but apparently it wasn't. Sorry about that.

[NerfTW]

I think you're right about the ISBNs. I remember someone finding an old Amazon listing for the original name for "No Cure For the Paladin Blues" last year or so. The Giant or one of the mods replied that this was because he registered the ISBNs ahead of time.

You might still be able to find it in a search of the Giant's posts.

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

Well, some ISBNs are free... (although I don't know if it's the case for US ones) but maybe he bought several at a time? You don't need to have the title or number of pages yet when you get an ISBN (I've looked it up when I needed one, and in France they give you 5 at once or something) and he knew he'd need at least... let's say 5, at the time he needed the first one (he probably planned that many books altogether, if you include prequels and stuff, even if he didn't think he'd have as many books as there will probably be in the end).
Or he did buy them individually. Not sure how expensive it is, but if they sell well it might be worth it anyways.
Or there is another option we don't know about.

Oh, and @post starter: I forwarded your question in the War and XP thread because I thought maybe it was suitable, but apparently it wasn't. Sorry about that.

Thanks for doing that. I'm honestly not sure why that question wasn't appropriate, since it was about the book, but I'm sure Rich has his reasons.

[NerfTW]

Possibly because a poster recently caused some serious boundary issues by contacting GitP's service provider and then offering unsolicited (and pretty wrong) advice.