Does anyone know of a company that can do print on demand of hardback books in the UK? I'm trying to help Matthew Finch of Mythmyre Games find alternatives for people having to order hardback copies of Swords & Wizardry from Lulu and get stung for expensive shipping in they want a trackable order.

Any advice anyone can pass on would be really appreciated.

Thanks
- Neil.

As many of you will be aware the Guild of Blades recently opened a combined retail store / POD shop, stocking small runs of games on their shelves and printing others on demand from a catalogue.

As part of this opening they offered the chance for game designers to join their retail program, which means you give them a PDF of your game, they print a small run at their expense (so no cost to you) and then sell the games direct, with a cut going to you if they sell. I decided to sign up for this on the condition that I got one of the copies they printed.

I was wondering if I could draw on the collective experience of you folks here? I'm just about to start laying out a small trial project in InDesign CS2 (which I'll take to print via Lulu) in preparation for doing Graham Spearings' Wordplay and have a few questions on colours etc.

1)How do you handle colour profiles? Do you ignore them, or is there a specific on you would usually target? Lulu says a lot about ignoring this, but as we're not wedded to the plan of using Lulu for Wordplay, I'd love to hear your advice. Is it publisher specific?

You might have noticed that I've previously talked about a production issue with Hot War and Cold City 1.1. The short version is that our printers had a fault with their cover laminating equipment which wasn't noticed until after the books had been shipped and sold. The fault caused the covers to curl badly.

A problem like this is a customer service issue because, however you look at it, those books are sub-standard product. How do you deal with something like this and avert the potential bad publicity surrounding such a thing? Quick answer: act, don't react.

The books themselves are finally printed. Kind of like this:

Fidlar Doubleday have done their usual excellent job, the book looks great.