Coin-Op: The Arcade Guide.

[dot.fyre]

Just wondering (due to confusing mock-up pic), is it going to be a hardback?

[Greyfox]

Firstly sorry for the confusion  , yeah the mock shows it as a hard back, but it's will probably be softback, hardback is incredible more expensive, these images only represent a final design mock-up nothing more, as earlier previews mainly show it as a softback, so it's good to bet it will be softback rather than hardback.. thanks again for your interest.

[zapiy]

Really looking forward to all this MEEEEEDDDDIIIIAAA..

[Rogue Trooper]

Voted for cover no.1 as it captured the 'feel' of the dodgy arcades i used to visit, but loved look of cover No.3 as well.


Grey:after going through around 50% of H.H so far, i badly want this book next.

Who/what/where can i pre-order?

Feck man, just take my money already.

:-)

Might be looking at multiple copies, if so, any chance of a signed copy or 2?

[Greyfox]

Wow

[AmigaJay]

[align=center:2x2xlfb8][/align:2x2xlfb8]

What's the overhead àrcade racing game used for the background image?

[Greyfox]

I create it from scratch, its not an arcade game, is a mixture of sprites I tile set old Skool to create, it took about 90 mins just to create that alone, I also done one for the shootem'up chapter.

[dougtitchmarsh]

It really is looking great, and I want it too. Excellent work

[guest4816]

I am really not sure which I like best TBH, but to add one more voice to the set of opinions already voiced...

I think number 2 jumps out the most, but as mentioned already, does look a little commercial.
I really like number 3, just makes me think of the intro to Terrahawks

[Greyfox]

Thanks very Much for your interest Jonny, in the end of it all, i decided to go with cover number 1 as voted by over at the retro Gamer forums and here for abit, now it's all head to head, the cover was created in that darkish moody back street arcade we all went to back in the day, so it's more authentic and suited for the book i think,

Regarding to publishing, I'm still out on that one, due to the financial cost of actually getting it made, and shipped and selling it as a whole, I know allot of people want it, but the problem is the cost far out weights the demand or pre-order, the book is finished now, so I don't really want to go down the Digital Download route, because it will bring very little to the pot if you get me. I'm not saying I'm abandoning it by any means, god no, I've spend too much time on this to do that. The Quotes I've gotten were excellent, it's just finances is the issue. But I will see what the new year brings and maybe it will happen eventually.

[AmigaJay]

Any advancements with this Greyfox?

[Greyfox]

I'll be honest, its sitting on the back burner at the moment, althought I invested over a year and half producing it and fallen plans and ways to bringing it to print in the fashion it so deserves to be, I've opted to return to it at a much later stage and have to do some re-editing and better text alignments it needs to have a more professional finish etc.

I did consider the crowd funding route, but the logistics from were I'm based here in Dublin, Ireland completely pulls rank on the finances that would be required to produce this book, shipping and postal costs even at standard rate are so over priced here even with backing it would be nearly cheaper for me to deliver it in person and I won't even mention the prices quoted from printers over here, its such a joke, its not even funny, secondly adding perks is another concern regarding something of this nature, its not the product or the creation of the perks, it all comes down to execution, I don't knowing you've read about the "Artcade" kickstarter book and its disastrous outcomes at no fault of the author, but logistics taking the prize for that let down and incredibly unlucky unforeseen problems with printers and so on, this has scared the be-Jesus out of me to take a risk on doing crowd funding. Thirdly issues of people claiming not to have received their book or perks, costs you to reimburse them out of your pocket or claims of been lost in the post as registered post is simply not viable and could cost as much as the finished product, so you can see my dilemma and views on this, which is a complete crying shame as I always though printing would be cheaper nowadays but that's not true, in fact it's as expensive as its always been if not more.

I'm not abandoning the project, not by a long shot, but with another digital magazine in production set for a fall release, creating video promotion for it and press work, the coin-op book has to sit on the fence for the moment as does another project I have at least 30% of work completed has to also, I also sorta tried to not to go down the digital download route either due to piracy and distribution among friends killing sales raised towards a printed release based on quotations I've received so far.

But I will continue to have a positive outlook on it, and will certainly be looking at it again at some stage, as its a cracking piece of coin-op heritage and classic arcade game lookup and still I haven't seen anything like it, even now

[AmigaJay]

Ok, good to hear you hope to return to it as i think that could possibly sell pretty well. Even if you don't go the Kickstarter or pdf route, then i hope you put it up on places like Amazon or lulu for others to buy without the worry  of any loss.
I know what you mean about piracy of pdf books, my Gizmondo book was put around warez sites as a pdf, as such most of my sales were physical copies, my Lemmings book will only be pdf with the Kickstarter campaign, if it doesn't reach the target i won't bother.

As for printers it's sad what happened to the Artcade book and of course it could happen to anyone (like anything in life) but it shouldn't put people off, I'm making sure its a reputable company and not the cheapest or some Chinese company that can do for half the price for this very reason. Plus the way you pay can protect you on this front too, so i don't have any qualms about this.

Same for shipping too, a lot of stuff you send online is covered with insurance even if its not registered (normally £20-£50 per item) i send something a couple of months ago, never arrived, filled out a form and received compensation, bit of a pain but covers you to some degree, plus 99% of people are honest anyway, my cut would cover some degree of loss just in case. (still would be a lot more than selling on book sites).

But yeah i know where you're coming from, i think most people are nervous with their first project, but if you look at the Ocean/US Gold book guy he's already another in the planning, and I'm sure many others do to, it's all about how you protect yourself with planning costs and payment/shipping methods.

[Greyfox]

Yes, sure I have done a great degree of research into all the factors involved in this, had some great advice given in this department, maybe its just from the experience from where I'm based, I feel the UK makes it allot easlier to execute a product as their is more business / audience and publishers over there were creators have more options, I would at all times use the proper companies to produce anything I do professionally.

Here's the issues, to do it from here, I know I will pay nearly double on printing costs to secure the book in printed form versus the better deal form the UK, but in doing that the extra pricing for shipping from the Uk to here(stock) balances nearly out to what it would cost me here meaning then I have to increase the price of the product to offset the printing cost for possible a4 130 pages full colour back to back (matte finish) and gloss colour cover at 160gsm and 130gsm for the inside pages and at the cheapest quote works out at 500 copies £3,600 or something copies, shipping from the printers to Ireland another say £300-400, raising the bar to over £4000 (€5900) pound, and i feel the book at any smaller size like a5 etc..just wouldn't justify the content in the book, it has to be big not small, as I want the reader to be totally engrossed in the imagery. But to continue, we then have investments of £1000 (€1600) for (500-600) for cardboard books envelope packaging for the book and then about £2500(€2900) on postage excluding international post (USA), loses in the post etc..we'll say an additional lose of 20-30 books to be either refunded or replaced, so allow for at least 600 printed book form the start. This raises the total to over £7500 (€8400) in costs to get it out their, but based on sales quotes of 300 books at retail recommended price of either £20-24.99 sold comes to £6000 (€6500) at £20 and £7496 (€8300) doesn't even cover the cost to produce it in the first place, you'd nearly have to have a guarantee of 400-450 preordered books to make ends meet and justify the efforts involved that are not taken into account , your time packaging the books, transportation , posting etc..

I think the fund raising would have to be a high number say in the region of £15-20,000 (€25,000) to cover yourself, the loses and production of this product and also the fact its a niche subject doesn't help it either and I haven't even mentioned incentives likes perks etc..plus 20% of money raised goes to which ever fundraiser site you use, so they get £5,000 of your £25,000 and they don't even help with awareness, that's all up to you to do which I feel is a disgrace that they do this. I think allot of these folk doing crowd funding like Revival publishing and Bitmap books should approach individuals to work out a deal with them to help with the publishing of their books and have contracts drawn up based on over turn etc..Pixel Nation would of being the dream ticket for this type of thing, if they hadn't of gone south back then

[AmigaJay]

Yeah i see your point, its a bugger about higher printing and shipping costs in Ireland.
Btw Kickstarter works out at 10% of the total (not 20%) the VAT is for the fee's only not the total raised.
But yeah i agree its a juggling act to find the right amount, for my shipping its a set fee for anywhere in the world, because i tried at different prices but if for example everyone who bought one was in the ROW zone then the target would be met way before the number of books needed to be cheap enough to produce them!
But anyway, there's a lot of us who want the book whatever way you get it to market!