Lemmings - The Ports Book Out Now

[zapiy]

RVG Reviews the Lemmings - The Ports book by @EchoPark

http://www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/index. ... mmingsport

[Greyfox]

Superb, Just reading it now and Many thanks to Echopark for taking the time in doing a wonderful book review for us here at RVG 

[TrekMD]

Very nice indeed! 

[EchoPark]

I've past my book on to my dad to let him have a read. Can't wait for it to come back to put it in my display. I showed the kid the book and kept saying to him "Now this is a game!" he just rolled his eyes.

I'll be getting your other book soon Jay. Can't wait to see it

[zapiy]

Thanks for doing the review fella, and thanks to GF for the graphics..

 

[AmigaJay]

Good review! Fair comments too, the screenshots would have been better larger, but it was a balance of getting enough on the page to compare with the other versions.
Price wise, yes the paperback is a little high, but without ordering in bulk in getting the price down it was the cheapest i could set the book at on Amazon whilst still making a profit, i dont mind stating after tax i only make about £3.80 per book on Amazon, so as much i would have preferred a £29.95 price tag it was out of the question!
Sales wise, the choice i made in not taking it to Kickstarter was wise as it would have never hit its target for such niche game in todays market.
All of the images used screenshot wise were png files, so thequality is there, again the Amazon print service lets it down slightly, but viewing on the pdf makes it easier to see the quality and of course you can zoom right in.

[Greyfox]

I think myself personally in this day and age with how cheap electronics have become, it's still costs an arm and leg to produce a printed publication? wtf? for a bulk print run it is a massive financial risk on the author and this excludes any promotion for it which is nearly as expensive as the print run and awareness, but if you have friends that have your back that's a great help. Very surprised at Amazon shoddy printing? and have to say the PDF is pin sharp, so that's down to Amazon's print facility.

Regarding Kickstarter , I don't think so, there was some many avenues that could of being taken with this , but alas it's out now, maybe drum up some resources to put a full or half page spread in Retro Gamer magazine to help things along, do a double feature for this and the Amiga Book

[AmigaJay]

The sales for both books are ticking over each month, nothing spectular under 100 sales between both in total, but as was mentioned in the review this was a personal project for myself originally, its a miracle it ever got released the amount of work i had todo at one point!
Im just glad the big Lemmings fans who wanted a copy got one, sorry the price wasnt lower,again it was the cheapest printed option i could offer i can assure you, in hindsight a square book pushed the price a little higher than i hoped, but im sure you would agree its a unique book that would never had been made otherwise, you do have to pay extra sometimes, at least its a collectors item in the sense there isnt many physical copies made to date! (around 40 without checking details) 
But i wont risk any money on advertising £150 ish for half page advert inc vat on RG, thats roughly what i made on the physical copies, so you can see its not worth the risk!

[EchoPark]

Yea I kinda knew the screenshots size was down to real estate with the size of the book. I should really get myself the PDF to check it out but I spent all my pennies on a silly quad so I'm on super noodles for the month lol.

The price for me wasn't to much of a downer I agree with what you say that with tax and making the book that you wouldn't of made any money if you did it cheaper. I again should of mentioned that in the review lol. I'm always so nervous writing as I think I covered everything but then when I get feedback I'm like damn!

Kickstarter is such a hit or miss, especially if you don't get staff picked. I've heard from other folk who done projects that you can beg to get featured bit if it happens to late then your Kickstarter just gets buried and forgotten about.

I did post my picture of the book on the Amiga FB group I'm on and they were some interest. I'll link the review again and see if that will interest more folk. I really enjoyed the read and just couldn't believe how much ports of the game there was. Back when I played the DOS version of the game I never even thought why 2 player wasn't supported untill you mentioned it in the book. It really made me laugh

[AmigaJay]

No i agree with your points in you're review you did a good job, the image issues as mentioned are a Amazon print problem because of the paper, i did do a test copy on lulu.com and its much better but the price is stupid to even sell it! same for Blurb and other places, Ingramspark were a nightmare, so had to go with Amazon or not at all...of course a 300 page full colour square book was never going to be the cheapest option 

Glad you enjoyed the book anyway, I've sent you a PM btw EchoPark.

[EchoPark]

As someone said before, I can't believe that printing books is still funny money, thought it be cheaper these days. And I'll check that PM out

[AmigaJay]

Another 2 star review on Amazon Germany, pretty disheartening to read, especially as all the work that went into the book, he said the info is known by all hardcore fans...err yeah but try and get the information in one place with photos of the dif versions...and they always hit on the price, I'm sorry but as i stated without doing a run of 500 books the price is the lowest i could do, it does make me feel like removing the book from Amazon and just leaving the PDF up, i get a bigger profit on that and none has complained about the price of thin air yet!

[zapiy]

Justin I would not get disheartened. I think people need to review books in light of how they were created. Surely most people would know this is a one man creation who has tried to created a resource for Lemmings fans and gamers in general.

Reviews are peoples opinions. I would say if someone can do better, go ahead lol but for me mate you should be proud of what you have achieved.

[AmigaJay]

Yeah i know, i should stay professional, it is after all just one persons view.  I am proud of the book, just wished the print version turned out better, but not a lot i can do about it now, move on, lots of VR games to review!

[Greyfox]

Hey I seconded what zap said, it's your baby, nobody other than you knows the logistics and time and effort that has when into your books, unfortunate the likes of Amazon and the likes are necessity to bring something of this nature to the fray and publication of video game related books, it's a shame people most of the time don't grasp that concept, people need to stop and understand that niche subject matter does not have the backing like shite like fifty shades has behind it in all its glory. Sure look at me, I'm probably spoken as the video game book bullshitter king, because I never brought the coin-op book to the masses back then and believe me it's not from the wanting to, I spend about 15 months producing that, nearly every day and feel although it's amazing to look at, feel there isn't enough content lol.

The Video Game artistry book is still in production at about 85% done and I've been working on that for a 10 months now with still lots to do painting wise and it also needs its content written , but a big halt was due to the Atari 2600 book that's out now , producing that for Derek, so the way I see if people are critical about your books, my books whenever the hell they appear, plus I'm back on the Atari ST Gamer magazine issue 2 for July/August release I can take it all with a pinch of salt, because only I know that I've done the systems justice, just like you have with yours, and nothing compares to the self achievement of doing something right and people loving it or hating it, their opinion, not mine, so I suggest rejecting their reality and substituting your own lol.

Maybe one day we'll start up our own publishing house, if I win the lotto, expect a call