Hello, humans. Have you missed me? Sorry to leave the site neglected for a day or two — really, I’m completely committed to this daily updates thing — but I’m entering the final stretch of assembling GameSpite Quarterly 3. It’s gonna be a long, long issue, as in 300 pages long. Which is a problem, since anything over 160 pages makes the standard edition too expensive for my ideal end-user price of $12. I am considering a couple of different options for managing this particular problem, and I’ll have a clearer picture of what to do once everything is placed and assembled.
In the meantime, here is a sample of an entry from GSQ3. Go on, have a look. Back? OK then. Now, there are more than 125 other entries like this in the book, so I figure you can get a good sense of why the issue will be so lengthy from simple applied mathematics. (Images courtesy of HG101, by the way. They get a credit in the book proper, as usual.)
The inspiration of this issue was a series of “mooks” (magazine books, I think is the idea there) called Famidas, short for Famicom Dictionary All-Around Series. It’s a three-volume black-and-white encyclopedia of Famicom characters and other odds and ends, and I fell in love with it several years ago and thought, “Man, I wish someone would do one of these in English.” But no one did. And then I realized, oh hey, I do this self-publishing thing, and GameSpite Quarterly is pretty much exactly the same size and format as Famidas… and here we are now. Except this book encompasses more than just Famicom material and extends to all of the 8-bit family. And the write-ups probably aren’t quite as didactic as Famidas’s.
Anyway. Barring some unforeseen crisis, which is entirely possible given the way my life’s been going lately, this issue will be submitted for proofs by the end of the week and should be up for order before Thanksgiving. Are you excited? Well, dang it, you should be.
Just make it a single volume…$20 or so is not too high a price for a quality 300+ page book. Just about every 300 page paperback video game book on my shelf has a list price of $15-$20 (heck, Kohler’s “Retro Gaming Hacks” – granted 400 pages – lists for $30). It’s not as if you’re peddling a pile of crap here.
Also remember that if you break it up into two volumes (if that is one of your options) it might wind up costing people even more because they will get dinged twice for Blurb’s high shipping costs.
Jeremy, why didn’t you mention GSQ on 4 Guys 1up when the question about starting a new magazine came up. What Jeff said he would do seems very similar to what you’re doing. You’ve got to spread the word, man. I’m sure a bunch of 1up’s community would be interested in this if you told them about it.
Or is it a thing where you don’t want to pimp a side project on company time. If so then that’s understandable.
I like where this is going. Should be interesting for some of the series with large families and connections. I’m playing Lunar 2 right now, and the family connections are a nice touch there.
Actually, Blurb offers flat-rate shipping on up to five books now, so multiple volumes wouldn’t be any more expensive to ship. It’s essential that the cover price on the standard edition not exceed $12, so I’m either going to cut half the content for the standard version of divide it into two. We’ll see, I guess.
“why didn’t you mention GSQ on 4 Guys 1up”
Let me introduce you to a thing called “avoiding appearances of conflict of interest.” I try hard to make sure everything I write at GameSpite doesn’t directly overlap with my work at 1UP, and I certainly don’t intend to start using 1UP as a venue in which to push my side projects.
Yeah, I realized that as I was writing. I totally understand, but there was a little voice in my head as Jeff was talking saying “you should read GSQ!” I suppose you probably had a similar voice in your head.
So two 150 page books would be $12…how much is one 300 page book? I don’t publish on Blurb so I have no idea. I checked your listings and Year 1, Vol 1 was $23 for 350+ pages, so two 150 page books for $12 wouldn’t be much, if any cheaper.
I guess I don’t understand why $12 is the magical price-point for these books. The work is quality and well worth the money. Your previous 3 books were excellent and worth every penny (kudos to you and all the writers).
Anyways, I would rather spend the extra money on two volumes than have you cut half the content.
Totally excited for the new issue, only just finished the 2nd. Love the extra content, love the concept. Higher price? Eh…well, not as much, but hell, more content = more money. And that’s fine by me.
I LOVE this series and have every intention of keeping up with it as best I can. And if I can’t, relying on Birthday/Christmas presents to assist. :P
I am absolutely kicking myself for not getting to write for this volume, as just the brief taste we got looks like it would have been a blast. Oh well, I’m pumped to give you money for this regardless how you decide to distribute it out.
Whatever solution you settle on, I’m definitely dishing out for the premium content this time. I’ve neglected buying hardback in the past because I’m a poor college boy, but there are way too many great entries here. I want ’em all.
One big paperback for $24 or two small ones for $12 doesn’t make much difference to me; the only thing I’d vote against is dropping half the content from the “standard” edition. I don’t have the other hardbacks and like having books in a series in the same format, but I don’t think I could bear to miss out on that much of this issue in print.
Agree with Kirin :-)
I’m with you fellers!