Order of the Stick ebooks

[The Troubadour]

Does anyone know if the Giant has any plans for releasing the Order of the Stick books as ebooks? Importing them is quite expensive!

[oppyu]

The Giant likes his paper books, and releasing them as e-books would dilute the market to the point where it would not be financially viable to continue printing paper books. It's his way of joining with Durkon to fight the evil Tree Conspiracy.

As an Australian who threw out the last of their outdated paper books in favour of e-books over a year ago, I feel your pain.

[Keltest]

The Giant likes his paper books, and releasing them as e-books would dilute the market to the point where it would not be financially viable to continue printing paper books. It's his way of joining with Durkon to fight the evil Tree Conspiracy.

As an Australian who threw out the last of their outdated paper books in favour of e-books over a year ago, I feel your pain.

As a person who has just converted over to an E-reader, I suspect that visual media such as comics shall remain the domain of paper and web pages. It seems like it would be rather inconvenient to try and read the comic on, say, my nook, because of the small screen compared to the very large pages.

[oppyu]

I agree, laptops are an essential supplement to an e-reader for visual media. Plus, you won't throw your back out moving a laptop up three flights of stairs into a new apartment.

[Vinsfeld]

I know how you feel, fellow brazilian. I have all the books, but I had to pay the damn high taxes, so I ordered 1 or maybe 2 at a time. You can do as I did and order the "not-available-online" first (OtOoPC, SoD and SSaDT).

[137beth]

As a person who has just converted over to an E-reader, I suspect that visual media such as comics shall remain the domain of paper and web pages. It seems like it would be rather inconvenient to try and read the comic on, say, my nook, because of the small screen compared to the very large pages.

Other than OOTS, I stopped getting gaming-related books in printed form, because they are almost as bulky as a laptop. A small print book is easier to carry around than a laptop (though not a tablet, necessarily), but a big sourcebook or comic book isn't much smaller.
That said, I understand Rich's decision not to release e-book versions of OOTS (or rather, I understand that it is possible that it is not financially sound, and that I can't judge whether it is appropriate without seeing sales figures that only Rich knows). I'm holding out hope that some time in the next five-ten years the market situation will shift far enough in favor of e-books that Rich will change his mind.

[Keltest]

Other than OOTS, I stopped getting gaming-related books in printed form, because they are almost as bulky as a laptop. A small print book is easier to carry around than a laptop (though not a tablet, necessarily), but a big sourcebook or comic book isn't much smaller.
That said, I understand Rich's decision not to release e-book versions of OOTS (or rather, I understand that it is possible that it is not financially sound, and that I can't judge whether it is appropriate without seeing sales figures that only Rich knows). I'm holding out hope that some time in the next five-ten years the market situation will shift far enough in favor of e-books that Rich will change his mind.

At least for a sourcebook, its hideously inconvenient to actually use a labtop version in game. Trust me, ive tried. Besides the fact that youre handing an expensive and droppable laptop around a room, its a lot easier to flip through a book than it is to search through a PDF or internet webpage to find what youre looking for.

[The Troubadour]

Yeah, I ordered both "Start of Darkness" and "Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales" back when SSaDT first came out, and they're both great - SoD, in particular, is a masterpiece!

I much prefer having a physical copy of a book than reading it on my PC or my Kindle, but if I have to choose between having an ebook and not having a book at all, well, I'm sure you can guess which one I prefer. :-)

[littlebum2002]

At least for a sourcebook, its hideously inconvenient to actually use a labtop version in game. Trust me, ive tried. Besides the fact that youre handing an expensive and droppable laptop around a room, its a lot easier to flip through a book than it is to search through a PDF or internet webpage to find what youre looking for.

First of all, who uses laptops anymore? A tablet is MUCH easier to carry around than a stack of sourcebooks.

And it's easier to flip through a sourcebook than to hit Crtl+F? For the life of me, I can't possibly envision a scenario in which you could find something flipping pages faster than my computer processor can find it searching for text, which usually takes on the order of fractions of a second.


In my own experience, I have found e-sourcebooks to be massively more convenient than the real thing. Everyone else in the group has a pile of heavy books that they have to endlessly flip through, while I have a tablet full of every sourcebook I own and can find anything in a matter of seconds with a simply query.

In fact, the only reason it would ever take someone with e-books longer to create a character than someone with physical books is because he has instant access to every book he owns, and therefore has much more options open to him when making the character, where the other player only has the books he was able to lug into the game with him.

[ChristianSt]

To get back on topic: Recentish (April), Rich said the following on his Twitter:

[Question:Any plans for ebooks?]
[Rich Burlew:] I'll consider it when I've finished all the Kickstarter stories.

While I wouldn't get my hopes too high personally, maybe someday there will be OotS ebooks [I would still prefer the paper option myself, though].


For an older post from Rich, in which he explains more why "digital pdf downloads are not in the works at this time [2011]" you can read this post.

[Jan Mattys]

I'd second the existence of ebooks...

Seriously, a couple years ago I bought the two prequel books for me and a friend of mine (as a christmas present).
The costs of the shipping to Italy were outrageous. With that money I could have bought a hard cover book in full colour. :(

It saddens me because I'd love to have the whole Order of the Stick collection, but it's far too expensive. Especially if you would like to buy a book as soon as it comes out, because the shipping costs for a single book are just insane in proportion.

The eBooks, I would totally buy the day they come out. But as it is now, it's honestly impossible for my finances, sadly. And I suspect a lot of people here share these problems.

[The Troubadour]

While I wouldn't get my hopes too high personally, maybe someday there will be OotS ebooks [I would still prefer the paper option myself, though].

So do I, but I also prefer having the book to not having the book. :-P Well, there's always hope!

Thanks for all the replies, everybody!