MAP Group member, Gloria Hander Lyons offers the following information about choosing a book printer, which is an excerpt from her book, Self-Publishing on a Budget.
Choosing a Book Printer
You
will need to find a book printer for your title unless you are using a subsidy
publisher (a company that charges a fee to do the layout, printing and
distributing). Plan to spend considerable time researching the services and
prices of several companies to find one that is right for your budget and
overall vision. There are hundreds of choices available.
First
of all, make sure the printer you choose offers the binding style and trim size
that you want. If
you plan to make a profit from selling your book, you’ll need to consider the
cost of production per copy, especially if you want to sell them at wholesale
prices to bookstores or other retailers.
There
are basically two viable choices: digital book printers and print-on-demand
book printers.
Digital Printers: These companies will print your book in minimum quantities
of 25 to 50 copies, using heavy-duty laser printers, and you get a price break, depending on the number of books you order. The cost is quite
affordable, but prices do vary, as well as services, so be sure to shop around.
All book printers require that you provide a PDF (Portable Document File) of
your book files for printing. This means you need to own software, such as
Adobe® Acrobat, which is fairly expensive. Adobe®CreatePDF also offers a monthly online
service for about $10.00 per month for creating PDF files.
You
can also find a few free PDF software versions online, and some word
processing packages (i.e. Microsoft® Office) now come with PDF creators. Make sure any
program you use can create “High Quality Printing” PDF’s, which maintains a
300dpi level for photographs. “Standard” level is too low.
Some
book printers, such as www.InstantPublisher.com,
will create these files free of charge if you use their printing services. You
upload your word processing file (i.e. Microsoft® Word) to their computer, it
creates the PDF file, and then you place your print order.
Digital
book printers usually offer a variety of binding styles, such as perfect,
saddle-stitch, comb, coil, and case.
Several
of our MAP Group members recently toured America’s Press, a digital book
printing facility in League City (www.americas-press.com).
Joel Turner, president of the company,
POD (Print On Demand) Printers: These companies, such as www.createspace.com, store your book text
and cover files in their computer database, and the books are not actually
printed until they receive an order. They can print one book at a time or
several hundred books to ship directly to your buyers. Some POD printing
companies sell only to wholesale accounts (Lightning Source); others to
individual customers (CreateSpace.com).
The
binding styles are usually limited to perfect or case bound. The royalty you
receive is normally the sale price minus the cost of printing the book plus a
sales fee (for Createspace.com, this is usually about 20% - 40% of the retail
price).
If
you don’t want to fill book orders yourself, a POD printer can be a good
option. Createspace.com is owned by Amazon.com, and does not charge an
additional fee for placing your books for sale on Amazon. Another advantage of
a POD printer is that you don’t need to invest money in a large quantity of
books and store them until they are sold.
Prices
and services vary widely, so compare those offered by several different POD
printers to find the one that best meets your needs and budget considerations.
