The number one mistake that a new independent publisher can make is to go to the local "Mom & Pop Quickie Print" shop to get quotes on printing a book.

Printers are all taught: Never turn down a job (if at all possible). The printer will smile, tell you, "Sure, we do this kind of job all the time." And then take down all the specifications and information so he can find a printer who can really do the job. Of course, Mom & Pop will add a 30-50% markup to the price quoted by the "real" printer. You will think that book printing is terribly expensive! Of course, you may want to establish a relationship with a local printer for flyers, mailers, and stationery. Your local printer can efficiently help you with many projects that you will need for your business; just be aware of their capabilities, staff skills, and equipment. You can also use this good relationship when you need some general printing advice or to check out ink colors on a PMS color chart.

The reality: Of the thousands of printers in the U.S., there are about 100 printers that either specialize in printing books or where printing books make up a significant portion of their work. Since these printers are specifically equipped to print books (and very little else) they can print your book very efficiently and deliver them to you at a price far lower than anything that a local print shop can ever do--even with the transportation charges across the country.

How much? On any given day, almost any printer can beat the price of any other printer. Every print job is a custom production run. Printing prices vary by the nature of the project and the amount of work in the shop. If the shop is fully scheduled, the print price is likely to be somewhat higher than if their schedule is empty. Printers have high overhead and are also in danger of losing skilled workers if they don't keep them adequately busy (i.e. paid). Therefore, you should submit a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to a reasonable selection of printers specializing in books. Drop only those printers from your mailing list that you know can't perform efficient or satisfactory work on your book. (For example, don't submit RFQs for a book with a 10 x 14 trim size to printers who specify nothing over 9 x 12.)

Covers

While it's generally more convenient to print your cover with the same shop printing the interior pages of your book, There are some circumstances where you may wish to print your covers at a different shop. Ask the book printer to bid on the cover as a separate item so you can compare the cost with non-book printers who may specialize in 4-color work. If you have an elaborate cover (perhaps with foil stamping, embossing, and/or other features), the book printer may not be able to efficiently produce the cover for you. Always schedule the covers to be completed before the book and allow a generous time for shipping, if necessary. The book printer (usually) will perform the bindery operations and will need to have the covers on hand before the books can be finished. Do not have the covers trimmed to size before bindery! Let the printer performing the bindery trim the covers to the appropriate size for the machinery being used. Print a generous extra supply of covers. Some covers will be lost during the bindery process. The "leftovers" can be used in your media kits and can be printed on the back by your "local" print shop (and trimmed) to be used as (oversized) post cards or hand outs for book shows, etc.

What if there are problems?

No printer ever sets out to do a bad job. If problems do arise, first let your Customer Service Representative (CSR) try to solve the problem. If the CSR is unable to give you satisfaction, then be sure you talk to an owner or manager who has decision making authority. Usually a negotiation will result in a satisfactory outcome. Before you complain, think about the situation and what it will take to fairly settle the issue. Printers are generally reluctant to give a refund, especially beyond the pro-rata unit cost of the project. Often a printer would rather re-run all or part of a job rather than give a refund--and this is usually the preferred outcome in any event. Keep in mind, there is a saying in the printing business: if a job is good enough to keep... it's good enough to pay for.

Danger Signs

Be very careful when dealing with new CSRs (ask how long they've been with the printer)--they may make promises they simply can't keep. (After the job is accepted, call and talk with the production manager to verify the schedule and ensure that everything is in order.) Be sure to get a written confirmation of the price and specifications for your job. If you change any specification, no matter how small, be sure to get a new written confirmation reflecting the change. Sometimes a seemingly small change may cause the price to change by a substantial amount--you may need to re-bid the project in these circumstances.
Any printer that has recently changed owners or senior managers may have problems. (It takes time for an owner or manager to understand a particular operation and it takes time to build the teamwork relationship that results in good quality.) Get recommendations from other independent publishers; but be aware that you will get both good and bad references on any given printer. (No one is perfect and even the best printers occasionally have a "job from hell" where everything that can go wrong, does.)

Print Brokers

A good print broker may get you a better deal than you would get by yourself. A bad print broker may cause you to wish you had never lived. Tread with caution. Some print brokers, rather than checking with their 'usual' printers, take in the job, promise you a good price, then try to place the job with a printer who will do the job at the lowest price. Brokers may purchase odd lots of bargain paper that may result in a poor print job. A broker may emphasize the wrong factors--may demand the printer turn the job around quickly, when you'd rather they take a little more time to ensure top quality. Brokers may place your job with a distant printer then find that the cost of transportation is (much) higher than they assumed or you may be billed for transportation without warning. Brokers will blame all problems on the printer, then disappear when the printer blames the problem on the broker--you may end up dissatisfied and have an expensive problem. Generally, you should avoid brokers, except with overseas printing orders (usually 4-color jobs). If you shop carefully for a printer and develop good relationships with your printer(s), you can usually do much better on your own than by using a broker.

"Printing On Demand" (POD)

An often confusing term "POD" has been applied to one of several printing/ publishing processes. First there are publishing firms (usually) with a strong Internet presence. These services may refer to POD and eBook publishing services. Often they will offer to "publish" a book for you and will provide production services in addition to printing. These "POD Publishers" frequently offer some sort of (minimal) marketing and distribution services. While this has a certain appeal, and may well be appropriate for some projects, you need to exercise caution to ensure that you are paying for and receiving the services you really need. Read all agreements carefully as they sometimes have 'nasty' aspects that may cause needless headaches later on.

The typical "online POD" agreement will have up front charges of $300 or more (sometimes way more) and will offer a variety of services, including page layout and cover design. I will note that the book interior design and typography is often of mediocre quality. Covers are often a "formula" design (you get to choose "style 'AB'"). Be sure that you can continue to use a cover design if you decide to "graduate" from an online POD publisher.

These notes aren't intended to be a complete critique of the online POD publishers. The intent is to suggest that you carefully check publishing agreements, do your homework, and check any agreement with the National Writers Union or the intellectual property lawyer of your choice to ensure that you aren't signing up for something that's unreasonable.

The second meaning of "POD" is a true "print a book for each order received." The largest purveyor of such service is Lightning Source, a "sister" company to Ingram Book Wholesalers. With Lighting Source (and other similar services) you are treated as the publisher; while Lightning Source is a printer with an associated distribution function. Books prepared by L.S. will be "automatically" listed in the Ingram book distribution data base, so any retail bookseller can easily find and order your book. (Which will be printed to fill the order. No books are warehoused except as an electronic file.) The downside of this is that "POD" books produced by L.S. are (usually) not returnable (by the booksellers) and therefore are only ordered when the bookstore has a confirmed order from a customer. This does nothing to get your book on display in bookstores. You can possibly use Lightning Source as a part of your marketing plan, if for no other purpose than to simply be assured that your book is in the Ingram data base. Lightning Source charges various set-up fees based on the preparation work required to get your book into the system. Typically, these charges are around $200 to $300.

The third meaning of "POD" is as a description of a digital printing service (usually using a toner-based duplication process) in contrast to a printer using the traditional offset press. Digital printing has minimal set-up cost as compared to traditional offset printing, however the unit cost of production does not decrease significantly after the first copy is printed. With traditional offset printing, much of the cost is in the set-up and plate making process. Once the press is running, the incremental cost of each additional copy is actually quite low. While a particular job might cost $3.50 per copy from a digital printer, it might cost only $0.85 per copy on a press. But the digital printer may only have $50 (or so) in set up costs to absorb in the job while the traditional printer is likely to have over $1,000 in set-up costs on the same job. These economic differences generally suggest that it is more cost effective to print 500 or fewer copies with digital (POD) printing and that 500 or more copies should be produced with offset printing equipment. Dan Poynter, acclaimed author and self-publishing advocate, has coined the term "PQN" (Print Quantity Needed) as an alternate acronym to apply to this third meaning of POD. PQN follows the model of printing only a very small number of books, as needed, to fill immediate demand rather than printing a "full" run of books in the traditional manner. Depending on the aspects of the particular project, this may prove more cost effective when you calculate all the costs of the investment in producing, shipping, and holding inventory. At the very least, a "PQN" run at an early stage will allow you to establish what, if any, market interest there might be for your book without committing to the large investment that printing several thousand copies would involve. Most POD (or PQN) printers either do not charge a set-up fee or have such fees of less than $100. If you encounter a POD/PQN printer with a set-up charge, be sure to compare the total cost of the order to a printer without such a charge.