A print brokering client of mine recently provided specifications for a small-format book printing run. One option for this 64-page directory included 16 pages of color and the balance in black ink only. The other option assumed process color throughout. I found a custom printing supplier in Texas with a large-format press that could handle 32-page signatures, yielding a price much lower that those provided by local printing companies. However, the total cost still didn't meet the budget. The job exceeded budget targets whether printed with only 16 pages of color or process color throughout, whether saddle stitched or perfect bound.
I've been reading a lot recently about the future of print.
In a Book, It's All About the Story
In an article by The Sun Daily, the author quotes The Ottawa Citizen: “All the arguments against e-books are about external incidentals—the feel of a book, the crinkle of the pages and so on. None of these things has anything to do with what makes a book worth reading—that it's a well-written, thoughtful and compelling story.”
I may have mentioned this before. In addition to brokering printing, I install signage in movie theaters. This includes “standees,” the large, cardboard advertising environments and statues promoting upcoming movies.
A print brokering client of mine publishes literary works of poetry and fiction. She came to me last week with a book printing job to estimate: 100 copies of a 315-page perfect-bound text, black-ink-only with a four-color cover. These are “reader copies” of the book, and are also called “galley proofs.” Reviewers will make suggestions that the author will then incorporate into the finished book printing run.
If you buy a number of different kinds of printing from a number of different printing companies, you may be surprised that a vendor providing a low estimate on one job may actually submit a high bid on another. I was quite surprised recently with the large pricing spread in three book printing estimates.
About seven years ago, when I was a custom printing consultant, I received a crisis call on deadline night. I learned that a tornado had ripped off the roof of the business printing vendor that had already started producing a 64-page weekly issue of the Monday magazine. The printer couldn't complete the job. It was Friday night at about 8:00 p.m.