In my last blog series, we looked at some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a print version of your book, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of just having an ebook version. In this series, we will assume that you want to have a print version of your book and now need to decide between having a traditional offset print run and using a print-on-demand option for your book.
Offset printing is the traditional method of publishing a book in a physical format and requires a certain number to be ordered and printed all at once (usually an absolute minimum of 500). Print-on-demand has no minimum number as each book is printed individually when the order comes in. Both of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages, which we will be looking at in the next few blogs. This time, we will be discussing the advantages of traditional offset printing.
One of the key advantages of offset printing is the lower unit price it carries. The reason for this is that it is much cheaper to publish a full print run of one book than it is to do one copy of the same book individually. If all the books being printed are the same, cover sizes and bindings will already be selected, as well as the required colours. It is more expensive for a print-on-demand service to always have to switch between all these options.
This means that this additional cost will likely have to be passed on to the buyers of your book, which may reduce sales. Alternatively, you can absorb at least some of this cost, but this will lower your profit margin on the book. You may decide to do a combination of these two things; increasing the price of the book a small amount and having a slightly lower profit per book.
However, print-on-demand technology is getting better and better, so the unit cost may not be as different as you might think. The price gap may well narrow more over the coming years, making print-on-demand services a more cost-effective option.
Another advantage of offset printing is that there are more options available for printing. One area where you have more choice is the size of the book. With print-on-demand services, you really only have a few options for sizes and your book must be one of these. How much this matters depends on what you are publishing and what you have visualised for a print version.
Also, while most books will work fine in portrait format, you may not want this for yours or it may need to be in a different orientation. If you would like your book to be square or in landscape orientation, there are far fewer options available. Again, print-on-demand technology is always improving so there are more than there used to be, but still not as many as you would get with traditional offset printing.
There are some options to customize your trim size on print-on-demand platforms, but these may then not be available from all selling platforms. Obviously, this is not very useful if you would like to sell to as wide an audience as possible.
Therefore, a major advantage of offset printing is its customisability. Your book’s trim size is specifically designed for your book, with its contents and intended audience in mind. How important this is will depend on what your book is and what its requirements are.
Offset printing also has a lot of advantages compared to digital, print-on-demand printing if your book is an art one or has a lot of detailed illustrations in it. It is important that any art you have is printed perfectly and looks exactly as it is supposed to. This means that a high-quality printing method is needed for your book to look professional.
There are some print-on-demand services that are focused on this area, but they will be very expensive compared to the offset printing cost for the same thing, meaning that the selling cost will have to be very high just for you to break even. Offset printing gives a high-quality print with your choice of size, paper and binding, adding to the professional look of the art.
Another time offset printing is best is if you have another special type of book – a gift book. These tend to come in unusual sizes and have full-colour illustrations or photos. They may also have additional decorative touches such as ribbons or embossing on the cover. Print-on-demand services can’t achieve this effect at all, but traditional offset printing can. If you plan to have any of these extras, offset printing may well be the only option anyway.
Finally, another advantage of offset printing is that there is no maximum or minimum length for your book. Currently, the minimum length on CreateSpace is 24 pages and the maximum length is 828 pages. Therefore, your book will need to fit inside these requirements to be eligible for print-on-demand, whereas offset printing has no such limitations.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, there are many reasons to choose offset printing over print-on-demand, but what about the other way around? My next blog will be looking at some of the disadvantages of offset printing, so do stop by again then!
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