In my last blog, we looked at some of the advantages of traditional offset printing compared to print-on-demand services. This time, we will be looking at the disadvantages of this method of printing your self-published book, although this will also depend on your opinions and what your manuscript requires.
To recap, offset printing is the traditional method where ink is added to a (usually metal) plate, then transferred to a rubber sheet. This is in turn transferred to the paper, which is then trimmed and bound together to create the book. This is the method used in almost all commercial printing runs but may not the best option if you only need a small print run (under about 1000 copies) or are not sure how many you will need.
Conversely, print-on-demand does not need new plates to be created for each manuscript and can instead print directly from a digital file such as a PDF. Rather than having a large print run of a set number of books, each book is printed individually or in a small batch when it is ordered. This can be very good if you only want a small number of copies or are unsure how many you will sell.
One of the biggest disadvantages of offset printing is the cost. As the metal plates have to be created from scratch for every manuscript before it can be printed, there is a high upfront cost for this. There will also be the set-up costs for the trim size, paper and binding you have selected. How much this is will vary from printer to printer and will also depend on some other factors as well.
For example, if you will be having a larger print run, the upfront cost may be lower than for a print run at the minimum level required. Indeed, some printers may choose not to charge a set-up cost at all for some large print runs, making offset printing quite a cost-effective option! However, this does rely on you wanting and being able to sell a lot of copies of your book.
Another disadvantage of offset printing is having to choose how many copies you will need to be printed in advance. With print-on-demand, you can order as few as you want and see how they sell. This is not an option with offset printing; you have to decide how many you want at the start, which is not easy.
If you have too many copies printed, you have to store them and then eventually have them pulped if they do not sell. Obviously, you will also have lost a lot of money on them by then. Alternatively, if you have too few, you will then have to order another batch, so the books will likely have a higher price per unit than they would have done if they had all been printed together. In addition, you will have to wait for the new batch to be printed before you can start distributing them to the buyers.
Another disadvantage of having to order large batches of books is needing to sell them before you want to release a new edition, for example, to tie in with a sequel. If you still have a large number of books left over from the last printing run, you will probably have to have these destroyed as you will likely only be selling the new edition. Again, you can lose a lot of money on this.
Another potential problem with having large batches of books occurs if an error is found in your book, whether factual, an inconsistency or just a spelling mistake. Obviously, you don’t really want to be selling your book like this, but there’s not much you can do with an offset printed book, short of having a whole new print run. You can have erratum slips printed to go in the book, but this still incurs new costs.
All of this means that there is an increased risk of financial loss and mistakes with offset printing. With print-on-demand, you can simply update the digital file and all subsequent copies will be printed with the corrected version or new edition as required.
Another disadvantage of offset printing is that once all your books are printed, you have to store them somewhere. As mentioned above, offset printing is usually only used for large print runs, meaning that you may have rather a few copies! Obviously, books take up a lot of room and also need to be kept in certain conditions to ensure that they don’t become spoiled by getting damp or damaged.
If you don’t have somewhere suitable to store them, you will likely need to pay to store them in a warehouse or similar. The advantage of this is that they will have the right conditions for storage and should have insurance for damage if anything does happen to the books. They will also sometimes take care of distribution; alternatively, they may ship them to you for you to dispatch.
However, the downside of this is that it costs a lot and adds to the expenses of offset printing. In addition, if they distribute copies to you for you to then ship on to the buyers, this will cost in postage and slow delivery times. There is also the fact that this means a lot of extra work for you!
Wrapping Up
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this post and now know more about the disadvantages of offset printing. Next time we will be looking at the print-on-demand method, starting with the advantages of this, so do come back in two weeks!
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