This will be the last post in my series about the pros and cons of offset printing compared to print-on-demand. So far, we have looked at the advantages and disadvantages of offset printing, as well as the advantages of print-on-demand; this time, we will consider the disadvantages of print-on-demand. First, we will remind ourselves of what the two methods are.
Offset printing is the traditional method used by publishing houses and in most commercial situations. It requires metal plates to be made from scratch for each manuscript, so it has high upfront costs and print runs will often have a required minimum that you will have to have printed. Ink is put onto the plates, then transferred to rubber sheets and finally printed on the paper. The pages created from this will be trimmed and bound in the way you have chosen.
Print-on-demand is a much newer method which takes the digital files of your book (almost always in PDF form) and prints from this. There are no upfront costs other than formatting the digital files and books can be printed individually or in small batches, which makes it more cost effective for smaller print runs. The pages will be trimmed and bound in a similar way to offset printing, but there may well be fewer sizes and styles to choose from, as well as fewer paper types.
One disadvantage of print-on-demand is what is said above – there aren’t as many options with print-on-demand as there are with offset printing. Offset printing allows you to have your book printed in any trim size you want, on various different types and quality of paper. With print-on-demand, there is a limited range of options for you to choose from and you can’t make a custom design in the same way you can with offset printing.
This can also affect the quality of your book. The vast majority of books will be absolutely fine using print-on-demand services and are now often indistinguishable from offset printed books to most people. However, if your book requires high-quality printing and paper, print-on-demand is probably not the best choice. For example, art books will look and feel much better with offset printing, with better reproductions of the pictures.
In addition, some design elements just aren’t an option with print-on-demand services. For example, if you would like to create a gift or keepsake book, you might want some extra cover decoration, such as ribbon, beads, or embossing. This is a fairly simple task for the offset printing process, where everything is custom-made for your book (although it will cost more). However, print-on-demand services don’t really offer much in the way of cover decoration beyond what can be printed on.
Another place where print-on-demand can fall short is if you have photographs. If your book has a lot of these, they may not be printed in the best quality using print-on-demand. Also, if you plan to have them as an insert in the book, this would require an offset printing method, as print-on-demand can’t usually do this sort of extra. If they do, it is likely to cost more than offset printing!
Perhaps surprisingly, another disadvantage of print-on-demand that we will be discussing is the cost. While print-on-demand services don’t have many upfront costs, you will still need to have your book formatted correctly for printing. You may decide to do this yourself, but it is probably better to pay a professional to do it to ensure it is done correctly. After all, you don’t want your book to be full of formatting errors after you’ve paid to have it edited and proofread!
Nevertheless, the cost of formatting your book will almost certainly be less than the normal upfront costs for offset printing, where you will need individual plates created for you. However, some traditional offset printers may waive the upfront cost altogether if you have a large print run, making it cheaper than print-on-demand.
In addition, the cost-per-unit for print-on-demand is usually higher than for offset printing anyway, so this is another point to consider in your calculations. The more copies you have printed in offset printing, the lower the unit cost, whereas the unit cost stays the same with print-on-demand whether you have 10 copies or 10,000! It is worth working out your profit per book for both methods with your predicted sales and choosing based on that.
Another disadvantage of print-on-demand is that you will not have as many copies to hand for marketing or giveaway purposes. Whenever you want to replenish your stocks you have to order your book the same as any other buyer, although most print-on-demand services will only charge unit cost plus shipping for this.
However, it is easier if you have a stack of offset printed books that you can just take one from whenever necessary. In addition, once you have ordered your print-on-demand copies to keep in stock, you will then have to wait for them to be printed and delivered to you.
Wrapping Up
I hope that you have enjoyed this series on the advantages and disadvantages of offset printing and print-on-demand and found it helpful for deciding how to print your book. This post concludes the main series, but there will soon be another post looking at some case studies about the topic. Do come back in two weeks to read those!
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