Recently, I wrote a series about the pros and cons of both traditional offset printing and print-on-demand methods. There are a lot of benefits and downsides to each method, so it is not always an easy choice to make! This blog will be looking at some fictional case studies of authors who are trying to decide how to print their books. Note that this blog assumes that you have already decided to have a print version of your book; if not there is a case study here and another here about choosing whether to have a print version.
As a quick summary, traditional offset printing requires metal plates to be created individually for each book. These plates are covered in ink, which is then transferred onto rubber sheets and finally printed onto the paper to make the pages. Whole batches are printed at once (normally a minimum of 500 copies) and will then need to be trimmed and bound. This method tends to have higher upfront costs, lower costs per unit and have more choice available in terms of sizing, cover designs and paper.
Print-on-demand prints the pages directly from the electronic file (usually in PDF format) as each one is ordered, either by you or one of your readers, which means that there is no minimum order for print-on-demand. These pages will then be bound in a similar way to offset printing. Print-on-demand has no upfront costs apart from formatting but usually works out more expensive per unit. The options for covers and sizes are limited to what is made available by the printer.
As you can see, there are various advantages and disadvantages to each method of printing your book. Your final decision will come down to a lot of different factors unique to your situation, such as the genre your book is, how many copies you expect to sell, how much you are able to spend upfront and many other questions!
If you want to look back at any of the original blogs in this series, here’s the list:
- Traditional Offset Printing or Print-on-Demand? – Advantages of Offset Printing;
- Traditional Offset Printing or Print-on-Demand? – Disadvantages of Offset Printing;
- Traditional Offset Printing or Print-on-Demand? – Advantages of Print-on-Demand;
- Traditional Offset Printing or Print-on-Demand? – Disadvantages of Print-on-Demand.
In addition, you can read the previous case study here. We will now look at our case study for today.
Yousef
Yousef works part-time and has been writing his book around work. He is happy with the final result and has already decided that he would like a print version but is unsure which method would suit him and his book best. Some facts about the book:
- It is a fantasy novel and of average length for the genre.
- There are no illustrations or photos and it is all in black-and-white.
- It is formatted in a simple way with only the chapter headings and title pages having a different style to the main text.
- It has been copy-edited and proofread and Yousef is relatively confident that it is ready for publication, but he is still concerned there may be some minor errors remaining.
A few facts about Yousef himself:
- He has invested a lot of money in getting the book ready for print and does not have much left for any upfront costs.
- This is his first book and he is unsure how many copies he is likely to sell.
- He doesn’t want to have to handle any of the distribution of the book.
- He would like the book to be available from as many online retailers as possible and would ideally like it to be sold in physical bookshops as well, but this is not essential.
Looking at this, one clear advantage of offset printing for Yousef is that it would give him a better chance of selling his novel in bookshops. It is unlikely that he would be able to sell a print-on-demand book in this way, so he may decide that offset printing suits him and his book best.
On the other hand, Yousef is not sure how many copies of his book he will sell, so offset printing might be a risky choice for him. Offset printing will require him to have a minimum print run, so Yousef could end up not being able to sell all of the copies, which will incur more costs through storage and eventually pulping. Print-on-demand has no required minimum; instead, copies are only printed once they are ordered. This means there is no risk of Yousef paying for copies that he then can’t sell.
In addition, using a print-on-demand method would mean that the distribution would be handled by the printer, so there would be no need for Yousef to do this. Offset printing would require him to either handle distribution himself or pay for it to be done, which can be very expensive. He would also need to organise storage for the books once they were printed, which is costly.
Print-on-demand is also less expensive upfront than offset printing, especially as Yousef’s book is ready for print. Offset printing would require him to pay for both setup costs, such as making the plates required, and for the cost of the batch of books. With print-on-demand, he would just receive a percentage of the selling price of the book.
Yousef’s book itself is also very suitable for the print-on-demand method, as it has no illustrations and is just simple black-and-white. Presumably, Yousef would be fine with a standard size available from the print-on-demand company. This method would also allow him to correct any minor errors as he finds them for future copies printed. There are many online retailers that use print-on-demand (Amazon has its own service), so Yousef should not have any problems finding selling platforms.
Conclusion
Overall, it seems that a print-on-demand method is most suitable for Yousef. It would allow him to sell through many online retailers without having to handle distribution himself. A disadvantage is that it is unlikely that he could sell it in bookshops. Nevertheless, there shouldn’t really be any upfront costs to print-on-demand and it is less risky than having a full print run.
This ends my series on offset printing and print-on-demand. I hope that you have enjoyed it and it has helped you with your own book. Good luck!
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