PRESENTED BY ALUMNI GRAPHICS

TEN SECRETS

THAT CAN SAVE

YOU MONEY ON YOUR

NEXT PUBLICATION

Trim sizes play a big part in your printing costs. Sizes range from

4 ¼ x 7 to 9 x 12. The size you pick depends on quantity and

your market. Common trim sizes are 5 ½ x 8 ½ or 8 ½ x 11. You

should also know that trim sizes can vary a bit from a web and

sheet fed press. Ask your manufacturer of choice which size is

most economical for their equipment.

Web printing has come a long way in thirty years and now most

publishers are content with the quality of a web press. Especially

if your printing 1000 or more because the price can be a lot less

compared to a sheet fed press.

Trim sizes and who is going to manufacture your books should be

done before you design your book and cover, not after.

WATCH

YOUR TRIM

Your page count should be divisible by 8’s, 16’s , 32’s or 48’s. Printing presses do

not print one page at a time. They print from a sheet (sheet fed press) or roll of paper

(web press). As an example the standard web press will run a roll size of 35 inches.

After the sheet is cut from its roll it will be 35 inches x 22.5 inches before it folds.

All of this is done on the web press. A sheet fed press will use a pre-cut sheet that is

35 inches x 22 ½ inches. If you have chosen a trim size of 8 3/8 x 10 7/8, a sheet 35

x 22 ½ will take 8 pages on each side of the sheet or a total of 16 pgs.

Take an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and fold it halves 3 times, (starting top to bottom,

than left to right, than top to bottom). Open the sheet up and you will see what the

printer will call a 16 page form or signature. Fold the same sheet in half (while its

folded) and you will get a 32 page signature or form for a 5 ½ x 8 ½ book.

If you know why 28 pages can cost more that 32 pages, you get it. If you don’t, give

Alumni Graphics a call.

HOW MANY PAGES

ADD COLOR

Color or color inserts are always a nice touch to your publication. To save

money, have all your color in one section. This way the printing for the

color can be done all at one time. If you do need to space them through the

book, work with your printer or sales rep. to find out the most efficient

places to put your color. If you took your 16 page signature from the

previous slide and numbered each page, you would find that as a flat sheet

the pages on one side of the sheet would be pages 1,4,5,8,9,12,13 and 16.

Pages 2,3,6,7,10,11,14 and 15 would fall on the other side. If you are

printing color on page 4, you might as well run color on all or at least some

of the other pages on the side of the form (pages 1,5,8 and so on) It won’t

cost you much more in printing costs. The entire sheet must go through all

the color units anyway just to print page 4. Take advantage of the situation.

Before you start your design, check with one who knows. How about

Alumni Graphics.

DESIGN

The design of your book can cost you if you don’t know some of the

tricks. Revisions and changes to your book are inevitable. Make changes

before you go to the printer. Changes at the proof stage can be very

expensive. Page numbers could be your worst enemy. If you add or

subtract a page from your book the costs can be staggering. The printer

may have to completely re-organize the signatures in your book. That can

add up to $100’s if not $1000’s of dollars. Design your book with your

page number in the middle of the page at the bottom the the page. Then,

if you change the pagination of the book it will mot matter if the pages

become front or back pages. If you had page numbers on the right for

front pages and the left for back pages you have totally thrown your

pagination off with any addition or deletion of pages. If the page

numbers are in the middle, all you need to do is change the page number,

not the whole page.

This is just one of many things that should be thought of in advance.

Discuss these with your printer, or maybe give Alumni Graphics a call.

PAPER

The text paper that is used for book printing, for the most part, is

very common. 50# or 60# white offset vellum or smooth is used

90% of the time. Printers usually warehouse their own stock.

When asking for a bid, ask that hour bid be price on the house

stock. You can call out other sheets that you want as an alternate

bid. If you are looking for a real “low budget” printing, ask the

printer what he has that he would like to get rid of. All printers

have left over or ordered-but-not-used stock that they would love

to get out of their warehouse. Especially for covers, dividers or

inserts. They will give you some very good prices to do so. Keep

in mind that when you are ready for a reprint, the stock that you

used may not be available or the price could have gone up

considerably

DON’T BE IN A RUSH

Take your time and do it right. Ask your printer, after you get your bid, what kind

of discount you can expect for longer turnaround. Printers love to have more time

so they can fit your book into their schedule. You should get about a 5% discount

for longer schedules. Discounts like this will only happen if the printer is busy.

Putting a well organized book together takes a lot of time and many drafts. I have

had times when customers have already set up an autograph party before even

picking a printer. Why put yourself in such a situation.

Once you’re ready for manufacturing your book, expect to have delays. Plan on at

least 4 weeks for a perfect bound book. Plan 5-6 weeks for a casebound book. If

you are getting a discount for a longer turnaround you can add about another week

to the normal schedule. Count on problems, delays in proofs, delays in making

corrections and the list goes on. Murphys Law is in play. If it happens faster, and it

probably will, good for you. If it doesn’t, at least your ready for it. Don’t expect

printers to make up for past delays with artists and designers. The last thing you

want to do is rush the printer

CHANGES ?

Authors and Publishers are never quite done with their book.

There is always one last-minute change that needs to be made.

Make all your corrections before the book goes to press. Don’t

use the proof as a time to catch typo’s or miss-spelled words.

There is usually a minimum charge of around $35 to $75 to

make changes, even if its only one page. Than there is

additional charges for each additional page. If you make

changes on your cover the cost can go up even more. You will

also usually need to supply new files if you have changed the

cover. In this day of digital files, printers can make changes or

corrections to black text, but if you have color in your text or

cover, new corrected files will need to be supplied by you.

The schedule will be changed as well. It’s like being in a line

at the grocery store. If you forget something and run off to get

it, you usually have to get in the back of the line .

SOFT, CASE OR

BOTH

Publishers usually direct the type of binding to the type of market they

are in. Sometimes that market demands both Case bound and Perfect

bound. If you feel the need to have both, go ahead. You can do both at

the same time. Publishers can save lots of money if they plan a run-on

for case bound books the same time they do the soft or perfect bound

book. Be sure to work with a manufacturer that does both in-house.

Lets say you are doing 3000 copies. Have 2500 perfect bound and have

500 case bound. You can even design your jacket along with your

perfect bound cover. Case bound books will add about $1 to $3 per

book to your printing costs, but as you know, you can sell your case

bound book for 2 to 3 times the price of your softbound book. There are

several types of case binding for books so be sure to get the particulars.

If you want to know all the tricks to saving money when doing this,you

might want to give Alumni Graphics a call.

FREEBIES

There is no such thing as a free lunch, but there is such a thing as

“Negotiations”. Once you have settled on a printer, decided on the

appropriate trim size, paper, binding, packaging, and have a confirmed,

quote in hand, it’s time to try and get a little extra bonus. Extra covers are

always a good tool for advertising and marketing. Ask the printer if he

will include an overrun of about 100 to 200 extra covers when he prints

the covers for your book, at no extra charge. This is about another 5

minutes on the press and an additional 50 to 100 sheets of paper. Not a lot

of money or time to the printer but an added bonus for you. It could be

the deal-maker for the printer. Especially, if you need to decide between

more than one printer. Now you can imprint information about your

book, company or other products on the back of the sheet. These turn into

great tools for selling your books to wholesalers and retailers. They are

also great handouts at a book show.

TOO MANY

HATS?

In this fast paced world, too many people think they can bed all things at

all times. This is true with Publishers as well. Having control of

everything does not mean your saving money. It only means that your

spending too much time dealing with things that you are probably not

efficient at. You have an idea, a manuscript and know where to market

the book. Let the designers design, the artist draw, the accountant count,

the print print, and the distributor distribute. The frustration and wasted

money is not worth all that control. If you have someone who you can

trust (Alumni Graphics can step in and those shoes) to handle the

manufacturing aspect, then this leaves time for you to plan your

marketing, work on financing your venture, and start another book.

Publishing is still a business. Treat it like one. You will save money

and time. Take advantage of people who have the expertise and have

been in the business long enough to know how to produce your

publications properly.