Last month I spoke about self-publishing at Nick Williams’ event ‘How To Be An Author Entrepreneur’. The event was timely, because I was able to deliver copies of Nick’s new book ‘How To Be Inspired’ at the same time. Nick’s reaction to his book took me completely by surprise. He was amazed when I told the group that Nick’s 140 page book had cost just over £1 per copy to print. And that was from a UK printer!
Nick had been to Staples the day before to photocopy and wiro-bind the handouts for the day. 30 sheets of A4 printed and bound cost Nick almost £2 per set. And here was me, announcing that a 140 page paperback book had cost just over £1. I can see why he was surprised. Yet this wasn’t some special deal – this was the standard price of paperback book printing. Sure, I had to order 1,000 copies to get them at this price. If I had ordered 50 copies then each one would have cost a lot more. But I’m aware that prospective authors often assume that printing costs a lot more than it does, and so I am delighted to set the matter straight.
Before committing to one of the print on demand ‘publishers’ that advertise on the internet, check out other prices for the print element first. I went online this afternoon and found one of the best known print on demand publishers quoting £5.46 per copy for a similar paperback book. True, you don’t have to commit to printing 1,000 copies. But at £5.46 each, you’ll find it virtually impossible to charge a competitive price to supply the retail trade. But at just over £1 a copy, you’d be able to charge a competitive price, and supply just about any retailer.
So however tempting, don’t just go for the publishing option that requires the least effort. You could pay dearly for your decision. I know authors who have gone with one of the major print on demand publishers, and are now wondering why they can’t get their book into Waterstones. Remember that most retailers will expect at least a 50% discount off the cover price – so if your book sells for £10, the retailer will expect to buy it from you for £5. If you’ve paid £1 to print it, then that’s fine. But if you’re paying £5.46 to print it, then you’ll want to turn down the sale, or be forced to increase the cover price of your book …
And it’s not just the discounting that causes a problem – another obstacle to getting your POD book into the high street retailers is that most of them prefer to buy books on a sale or return basis which is a system that is far more difficult to adhere to when printing to demand.
That’s a very good point Clare. Virtually all books that are printed on demand are sold on a firm sale basis only – and the major retailers expect sale or return as standard.
MInd you, the way things are going, there may not be a high street for much longer!
And what we’re all dying to know is where “Nick’s 140 page book had cost just over £1 per copy to print.” Which “UK printer!”?? I had lots of obstacles to printing photographs I’d shot for local view postcards I created recently and as you say the outlay was just too much to ensure a competitive price. I am also finding the same problem with getting my novel printed up. I resorted to a teaser chapter on it’s own website. The plan being that if a reader wants the book itself I can route them through Amazon’s print on demand. However I haven’t seen the quality of their work and somehow I prefer to be able to visit a printer to check on this first, considering it’s my product. Your thoughts Ed.
Great comments, and you raise very sensible questions. Firstly, the UK printer was CPI Bookmarque in Croydon. My contact there is Ian Booth, and I’d be happy to provide his contact details on request. We printed 1,000 copies – and you should bear in mind that the book was almost entirely text. For your project, Amazon’s print on demand (Createspace) service might work well. Their print quality is, in my experience, fine. We use Createspace to sell our books on Amazon.com (rather than Amazon.co.uk) so that we can supply the US trade cost effectively. Although you won’t see every copy that is printed, you can order a proof copy at any time to check that you are happy with the production and print quality. Regarding visiting a book printer, I think that’s a great idea. I’ve had a tour of the CPI factory and I learned so much about book printing – and I was able to film one of our books being printed at the same time. Great fun. You mention that you have a lot of photographs that you’d like to print – I assume they are colour? If so, you’re absolutely right, you will struggle to get a print price that makes a book commercially viable. For colour books, we use a printer in India. This may not be comparable to your book, but we recently printed 1,000 copies of a 96 page A6 colour paperback book, and the print price came to 96p a copy. Again, happy to provide contact details if required. Best of luck. Ed