WHERE TO GET A COFFEE TABLE BOOK PRINTED?

[peterev]

hi,
i've just finished my first book and i'm self publishing.looking to print around
3000 copies of a coffee table book. has anyone sourced printers of quality with reasonable prices? heard of cheap rates in spain,italy,china and holland but googling seems to throw up meaningless crap.ideally i would like to spend around €4 per copy.

thanks

peter

[dbonamo]

I found good bit of info by googling "book printing" Coffee Table

http://www.printusa.com/quotes/atlas-books.html

http://www.booksjustbooks.com

http://www.whitehallprinting.com/


Good Luck

[Hans-Ludwig]

Hi peter,
last year I bought a book from Nitsa (the title was something like "Non-Photography ...") published via Lulu (www.lulu.com). Maybe this way of publishing (printing on demand at reasonable costs at quite acceptable quality) can be interesting for you? Take a look to their web-site!
Best regards
Hans-Ludwig

[billschwab]

ideally i would like to spend around €4 per copy.

I hope I am wrong, but I think you are dreaming. Especially with only 3,000 copies. The more you print, the less expensive they will be per copy, but even 10,000 would not be that inexpensive per copy from a good printer. Sure there is Lulu and other POD printers, but quality is an issue. You should also consider the fact that even with 3,000 you better have some good storage space because even a very famous photographer will have trouble moving that many copies. Think more like 500 - 1000 copies to start.

Best of luck to you!

[Pinholemaster]

China

[peterev]

thanks dbonamo and hans for the links i'll check them out.

bill, your not the only person suggesting a smaller run, i have the space to store the books, but can i sell them..?? i probably have to sell around 700 just to break even so
it will be interesting.


pinholemaster, your one word reply has caught the eye.do you have any leads?

[Shangheye]

I have to agree on the numbers and price. I have self-published. A run of 500 books of which all but 80 sold. It was done in China and it cost 9Euros a book,,,and I had to pay for the lot...so we are talking Euro4000! and that was China. I think you are being very optimistic. Print on demand through the likes of Blurb is a good idea, and you get to proof the book. But the margins are low...but then again they often are for the average authour. Rgds, K

[peterev]

I have to agree on the numbers and price. I have self-published. A run of 500 books of which all but 80 sold. It was done in China and it cost 9Euros a book,,,and I had to pay for the lot...so we are talking Euro4000! and that was China. I think you are being very optimistic. Print on demand through the likes of Blurb is a good idea, and you get to proof the book. But the margins are low...but then again they often are for the average authour. Rgds, K

thanks shangheye, how many pages were in your book? and who was the printer?

[MikeSeb]

As an aside, I've frequently wondered why the publishing industry hasn't gone to POD for all but its very top-list authors--JK Rowling, John Grisham, and their like.

Granted, there are economies of scale with larger print runs (10,000 and above); but what about the costs incurred by publishers in shipping and storing books, and accepting returned unsold copies? With booksellers in most cases able to insist upon returning unsold books to the publisher as a condition of offering them for sale, the whole industry is just one huge consignment operation. Wouldn't it make sense to accept higher per-book production costs, but print only what is ordered with virtually no unsold books or other "carrying" costs?

Good luck Peter with your enterprise. You might visit Luminous Landscape; Michael Reichmann wrote an article there within the last couple of years about his experience getting books printed overseas--China I think.

[Shangheye]

There were a total of around 160 pages, mixed colour and B&w...which can make a difference. The company I think was called Copy General...need to check. They needed alot of managing, and I paid a friend of mine who was a publisher to manage it all...I paid her $1500. The books retailed for around $42...or at least in Euros they were Euro35 each in 2006. I made a good profit, but I also took all the risk. You need to consider which approach you want to follow. Oh I also arranged a launch party which cost Euro 1000, but the place I had it then displayed my prints there for 6 months, I sold several canvese and prints from this as a sideline....and ofcourse got word of mouth. Ultimately the book made it into the national press, and I even got an interview! Rgds, Kal