Choosing Book Printing Quantity: Avoid Common Mistakes
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by: JoshuaPrizer
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Making the right decision about how many books to print is a major factor in determining how profitable your venture will be. Even experienced publishers guess wrong at times. If you don't print enough books, you run into supply problems, possibly some angry customers, and the increased cost of reprints. If you print too many books well, that is an obvious problem as well. So how many books should you print?
Unfortunately, if there is a secret formula, I don't know it. However, after nearly 15 years in the publishing industry, I can tell you my experience. More often than not, publishers are overly optimistic about how many books they will sell. So be careful - don't get stuck with a garage full of books.
Ask yourself how many books you would hope to sell in your realistic best-case scenario. I'm not talking about Oprah choosing your book for her book club - let's stay grounded here. But come up with an optimistic number. Now look at your worst-case scenario. How many books are you extremely confident you can sell based on your current market research?
Now compare the numbers and choose something in-between, but probably closer to the lower side. Again, the cons of printing too few books usually heavily outweigh the cons of printing too many.
Which type of printing press should you use? You'll basically need to choose between a digital press or an offset press. (There are other types of printing presses, but these are the main two options.)
A digital printer is much more price-competitive for quantities under 1,000. Also, keep in mind that quantity discounts are not as great on a digital press. So if you're already set on printing fewer than 1,000 books, definitely lean much closer to your worst-case scenario number. Printing 700 books is not going to cost that much less per book than printing 100 books. Thus, reprints don't end up as expensive with a digital press.
If you're printing 1,000 books or more, your best bet is probably an offset printer. For an offset printer, there's a lot more set-up involved. So quantity discounts can be substantial. Get print quotes for a variety of quantities so you see just how those quantity discounts break down. When you see a much lower cost per book for a higher quantity, it might help push you toward one quantity over another.
So start with a smaller quantity and work your way up to the larger quantities. Keep your money in your pocket (not your printer's). By slowly but steadily testing and working your market, you'll eventually get to the point where you can justify those bigger print quantities.
About the Author
Get a Free 7-Part Mini-Course showing how to publish your own book. As a cheap book printing expert, Joshua Prizer has worked in the book printing industry for nearly 15 years.
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