How to get your book printed

Getting your book printed is one of the major expenses people face when they write, produce and market their book, so it’s really important to get a good understanding about this part of business book self publishing.

And, there’s a lot of specific terminology in the whole printing area that makes understanding just what your options are, and what they cost, that much harder. For example it’s important to know binding options – perfect bound or section sewn; paper stock options – weight, opacity, gsm; printing options – 1col or 4 col; format, trim size, bleed, gutters, binding and more.

So here’s a brief overview of the 8 key things you need to know before you talk to a printer.

1. The format of your book

The format is simply a term to describe the actual size of your book. If you look at the books in your bookcase or a bookshop you’ll soon see that there are lots of books about the same size. This is because there are standard book sizes and these standard sizes are more economical to print.

2. The page extent

The page extent is just that, how many pages your book is. Again, there are more or less economical lengths and they go in 16-page increments. This is just the way standard sheets of paper work out. So when you’re looking at the number of pages in your book try and keep it to xx of 16 pages.

3. Paper stock

The paper you print your book on is called the paper stock. Paper quality and cost varies enormously so you do need to have an idea of what type of paper you want. Cheaper paper is usually brownish in color and has quite a rough texture. A good mid-range paper will be whiter/white and have a smoother texture. Most business books are printed on either 80-100gsm paper. Again, if you are unsure ASK your printer what they would recommend, if they have paper in stock. You might also like to show your printer a book that you like the paper in and ask them to quote on the equivalent.

I would not use the cheaper, brown-looking paper. It looks cheap and you won’t be proud to hand it to your clients or sell it as a high-quality book . . . no matter how good the content.

One thing you do need to be careful about is the opacity of the paper, that is whether you can see the type/diagrams from one page show through on the other side of the page as this can make the book hard to read.

And, if you are serious about the environment there are a number of options in terms of environmentally friendly paper. The acceptable environmentally friendly paper will have a FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) rating that will show what % of the paper is made from sustainable forests and/or recycled paper. Again, you’ll pay a bit more for this paper BUT if your environmental values and credentials are important to you, you’d select this.

4. Printing process

Most business books are printed in 1 colour, that is black type on white paper. However, you might want to consider a 2 colour printing option, or 3 colour if you have a lot of diagrams and charts. Yes it’s more expensive to print in 2,3, or 4 colour but again, this comes down to the type of quality you want your book to have. Using 2 colours gives the designer more flexibility in the design and really helps the presentation of diagrams, charts, lists etc

5. Binding

Binding refers to the way your book pages are bound together. It’s most common for books to be

However, there is a danger that IF the gluing is not done properly that the pages fall out of the spine, especially if people bend the book back to flatten it out. Again, just check some books your selected printer has done before and ask the question.

If the page extent of your book starts getting up past 180 pages you should explore having the pages ‘section sewn’. This means that the paper sheets that are printed up into 16-page sections are sewn together before they are then bound and glued together.

6. The cover

Yes, your book has a cover and this is an important part of getting your book printed and it literally covers the bound pages of your book. And by the cover I mean the front and back cover and the spine of the book. It is standard for book covers to be printed in 4 colour on heavier paper stock and often with a uv varnish.

Usually covers are only printed on one side (that is the outside of the cover).

The printer will provide your designer with the exact dimensions that they want for the artwork of the cover which includes the width of the spine. The designer needs measurements to ensure the artwork the provide can be used by the printer.

Most books have simple covers without flaps. But if you want flaps (the part of the cover (front and back) that folds in on itself it will cost a bit more and the artwork the designer provides will be slightly different.

I like using flaps on books as, again, it give a higher quality look and feel to the book, but it does cost a bit more. If you’ve got a small book in terms of the number of pages I’d definitely recommend using flaps as it adds some bulk to the book.

It’s also important to work out whether you want a matte or gloss look on your cover. It’s up to you and your designer. If you want a cover that has a bit of both you would ask for a ‘spot varnish’. This is a gloss varnish over certain parts of a matt cover – usually the title or image. You designer would need to provide specific artwork for this as well.

7. Print run

And, last but not least is working out the number of copies you want printed. You should have done this way before you engage your printer and as part of getting a quote from the printer. It’s quite common to ask for 2-3 options, say 500, 1,000 and 2,000 copies.

Clearly, the more you print the lower the unit cost. It takes the same time to set up a printing press for 500 copies as it does for 2,000 which is why printing anything less than 1,000 copies is probably better off done through laser printing or a good quality copying/printing franchise.

The main thing is to work out what you’re going to use your book for, how you are going to use it and promote it so you have a clear understanding of the print run you might need over 12-18 months. You don’t want to print too many but you do want to get the best unit price you can.

Unit prices can vary from around $15.00 for smaller print runs down to $2.50 for larger print runs so it’s worth getting this right.

8. Print on demand (POD)

Of course, you can always have your book printed via print on demand. This literally means when someone orders your book online it will be printed by the POD service you have selected. No-one holds any stock.

That said, you might want to print 10,20, 100 or more for yourself first up and POD can easily handle this.

It’s important to understand however that all POD companies have different set up and design templates that you’ll need to following so you need to look into these carefully before you head down this pathway.

POD is a good, efficient and lower cost way to get your book printed but it’s got its limitations.

Happy printing. If you’re at this stage it means you’re well on your way to getting your book ready for launching.