Today we’re joined by Greenleaf’s print production specialist Angela Olmeta to discuss the complicated world of book printing.

There are a number of production factors that impact the final product of a book, from design elements that influence the cost of printing to supply chain constraints that can cause printing delays. Authors planning to self-publish have a lot of decisions to make, and if you aren’t prepared for common obstacles, you may find yourself without books in stock on your launch day, or even worse, with a book that costs more to print than buyers will pay for it. In this episode, Angela will explain what goes into printing books and what authors should keep in mind if they’re planning to do so on their own.

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Tanya: Angela, welcome to Published.

Angela: Thank you for having me time. So happy to be here.

Tanya: Absolutely. Yeah, this is going to be interesting. So let's start by having you please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.

Angela: Hi, my name is Angela Olmeta, and my job as print production specialist here at Greenleaf Book Group is to ensure that our books get delivered to our authors on time, and I manage some of the audio books.

Tanya: Yeah. So you have a lot of back and forth with, with the printers, especially, and we rely heavily on you to have this detailed nature and an eye for catching anything that goes into ultimately how this book is produced. So a very important job to say the least. [00:02:00] We've talked about printing options before in this podcast, but there's also many, many episodes.

Tanya: So for the sake of our listeners who may be rather new to this landscape, can you explain the difference between what we call offset printing and print on demand printing, and at a high level, how can authors decide which choice is best for their book?

Angela: Offset printing, you're looking at larger quantities of printing, and the larger the quantity you print, the lower your printing up.

Angela: per cost unit will be. It is the better quality printing and you have lots of choices when it comes to interior paper stock, trim size, and the jacket and cover technology. With that said, when it comes to offset printing, you do have to keep in mind that there are Are upfront set up costs that are quite high and based on the quantity that you print if you're printing to 3000, [00:03:00] these books need to live somewhere.

Angela: So on the back end of offset

Angela: printing,

Angela: they need to go to a warehouse and you need to keep track of them. And there could be additional monthly storage costs and the shipping from the warehouse to its final destination. Printing on demand is you print as you need your books. It's a shorter print timeline.

Angela: You don't have as much upfront costs, and there's no need for storage. With that said, you are looking at a higher cost per print unit when you're printing on demand. And you don't have as many choices when it comes to trim size, interior space. paper stock, and especially when it comes to extra technology for the jacket or the cover of your book.

Angela: For authors to decide which way to go, they really, really need to take into consideration the main factors, which is cost, quantity, timeline, and [00:04:00] technology.

Tanya: Yeah, perfect and well said. I think typically what we see is authors who need, like you said, a small quantity of books fairly quickly will do the print on demand, which is digital print, like you said, like lower upfront costs and in terms of the setup, but on a price per unit basis, when you start to inch towards I would say it's like a thousand units.

Tanya: So you start to see this cutoff where it's like, okay, it makes more sense now to go to the offset print run with the assumption again, that you've got a place to put these books and storage costs. As you mentioned, print on demand use is used interchangeably to talk about a way to publish and sell books.

Tanya: But it's, it's interesting to hear people speak of it in that context, because fundamentally it's, it's a method of printing books. They sit on a server until someone decides time. That book exists in the real world and then they come to existence and I've had the luxury of touring printing facilities. I think you have as [00:05:00] well, Angela, and it is.

Tanya: really eye opening. It's just crazy to me how complicated the process of printing offset or digital, but especially offset, how involved it is. There's multiple different machines that this book moves through to come out in its finished form. And so, you know, it takes time and, and it's not an exact science always either because of all of these different variables.

Tanya: So, Thank you for that explanation. And when we talk about timelines, this is something that of course in our everyday world of publishing books that have a given pub date timelines are super important, but what can authors expect for first printing? How far out from their publication date should they be getting ready to send the book to press?

Tanya: Is it different for reprints? Let's talk about timing.

Angela: Okay. So yes, timing is so important and we need to have those books ready and sitting somewhere, wait, ready to go to [00:06:00] wherever they need to go for the pub date. Offset printing generally takes six to seven weeks. That does not include shipping. We always include about one week shipping, but I would include a month to have those book delivered prior to the pub date.

Angela: So we look at sending our books to print. Three months prior to pub date That gives us a week or so in case something does go wrong and things do go wrong. It is a complicated, you know, printing process. So you are looking at about eight weeks to print without giving yourself any extra room or any extra wiggle.

Angela: Reprint if you are going back with just a copyright page change and no other changes. And your printer still has your files, which they keep generally for about three to four years. You are looking at about a four to five week print turnaround time for reprints. This is all offset. Again, that doesn't include shipping and digital, you're looking at about a three [00:07:00] week print turnaround time case found or paper bound again, no shipping included.

Angela: Um, so do keep that in mind, place a little buffer in there.

Tanya: Always better to give yourself the extra time because like you said, things. We've seen it all things happen. And I'll add, we're talking about digital book printers. You can probably go to FedEx Kinkos and have them print something that looks like a book, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Tanya: We're talking about a little bit more of a specialty digital book printer. I'll also add that typically for the offset print run, at least your reprint will be a little less expensive because like you said, they've already got the files set up so you can Remove some of that initial setup costs. So that's that's good news for our authors.

Angela: Yes, absolutely. They will save money if they are printing within that window that the printer still has their files.

Tanya: So in terms of trends that you're seeing in the printing industry right now, are there any that are [00:08:00] impacting our authors that maybe they should be keeping an eye on?

Angela: So I will say in the last couple years, digital printing has really improved.

Angela: It is amazing what they can do today. We even with some of our authors that they only print paper bound books, we will print digitally case bound books and we can print as few as 30 and they look good. They don't have The texture on the case necessarily, the title of the book isn't necessarily stamped on the spine, but it is printed.

Angela: They have found many options that look close to an offset, but if you don't want a thousand two thousand case bound books and you only want 30 or 40, Digital is the way to go. They've really improved. And as I said, the turnaround time you're looking once you approve the proofs, you're looking at about a three week turnaround time.

Angela: So it's pretty incredible. The other thing that we're seeing recently, or I'm seeing a lot recently [00:09:00] is sprayed edges. Or gilded edges on books. So that is on, they are spraying a PMS color, or one color, onto the three sides of the edges of the paper. And therefore, when your book is closed, there's a color on it instead of just a white page or the cream page.

Angela: And the gilded means they're doing it with a metallic. So we are seeing some of that. More of the mystery books. I saw it in a whiskey book recently. It really looks cool. Yeah, it was black on the border of a whiskey book. It was really cool.

Tanya: I love that. I've certainly seen gilded books before, but I've never seen a color like you're talking about, so I'm going to have to go on a little bookstore visit and see what I can find.

Tanya: They're all turned the wrong way for me to spot that easily.

Angela: True, true. So, and that will add to the printing. I've looked into it and it looks like it adds at least a week or two to your printing time. Probably adds a

Tanya: little cost too.

Angela: Oh, yes, for sure. [00:10:00]

Tanya: Alrighty, now I have grand plans to spray paint my pages blue in my next printing.

Tanya: There you

Angela: go.

Tanya: So speaking of cost, for a lot of authors, that's a main factor to consider. As as they're going to press and and it gets a little tricky because you're trying to figure out how many units to print and no one has a crystal ball to know how well the book is going to perform. So cost becomes a big point of conversation as they're weighing all of these decisions around press time.

Tanya: And another thing that impacts costs, you kind of alluded to it earlier, the design elements that we choose to incorporate into the cover specifically can have a pretty significant impact on costs. So can you talk through some of those design elements that might turn around and increase their printing costs?

Angela: Yes, of course. So every extra design element you add at the printer will cost you more money. The interior stock, it depends if you go thicker or [00:11:00] thinner. That will increase your cost. You can print one, one on one, you can do one color printing, you can do four color printing, or you can even do end sheets.

Angela: In a case bound book, the end sheets is when you open the book and you open your case right away, and it's right at the beginning. It's, it, it can be colored, You haven't even gotten to your title page yet. It is a piece of paper, a stock that is placed there. You have it in the front and you have it in the back of your case bound book.

Angela: They do not, they're not in paper bounds. And I've done it in the process that the, the colored end sheets will cost you the most for color also will cost you about similar to the colored end sheets, but just, uh, cream end sheets or printing one color will be. the least amount that increases your cost per unit.

Angela: Authors are going to add the most amount to their printing costs when they add design elements or techniques. To their jackets or covers such as embossing. So it lifts up [00:12:00] or a metallic look. They put an extra layer and it's a metallic stamp on it. These all look amazing, but they will add, and those really do add quite a bit.

Tanya: Yeah. And there's so many fun things that printers can do. And I keep saying I someday I just want to write a book and publish it just for the sake of putting every single effect on the cover. I want the glitter. I want the rubberized something or other. I want the metallic. I want everything. How that comes out.

Tanya: It's my book about creativity.

Angela: Well, that one you will have to print overseas.

Tanya: If an author is really looking to get the most margin, you're looking at dollars and cents and considering your cover price, wanting to keep that, um, obviously competitive, then what would you recommend is a pretty standard approach to these design elements that will [00:13:00] keep them within a reasonable cost.

Angela: You would consider printing the most amount of books as possible. That's, I think, where you would want to start to bring your cost per unit down. The lower your cost per unit, the larger your margin will be. So the, the larger quantity, also we would recommend a case bound book. And Within that, less is more, so I think if you do less on the jacket, your cost will be less, and then you'll get a larger margin.

Angela: That's what it comes down to. Yeah, don't do what Tanya's thinking and put everything Or, well, or you print, you know, if you're doing a poor color, then definitely, and doing all of the bells and whistles on your book, then definitely consider printing overseas.

Tanya: Yes, which will add to your timeline because they literally come back by the slow boat.

Angela: They do, but your price per unit will be the lowest. But yes, you are adding shipping and you are adding to the timeline, the print

Tanya: [00:14:00] timeline, quite a bit. Right. Makes sense. Uh, and just wanted to mention for those who aren't familiar with the, the jargon that we use, the case bound is hardcover. Now you talked a little bit about overseas.

Tanya: So what are some of the things an author should think about when they're looking at options to, to choose a printer, if they're going that route and doing that on their own weighing overseas versus domestic, and then certainly they're going to want to try and vet for a quality printer. So what should they be looking for?

Angela: Yes, so overseas, their quality is amazing. They're always trying the latest trends. I mean, they print so much. So I do feel that if an author is considering printing a four color interior book, the inside of your text is four color. So you're doing, I would think a children's book, a coffee book, or a cookbook, then you really should consider printing overseas.

Angela: Polity is amazing. They can offer so much material on the case, everything. And you're looking at [00:15:00] a much lower cost per unit when you do it. But as we mentioned earlier, gosh, you're looking at about a four and a half to five month turnaround on printing. And that does include shipping this time. And then you really do need to add at least two, three weeks to that in case something goes wrong.

Angela: Cause your books are. Overseas. Overseas is a really good solution. If you are looking for the best cost for your book and you do have a novel, which is interior black and white, you would go overseas. If you're printing a huge quantity such as 10, then it would be cost effective to do a case bound book overseas, just black and white interior.

Tanya: Regardless of where you're printing, what should they be looking for to ensure that they're in good hands? A

Angela: great print partner. I mean, you're looking for somebody that listens to you and hears you and gives you options when you're [00:16:00] inquiring about technology or paper stock and that they're available during the time that you're looking to print your book.

Tanya: Yeah, that was a really big one for a while there. Especially post COVID, everybody got really backed up, there was a paper shortage, and just getting time on a printer's schedule was, was the biggest challenge we were up against, but that's certainly evened out now, thankfully. Yes. Um, you know, when the. The big shipping container boat hit that bridge and in Baltimore, was it, I remember being, could you imagine if your books were in one of those shipping containers?

Tanya: I think they're still sitting there. Yes, I think so. I'm sorry to say.

Angela: And that does happen. That does happen. So we've had. Situations that the boat is delayed in the canal. We've had that. So really add buffer time to it. Usually

Tanya: it's customs and not [00:17:00] ships hitting bridges, but correct. Yes. And then in terms of costs, we.

Tanya: We talked about the quality overseas, but can you give us a general sense of the, the cost difference printing overseas versus domestic?

Angela: For example, around a thousand four color book, about a 12 by 12. Um, I did an estimate about 192 pages. You are looking at a difference if you print it overseas and print it domestically.

Angela: You're looking at a price per unit difference of over 6. You're going to pay 6 more per unit on a thousand books. And let's say this is a coffee table book or a cookbook. This is not a children's book. If you're looking a Similar book, if we're looking at about 4, 000 copies in domestic, you're only going to pay over 3.

Angela: So you're saving about, you know, half there. [00:18:00] So quantity does make a difference when you go overseas. I think if you're looking at around 10, 000, you're looking at about a dollar or two more than you're paying domestically. So there is quite a big difference.

Tanya: Yeah, that's consistent with some numbers that I pulled recently, I was helping an author make a decision and I was struck by the difference and overseas was about 50 percent less expensive than domestically.

Tanya: So if you, if you don't mind that it's overseas and you've got the extra time to spare, you can really make a difference on your margins that way. Even with the shipping costs, overseas is cheaper. Definitely. We talked about the fact that there are surprises and delays and things happen with printing, but what are some of the common surprises that authors might experience and any recommendations to avoid those?

Angela: So, well, we mentioned a couple. I do still see delays in ordering materials. So the [00:19:00] extra time buffer that you add, you really will need it because suddenly I'll send my purchase order in and they say, Oh my gosh, this material isn't in. We have to wait three weeks. So you wait the three weeks or you just have to be more flexible as an author.

Angela: The printers are more than happy to. Give you options that are similar to the interior stock to the case bound color you picked or end sheets or whatever it is that you pick. They're more than happy to give you choices that are already in house because they don't carry everything in house. They can't or they will give you options and something that can arrive sooner.

Angela: So that's one thing. So to be flexible as an author, I think is very important in that situation. Material delay, but there's also printing and shipping delays. I mean, a printer does go down and when a printer goes down and they need a part, they're not getting it the next day, sadly. [00:20:00] So really add a week or two to your printing and shipping.

Angela: Um, and then you should be able to make your pub date in that situation. Another thing that I do think surprises authors, we talked about this, that it is amazing, the printers and the setup of the machinery and how it all works and how it all comes together. Well, at times an author will receive a book that is, a section is upside down, the front is in the back.

Angela: I mean, it happens. And honestly, it's probably one book out of the thousand or 2000 that they've received. And this happens, human error. Is everywhere. So this is at the beginning of the printing. They're setting it up and they're catching all these errors and they're fixing them, but some, and they will recycle these books, but sometimes one or two of those books get put in a box and get sent to our warehouse or author.

Angela: So, and it happens. Usually [00:21:00] 10 percent overs anyway, so you're not really losing anything there. You use it as a display in the back or you do something, but that does happen. And printers do try to catch them and not put them in the box. So that's maybe a surprise that they will find.

Tanya: Yes, that is a surprise.

Tanya: This happened to me with my book. Oh, I don't know that it was a printer error, but it was a big mystery for sure. That luckily it was someone I knew who ordered my book off of Amazon and the The book that was on the inside of the jacket was not my book.

Angela: That will happen.

Tanya: Yes. And then he ordered another one and the exact same thing is what he received.

Tanya: It was, it was the exact same different book inside my jacket. And so then of course this sparks an entire inspection at the warehouse and we still don't know how it happened. It seems like it could have happened at any time. Amazon strangely, but anyways, yes, you're right. These things happened. And, um, [00:22:00] if you have a good printing partner, they'll work through this issue with you, get it resolved.

Tanya: So we've seen a little bit of everything on that front.

Angela: Yes. And offset will give you the credits. Digital will also give you the credit or when you print again, since it's. Printing on demand. They'll just throw in the extra one or two. So there are many ways to get your money back for these books that

Tanya: yeah, and I wanted to add for our listeners who may be managing printing on their own.

Tanya: If you are printing a hardcover book. Another thing that we do as a matter of course, is. Order extra dust jackets. And, you know, this is really smart because books go through so much wear and tear in the supply chain. And sometimes if they come back returned, that's the thing that's damaged. You can basically salvage the book.

Tanya: If you've got an extra dust jacket, you can have the warehouse or you can rewrap them. And now you've got a perfectly viable book versus one that has a. Jacket that's torn down the middle. So as long as you're going [00:23:00] to press, that's something to think about, um, considering as well.

Angela: So true. So true. We actually do 20 percent extra on jackets because you also lose some at the setup,

Tanya: you

Angela: know, when they're, when they're wrapping the books and then yes, you do want extras in your warehouse or, or just to have in case some get damaged.

Angela: So yeah, first print run, we always do about 20%. Second print run, we do closer to 10 to 15% of wrappers.

Tanya: Good to know, yes. All been super informative. Very helpful. Angela, any parting thoughts or little tips to share with our listeners from the world of printing?

Angela: Yes. So I think we've discussed a lot and I, I think the authors really need to be patient and flexible and they really, really need to do their research.

Angela: I think as an author, they have dedicated themselves to writing the perfect book. So It's [00:24:00] time for them to put that same dedication in finding the perfect print partner for them, for the author, and for their book.

Tanya: Excellent, Angela. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Tanya. That's it for today's episode with Angela.

Tanya: We hope you enjoyed learning about print production. For notes and resources from today's show, go to greenleafbookgroup.com/episode 87. You can also find advice for writing, publishing, and promoting your work in my book, Ideas, Influence, and Income, which you can learn more about at ideasinfluenceandincome.com.

A big thank you to Madison Johnson, who produces the published podcast, and to our five star reviewers. Thank you for your support and we will be back with another episode on the last Tuesday of next month.

Angela Olmeta is Print Production Specialist at Greenleaf Book Group and manages the day-to-day operations for the books they print. She is the liaison between our print partners and the company, ensuring that the books we publish deliver at the highest-quality and on time for our authors. Her love of publishing started in New York City at American Heritage Custom Publishing and Forbes Inc, where she learned the intricacies of project management and ultimately landing in high-end printing side of publishing.