Book Printing Blog

When you need a small number of books printed in a short amount of time, choose short run book printing. Short run printing is the right way to print a small quantity of books. This can also be called print on demand.  Digital short run printing takes the expense of making plates that are necessary with traditional printing. This combined with the fact that you can print far fewer books makes this a very economical option for self-publishers and new authors.
 
Short-run printing is possible at The Country Press because we have state-of-the-art printing technology and bindery equipment that can create for you black and white or color books in a variety of bindings  including hard-cover, soft cover, wire-o, plastic-comb and -coil, case, and saddle-stitch.

Short-run book printing is generally considered to be a book printing run of fewer than 500 copies, although you can print anywhere from 11 to 5000 copies. Authors that are in limited distribution or who have a new book with no idea of how it will sell will often use short run book printing to re-stock their own inventory, to prepare for new promotions, or for marketing purposes.

For more information on short run printing, contact The Country Press.

There are many advantages to using short run book printing. If you have a self published book, but a small budget, short run printing is a great way to get your book on the market without breaking the bank. By using short run printing, you can create high quality books in quantities as low as 11, 100, 250 or 500.

Short run books are an excellent marketing tool for publishers and self publishers because it makes test marketing less expensive and easy. No matter what your reasons for needing smaller quantities of your print materials, short run printing is a great way to go because short run printing gives you quality printed books that are affordable.

Printing lower quantities is an eco-friendly approach as well. Better to have too few copies and have more printed quickly than have too few.  This means less waste. With short run printing, there is no reason to produce more copies than you need. If your book is targeting a small audience or if you are not sure how many books you will need, short-run book printing could be your best choice.

For more information on short run book printing with The Country Press, contact us.

Short run book printing gives you the ability to print only as many books as you need. It has become possible to print short runs because of digital printing.
 
Who is taking advantage of short run book printing?

Self publishers are using short run books for numerous reasons. With smaller distribution channels, limited storage space, and limited funds, short run book printing is an ideal solution for those who want physical books in addition to e-publications.

Universities and professors are using short run book printing for text books. When a text book has been written by a specific professor for a specific class, short run books give universities the ability to print only as many text books as they need. Additionally, higher level, curriculum specific courses rarely see the hundreds of students that a lower level class may enjoy. Also, with the increase in text book rentals, there is less of a need for restocking all the shelves in the bookstore. At the start of each semester less books are needed for purchase.

Cities and Towns use short run printing for their annual town reports and warrants. Short run printing is anywhere from 11 to 5000 copies.

Other publishers also make use of short run printing when they are running late with a current title, when  an author needs a small amount of books for marketing or for books shows and fairs.

For more information on short run book printing, contact The Country Press.

Publishing your own work can be challenging, use the opportunity to get a short run book publisher involved to help you find your way.

Hopeful authors, with the help of fast, online communication and relatively cheap and high-quality digital book printing technology, are now rushing to publish their books. However, many authors still want their books in print.

While a blogger or e-book publisher can reach their audience relatively easily, the logistics of getting a printed book in front of an audience can be dauntingly involved.

For slightly green self-publishers, there is an opportunity with a short-run book printer. Cover design, editing, distribution and marketing are all services that self-publishers may need help with, and the printer may well be able to lend a hand.

The vast majority of self publishers who are using short run book printing are authors who may have limited experience with what’s involved in publishing a book, but with professional ambitions.

Most self publishers want their book stocked by book stores. There is typically a fairly wide gulf in what they’d like to achieve and how much time and money they have to do this. Short run book printing can fall more in line with authors budget and timeline.

Even something as seemingly straightforward as commissioning a professional-looking cover can be daunting for a self publisher, so it is important to find a short run book printer who can help you with all of your needs and where everything is in one place, so you don’t feel vulnerable as a self publisher in your first attempt getting your feet wet.

For more information on short run book printing, contact The Country Press.

Excerpts - Print Week

In recent year we have seen an increase in self-publishing. We have also been experiencing a recession. Short run book printing can help self publishers realize their dream of writing a book.

The biggest genre increases for self publishers has been in fiction, women’s books and photographers and designers.  Self publishing is a cost effective way to publish your book and still have a professionally printed book. Short run book printing gives these publishers a way to maintain control over the publishing process and publishing costs. Short run printing is best for self publishers and publishers who may have only a small distribution channel; order just a dozen copies and order more later.

Because you can publish as few books as you would like, you can control the initial outlay of money as well as your inventory. With short-run printing, you can publish anywhere from 11 to 5000 books, whatever amount you can afford, or whatever quantity you can store. Short run book printing is a convenient and economical way to print books to fill your distribution channel.

For more information on self publishing or short run book printing, contact the Country Press.

If you are an author attempting to market your new book, short run printing can help. Short run printing allows you to market on a small budget.  It used to be that you had to spend a lot of money to market your book because you had to print in large, bulk quantities. With short run printing you can print as few as 11 books at a time.  It's far easier budget, store books and react to marketing when you can take advantage of short run book printing. 

The cost per book in offset printing may be cheaper, but when you have to order 5000 at a time, the cost is often too expensive no matter how you slice it. By ordering only the amount of books that you need with short run printing, your marketing budget can go farther too.
 
Digital printing means any computer to printer technology. Short run printing uses high quality digital printing technology to give you  high quality short run books.

Because short run printing means a smaller initial investment, you get a faster ROI. Short run printing services may cost more per book, but your money is not tied down in one large print order. Depending on your budget, you can print books as you need them. The return on investment is lower, but you get a return much faster.

For more information on short run printing, contact The Country Press.

While self publishing has increased dramatically over the last few years, there are still some mistakes that self published authors make. Here are the top 10.

1. Writing for the wrong reason. The most common wrong reason to write a book is to make a lot of money. Instead, you should write a book for good reasons: you have something valuable to say, you have a cause you want to further, or you want to meet the intellectual challenge of writing a book.

2. Not hiring a professional copyeditor. Writing and copyediting are two different skills—just like the best salesman doesn’t make the best sales manager nor the best player make the best coach.

3. Designing your own cover. The cover is one of the most important marketing pieces for your book, so hiring a great graphics designer is money well spent. Amazon web pages displays fifteen to twenty covers at a time. With a graphic the size of a postage stamp, you need to entice people to click.

4. Not building your marketing platform in advance. Self-publishing is not a serial process where you can write a book and then worry about marketing it later. You need to start building a marketing platform as soon as you start writing because the process takes a year. You should already have thousands of followers on social media on the day that you ship.

5. Using a program other than Microsoft Word. Admittedly, Word is a beast, and you will need to wrestle it to the ground. There are cheaper and more elegant programs, but nothing has the paragraph styles capability of Word nor the universal acceptance from the reviewers, testers, editors, designers, and resellers that you’ll use downstream.

6. Inadequately testing your ebook. Do not assume that if your ebook looks right on one platform that it will look right on all the others. You can’t even assume that if your book looks good on a Kindle tablet that it will look good on a Kindle app. The only way to truly know is to examine your book on each platform.

7. Selling only an ebook version. The ebook format is growing in adult fiction. If you write for any other genre, you should still produce a paper version.

8. Depending solely on social media and word of mouth. Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are powerful and inexpensive marketing methods, but old-fashioned PR is still necessary. There is no doubt in my mind that spending $10,000-15,000 on a PR campaign is a good investment.

9. Not tapping the crowd. A crowd is a beautiful thing—there are always people out there who know more than you do and who are willing to help for the intrinsic value of helping. Tap the crowd for feedback at three stages: outline, first draft, and final draft. The crowd has pointed out thousands of mistakes and suggested hundreds of improvements.

10. Having only one plan. There are at least three plans to getting your book published: Plan A is to find a traditional publisher; Plan B is to self-publish; and Plan C is to implement Plan B in order to attract a traditional publisher and reinstate Plan A. There is no right and wrong; there is only what works for you and what doesn’t, so be flexible.

For information in self publishing, contact The Country Press.

Digital Book World

Short run book printing is perfect for when you do not need or want a large amount of printed books. Short run printing gives you control over the number books that you are producing. This is the main reason why authors choose short run book printing.

If you are on a limited budget, have limited storage space, or do not know how your book will be received, short run printing is the best option.

Short run printing is also more economical than you might think. Because it is done digitally, books are printed without plates. This keeps production costs down and makes short run printing a viable option for many.  This also means that this method of printing is very efficient. Less production processes means the less time which means less cost for short run printing.

For more information, contact The Country Press.

We are seeing more and more people who are entering into self-publishing. This means that there is increasing demand for short run printing. Self-publishers who have a small distribution channel prefer short run book printing because they can order a small amount of books at any time depending on their needs.

Short run book printing can make a lot of difference to a self-publisher where budget, storage and demand are always left in question. Short run printing means you can order anywhere from 11 to 5000 books which means there is less of your money at risk.

Short-run books are convenient and appropriate for professional self-publishers, printing text books, manuals, handbooks, or art book and much more cost efficient.

For more information on short run printing, contact The Country Press.

If you want to be a published writer and you don't mind publishing yourself, these are very good times. One recent survey found that the number of self-published books in the U.S. has almost tripled in the past six years. As eBooks become easier to create and distribute, more and more services are popping up to help you do that.

There has always been a stigma associated with self-publishing. Five years ago self-publishing was seen as the option of last resort. It was seen as the option for failed writers. And the publishing industry held that view, and even writers held that view.

But that's changing now. Self-publishing is now becoming the option of first choice for many writers. And even traditional publishers now have new found respect for self-publishing. They're using the self-publishing bestseller lists to troll for new authors to acquire.

Traditionally, publishers are in the business of selling books. So they seek to acquire books and authors who they think have the greatest commercial potential. But the challenge here is they really don't know which books are going to go on to become bestsellers. Only readers know that.
And so in the attempt to only choose the cream of the crop, many potential breakout bestsellers are being excluded. And those books are now going to self-publishing.

It is possible that we are at the very early stages of renaissance in publishing. Over the next few years, readers will have the opportunity to discover and enjoy more great books than ever before, more books that match their unique interests, and books will become more available to more readers around the world.

For more information on self publishing, contact The Country Press.

NPR