Recommend a printing company

I'm frantically searching for a printing company with reasonable rates. Has anyone considered Amazon-Create a Space?

Permalink Reply by Ram Iyer on April 30, 2010 at 5:51am: Hello Clay,

I am sorry if I am posting this question in a wrong forum. I am about 50% complete with my book and am just getting started with evaluating different options. I started some basic work in CREATESPACE, partly because of the Amazon brand equity. However, what I seek is a good publisher who will also help with the distribution aspects such as getting the book in brick-and-mortar retail shops. I contacted TATE and was surprised at the speed at which they reciprocated with a phone call in 24 hours and follow up emails. Of course, their price is steep - close to $4000 for first time authors.

How do I go about selecting the right publisher?
What is offset printing?
Do I need to know some of the printing jargon such short-run offset that you have mentioned?
How do we distribute if we just focus on the printing company? Any tips?

Thanks again and I apologize if my question is in the wrong forum.

Ram; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Scott Flora, Executive Director on April 30, 2010 at 10:30am: Ram,

You have lots of important questions. Fortunately, many of these questions are answered in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section of SPANnet. (Find the FAQ here: http://www.spannet.org/page/publishing-faq)

The FAQ has information on both different types of publishing and different printing processes. This should give you a better background for making decisions.

Scott; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Theresa M. Moore on May 1, 2010 at 2:47pm: If you are looking for a good printer either Lulu or Createspace will do. Createspace has the distrinct advantage in that it offers free ISBNs for distribution to Amazon.com and also a "pro" plan which allows you to extend your reach to other booksellers. They require PDFs for galleys, including the covers. Lightning Source is probably the best option in terms of printing cost but you will have to get your own ISBNs and pay for all the setup fees up front. They also do not take PayPal if you want to take the non-credit route for printing. At the moment, Createspace only prints trade paperback and perfect bound large formats no bigger than 8 x 10, so if you want to create a case I'm afraid that is out. As for the standards you mentioned. The casebound format has become obsolete for most self-publishing companies precisely because of cost of assembly, and yu must not feel guilty about the trees. A lot of these are operating on the "print on demand" model to save the costs of production and overages, and while they would love to give you a discount on printing, they're not about to hire someone to stand there and assemble the book. The Book Expresso Machine is taking over. There must be a ton of ordinary book printers standing out there waiting for you to contact them, though I am not sure you will like their rates.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 1106 Design on May 1, 2010 at 3:11pm: CreateSpace and Lulu are subsidy publishers, not printers. You don't need them to be a "self-publisher" because YOU are the self-publisher. Print-0n-demand from Lightning Source will feed your book to all the major online retailers without the cost of a "pro" plan. Yes, there is an upfront cost to buy your own ISBNs and hire editors and designers to help prepare a quality book for you, but the end result will be worth the cost and you'll make the money back in increased sales. The do-it-yourself templates offered by the online subsidy publishers encourage authors to produce books that are not up to professional standards, which is why reviewers and retailers pan books released this way. If you're going to put your name on a book, it makes sense to release the best possible product. Buyers know the difference, and you'll have a better chance with distributors and retailers as well.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ram Iyer on May 2, 2010 at 8:19am: Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I have read in some places about how authors who have self-published via CreateSpace or Lulu can eventually get the "real" publishers to take over and get their marketing and distribution muscle behind it. Does anyone have any statistics around this? How probable is this? Is it a good idea to self-publish via Createspace and then send a hard copy of the book to some of the major publishing companies right away (say in a month of its release)? Will that get some attention? Any thoughts are welcome....; ▶ Reply to This