Need suggestions on a printer and sending to one - Writers Forum

Lord Raiden · 05-18-2005, 10:33 PM

I'm looking for some suggestions on a printer who you guys trust who would be willing to do a small print run for me. I'm looking to take the first 200 or so strips from my comic strip (see sig for link) and combine them into a comics collection book very similar to this one that was done like like this one for the comic strip citizen dog. It would have a soft glossy simple color cover, hard bound glued binding and simple colors at random on the pages in a mostly black and white comic strip. I'm willing to pay up to $100-$400 for a print run of 50-200 books respectively. It's not something I'm doing in wide distribution like in book stores and such. It's just something small and special I'm doing for a bunch of my friends and readers of the comic. I've got an initial book cover design right here that goes along with the extremely simple nature of the comic strip and its art.

Can anyone suggest a printer that might be willing to do this at a very fair price and will do good quality and wouldn't mind the small run? I've done a lot of footwork already researching something like this, but I didn't find anyone I felt comfortable with. Also, when I were to send it out, what's the best way to send it to the printer to ensure that what I send them comes out right in the printing? AKA what format, what program for the layout, etc. Thanks in advance for the advice and info.

mammamaia · 05-19-2005, 09:16 AM

my only thought on this is that it's got to cost you much more than what you're budgeting, lr... color repro is very costly... glossy cover and glued binding also not cheap...

as for quality and such, the only way you can really be sure of what you'll get is to deal with a local print shop, where you can see samples of their work and be a 'presence' they can't ignore, while setting it up...

small runs are a pain to do, for most printers, so they have to charge more per copy, to cover the setup costs and many won't even bother with them...

wish i could recommend someone, but the printers my self-publishing mentees used run about $15,000 for 750-1,000 copies of a full-color book...

best of luck to you... love and hugs, maia

Lord Raiden · 05-19-2005, 10:01 AM

Hmm, thanks for the info. The book really isn't a full color book in the sence of photograph quality colors. It's simple colors that could work inside a pallet of about 256 colors. If I'm understanding the 1 color, 2 color etc up to 4 color processes correctly, the colors in my book should fit inside a 1, possibly 2 color process. Especially if they're using something like CMYK or basic RGB.

EDIT: Just a thought. Wouldn't an on demand printer be more capable of doing smaller runs at a good price than a big publisher since they're able to do each book as it's needed?

mammamaia · 05-19-2005, 10:03 AM

still gonna be much more costly than b/w... good luck in your search... m

valeca · 05-19-2005, 10:37 AM

I had to look into having something printed in a relatively small quantity. I was shocked to hear the price difference between b/w and something with even a small amount of colour. It's a huge jump in $$.

As far as I've been able to tell, even POD publishers prices are significantly higher if you go with basic colour. Most of them state this upfront. Working on an idividual basis doesn't appear to be any better as the overall production price of the book is probably going to be higher than the sale price.

If you do find somewhere that's reasonably priced for colour, be sure to let us know! Someone else may be looking into the same thing.

Good luck.

Pawn · 05-21-2005, 09:42 PM

:: Moved at author's request ::