Long-run book printing 1,000+


Full-colour children’s chapter books printed full colour via offset printing (long-run book printing)Printing your book can often be the toughest part of the self-publishing process. For print runs of 1,000+ you will need to pursue digital or offset printing. Both of these types of printing can be considered for long print runs of 1,000 or more books. They are suitable for greyscale and full colour printing of any kind of book.

Digital printing tends to be able to compete with offset in price, but the paper and printing quality is lower. You can often see the dots in digital printing if you look closely, even in photos. It will depend on your book where exactly the distinction should be made. In other words, the decision to go with offset printing rather than digital is not a simple black and white matter. It is different depending on a variety of parameters that differ between books.

For example, for a 400-page full-colour business book we printed recently was not much more to print 1,000 on high-quality gloss paper with the best (offset) print quality possible than it would have been to print just 500 on low-quality paper with low-quality digital printing via print-on-demand. The printer we used was in China and, even factoring for extra time to organise the project (print procurement) and shipping, customs and other logistics costs, it was better, in this case, for the author to go with our offset printing service.

It might help you if we rank out of 10 the different book printing options that are available to most authors and publishers these days.

  Digital Book Printing Offset Book Printing
(in China, Malaysia, Singapore, etc)
Rank out of 10 for… Print-on-demand Digital book printer
Worldwide automated distribution
9
1
0
Simplicity/automation and self-service
8
3
2
Personalised service
1
6
8
Paper and printing quality
6
6
10
Options (more paper types, sizes and printing features)
5
6
10
Peace of mind using a local (UK, Europe, Australia, NZ, USA, Canada) business
6
8
3
(however we are very satisfied with the printers we use)

For a more detailed comparison table, see our worldwide book printing service page.

The printing process involves determining what size your book will be, what paper it will be printed on, the colour type and how your book will be bound. From there, you will need to source quotes and, once you go ahead with a printer, you will then work closely with the printer to manage the printing and shipment of your book. If you don’t know anything about printing, this process is both stressful and time-consuming.

PMBO’s print procurement ervice can take the stress out of the process for you. The team will work with you to determine your book’s printing requirements. We will source quotes from our trusted international printers and we will liaise directly with the printer to print your book and have it shipped to your chosen address.

The team has extensive experience in printing books, they know the suppliers well, they know the lingo, and they work for you to get your book printed in the most efficient way possible.

Contact us today to learn more about our printing procurement service.

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