Are you considering publishing in-house?
If you have an in-house graphics department or regular graphics suppliers and printers for your brochure needs, it’s tempting to think of producing your corporate book in-house.
There are essential differences however – and for that reason neither would we use our book designers to produce brochures or posters.
- Brochure and advertising design is bigger, bolder, uses more attention-getting devices and more design elements than a book — recurring elements that book readers find annoying after, say, page 53. And that amazing typeface they chose may not be quite as compact as another choice, perhaps adding another signature to the extent of the book. (No, signature is not a scrawled handwritten name in this case but an 8- or 16-page section of a book. Book pages are laid out on a large sheet before being trimmed to page size, and that’s why you sometimes see a couple of blank or leftover pages at the end of a book. If there are closer to a dozen blank pages, though, you’ve wasted money across the print run.)
- If you self-publish, working directly with a graphic designer, can you judge whether the page margins are too skimpy or too wide when you see them as an untrimmed PDF page? Do the front and back covers look like a book cover or a brochure cover?
- Self-published too-often means that the book has not been professionally edited, that the binding may fall apart if the book is pressed fully open, that the cover stock may not be the right weight so that the edges will begin to curl after the book has been picked up by a few potential readers.
- Why do you need an experienced book printer rather than the local instant-print shop which does a great job on your office needs? Well, to start with, they’ll probably have to send your book elsewhere for binding. And would you know whether to specify perfect binding, burst binding, section sewn or case binding? Does your local printer know about the best grain direction for printed and bound books? Will they recommend a whiter-than-white stock that looks great in brochures but will reflect light and tire your eyes when reading for long periods? Should you choose a bulky stock, recycled stock, offset, satin, gloss or semi-gloss? Did you take into consideration that the choice of stock (its weight and bulk) can affect your freight costs? How does that tally against choosing stock that bulks out your book to make it look just that little bit more substantial?
(Oh, you didn’t know publishers were crafty like that?) - Do you know what page sizes are the most economical cuts? Do you know the trim area to allow for bleed photos?
- If you have colour illustrations or photos in your book, did you plan the images to fall throughout the book or place them according to a printer’s imposition plan so that only sections of the book or one side of the paper needs to be printed in colour, thereby saving costs?
- Will your deadline have to be extended because of learning curve issues? Will there be adequate external proof reading by someone trained to pick up inconsistencies of usage, spelling, grammar, punctuation, repetition and style?
Of course the choice is yours. It comes down to where your organisation’s expertise lies; whether you want your staff to spend their time on your core business or on book production; whether you want them to spend time learning about ISBNs, ONIX files, barcodes and even legal deposit copies required by official legislation.
If you’d like to take advantage of our experience and expertise at Citrus Press, we’d love to talk with you about ways to achieve the best quality at the most economic cost … while your staff are able to concentrate on doing what they do best.