Choosing Book Printing Quantity: Avoid Common Mistakes

One of the first questions to answer once your book is written is: How many books should you print? This is really the million dollar question and where a lot of money is often made or lost. Print too many -- you'll be stuck with a huge inventory of unsellable product. Print too few -- you'll get stuck doing costly reprints.

I've worked for nearly 15 years in the book printing industry, and I still don't have a perfect answer for this question. However, I would definitely recommend being cautious about printing too many books. It's much more common to see someone end up with too many books than not enough.

So start with your worst-case scenario. How many books are you convinced you will sell even if things don't work out as well as you hope? How many books do you think you can sell in your REALISTIC best-case scenario? (Not the "Oprah chose my book for her book club" scenario.)

Now pick a quantity in-between those two numbers, but probably closer to the lower number. You'll find it's much less expensive to do reprints than it is to be stuck with a garage full of unsold books. Plus, you'll feel more successful having gone through your first print run.

Which type of printing press should you use? You'll basically need to choose between a digital press or an offset press. (There are other types of printing presses, but these are the main two options.)

A digital press is usually most cost effective for print runs less than 1,000. If you decide to go with a digital printer, you definitely want to lean toward a smaller quantity. The cost savings per book for 100 copies vs. 500 copies on a digital press just aren't that great usually.

If you're printing 1,000 books or more, your best bet is probably an offset printer. For an offset printer, there's a lot more set-up involved. So quantity discounts can be substantial. Get print quotes for a variety of quantities so you see just how those quantity discounts break down. When you see a much lower cost per book for a higher quantity, it might help push you toward one quantity over another.

So start with a smaller quantity and work your way up to the larger quantities. Keep your money in your pocket (not your printer's). By slowly but steadily testing and working your market, you'll eventually get to the point where you can justify those bigger print quantities.

About the Author

Get a Free 7-Part Mini-Course demonstrating how to publish your own book. As a cheap book printing expert, Joshua Prizer has been working in the book printing industry for some 15 years.

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