About Our Book Printing Services
Print-on-Demand (POD) books are becoming more common. Printing on demand is a great way to self-publish your work without a large financial commitment or the need to store a bulk order of books.
Paradise Cay Publications offers complete POD services for paperback and spiral-bound books. From design to layout, proof copies, small or large print runs, we can help you develop your project.
This article is intended to help you make informed decisions when it comes to self-publishing.
COSTS OF POD BOOKS
The cost of printing books is largely based on three factors:
- Page Count (the number of pages)
- Trim size (the final size of a book)
- Quality of Paper (coated, uncoated, heavy or light)
In other words, the size of your book is a big factor in how much it will cost to produce. There are other costs that can add up:
- Book Design & Layout
- Lamination of cover (there are several choices that may affect price)
- Corner Trim (rounded corners)
These additional factors are based on labor and time. In particular, the design and layout of your book is a time consuming process. If you decide to layout your book yourself, please contact us first to learn about the necessary specifications and requirements for printing your book.
DESIGN AND LAYOUT
Designing a book for print is not difficult, but there are specific requirements that must be kept in mind. Before you start laying out your book, reach out to your print provider to learn what those requirements will be. A poor layout may result in an incorrect page count, improperly sized margins or other unintended formatting issues. These situations may require drastic changes in order to be print-ready, which will increase your cost and production time.
Paradise Cay Publications offers complete design services. We have professional in-house designers who can take on your project, or provide the specs you'll need to do it yourself.
PHOTOS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
When it comes to photos and illustrations, there are requirements that must be met in order to produce a quality print. It's easy to find images on the internet, but many images are not of a sufficient quality to print. Even photos taken on a digital camera or cell phone may not print as expected due to pixel resolution. An image that looks good on your screen is not necessarily up to the required print specifications.
- TV's, Computer monitors, and cell phones display images at 72 dpi (dots per inch)
- Books and other print media requires images at 300 dpi
- Images printed on large posters or large structures require an even higher dpi count
Modern cameras and cell phones are capable of capturing very high pixel count images, so make sure to use the high qualiity settings when using such a device for your print photos. Remember, a large image can always be sized down and still look great, but a small image may lose quality when being enlarged.
COVER ART AND IMAGE BLEED
When an image goes to the very edge of a page this is called, bleed. A printer cannot typically print to the edge of a page, so to achieve image bleed the paper is trimmed either before or after binding a book. This means that trim size must be kept in mind when designing cover art, as most covers feature bleed.
If you want bleed on the cover or interior, your art must be created or sized with an extra 1/8 to 1/4 inch of print that extends beyond the trim size. Your print provider can help provide a template or specs to help you achieve this.
WHY YOU SHOULD SELF-PUBLISH
While it sounds great to have a well known publisher accept your book and give you a nice cash advance up front, the reality is that few aspring authors will have this experience. A publisher can offer distribution and possibly advertising, but that also means they keep a large portion of the profits. Remember, book publishing is a business, and even though you may think your book is good a publisher will want a product that they believe they can sell. So, most writers will do well to publish their book themselves.
With print on demand book services, it's easier than ever to self publish.
- Paradise Cay Publications
