Should I be looking outside the U.S. to print my black-and-white book?

Should I be looking outside the U.S. to print my black-and-white book?

Generally the answer is no. Paper, plates, and inks—the main materials in the printing process—cost the same here as they do anywhere else in the world. Printing presses and other related equipment cost the same no matter where you go and must be maintained the same way worldwide. We in the United States actually pay less for uncoated book paper than most foreign consumers because the raw materials and paper mills are right here.

Many foreign countries do have an advantage in labor rates, but it generally is not a factor in single color trade book printing. Let’s say that the unit cost of a book is $4, and $3 of that represents the cost of materials. That leaves only $1 that can be discounted. If the foreign labor rate is one-fourth that of the U.S., there is a savings of 75 cents per book, but they still must be shipped. In the end, the total savings amounts to pennies, if that. When you factor in the time needed for your books to reach the U.S. by boat, foreign printing looks even less attractive.

The possible exception to this is Canada, where they have plenty of raw materials and a favorable exchange rate with the U.S.; and they can deliver books on a timely basis using regular ground shipping. In the US we can buy a Canadian dollar for about 70 cents. Sounds good, until you take into consideration the fact that everything is more expensive in Canada. In the end, if there is any actual savings, it’s minimal. Canadian printers are generally only used where shipping is an advantage. An example would be if the printer is in Montreal and the final delivery is somewhere in Maine. One major thing to keep in mind with dealing in Canada is as much as we might like to think of them as suburbs of the US, they are not. Other than a common language (sometimes), many aspects of the process are just like dealing with a European or the Far Eastern manufacturer.

In contrast to the above, a full color hardcover children’s picture book is about 75% labor and 25% materials making the overall savings dealing overseas significant. If you are considering such a project you might want to visit www.RJCom.com

If you have a question pertaining to the publishing production process, please feel free to contact me at ron@rjcom.com.

Ron Pramschufer

Ron Pramschufer has been in or around the printing and publishing industry for over 35 years. His experience, including working in the pressroom, bindery, production office and estimating department helped give him a firm foundation to build on when he entered sales and management. He was partners in a small press publishing company in Annapolis, MD in the late seventies and co-invented and marketed two controversial political board games which sold over 100,000 copies in the early eighties. Moving from his home state of Maryland to New York City after his game experience, Ron sold printing services to, primarily, small to mid-sized book publishers for over a decade before founding RJ Communications with an old friend. Ron recognized the potential of the Internet very early as a powerful communications tool. In 1997 he started one of the first printer related websites, www.rjcom.com, which caters to the professional print buyer. This evolved into www.BooksJustBooks.com and more recently www.selfpublishing.com which target the print buying novice, primarily self-publishers. All three sites are still operating successfully and SelfPublishing.com was named as one of Writers Digest’s, 101 Best websites for writers for 2006. Educating the novice print buyer has been a top priority from day one. To help address this issue, Ron co-authored the popular title Publishing Basics- a Guide for the Small Press and Independent Self-Publisher, now in its Third Edition, as well as Publishing Basics for Children’s Books, in its Second Edition. He is the organizer of the monthly Publishing Basics Newsletter where he writes a sometimes controversial Ask Ron column which addresses various aspects of the publishing process. On the same note, he started the Publishing Basics Radio PodCast in 2005 and serves as the show’s host. A wide variety of topics are covered including a very popular series titled, The Truth Behind POD Publishing, where he conducts interviews with a select group of industry insiders. Since its inception, RJ Communications has helped thousands of customers print over 105 million books. Ron is married and has three children. His daughter, Stephanie, teaches second grade and recently self-published her first children’s book in the Oliver the Clownfish series. Matthew, his oldest son, owns a website design business and Erik, the youngest, is enjoying high school.

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