Why can’t I print hardcover color picture books in the US? Good question. Until just recently I would have given you a dozen reasons why you couldn’t but things have changed. I am now able to offer Hong Kong pricing but printed in the USA on most full color book projects.

I started seriously in the sales end of printing over 20 years ago when I moved to New York City from my home state of Maryland. At that point I represented a Baltimore book printer who had wonderful four color presses and state-of-the-art book binding equipment in addition to traditional single color book presses

I came to New York fresh off a divorce, with little money in my pocket but a wealth of printing knowledge. I had previously worked for two Baltimore printers in pretty much every department from catching press forms on a single color web press to managing the production and scheduling of an entire plant. I had also been a partner in a small publishing company where I handled book production as well as sales. Although basically broke, I was quite confident that I could turn my printing knowledge into quick printing sales among the “candy store” of publishers in the “Big Apple”. I knew that my company could compete with anything the New York City printers had to offer. My initial “leads” came from a 1980 copy of “The Literary Marketplace”(LMP), which contained the names and addresses and specialties of all the different publishers in New York City as well as the rest of the country. In my mind, all I needed to do was look up a few publishers who specialized in color “Art Books”, give them a call and sweep them off their feet with my top notch quality and Baltimore pricing. I honestly thought I would need a bushel basket to carry away all the commission dollars I would be earning on my sales. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.

The first couple of publishers I called on were nice enough to see me, look at my samples and give me something to quote. Once I had the printing estimate from Baltimore, I confidently approached the prospect with my pricing, fully expecting to pick up a purchase order by the end of the visit as well as a hearty “Thank You” for saving them so much money. I remember like it was yesterday the first buyer’s response that went something like this, “Ron, I like your quality but your pricing is 40% high”. Huh?? How could that be? At first I thought the buyer was kidding me so I confidently exclaimed, “We do not lose work on price. (I still say that) The other printer must have made a mistake. Nobody can do it for that price. Who is the other printer?”. “Dai Nippon” was the reply. “Dai Na who? “What part of New York are they from?” After a quick chuckle, the buyer replied, “They are from Japan, of course”. Well that didn’t seem particularly fair to me. “How was I supposed to compete with the Japanese”? I left with my tail between my legs and went to the next publisher. Maybe they would be more “patriotic” and only be shopping in the US. No such luck. This experience was repeated time and time again. “It’s not patriotism, Ron”, they would say, “its only business. We would love to buy in the US but not while it’s so much more expensive”.

I think I only earned about $10,000 in commissions that first year. Luckily, I was living in a company apartment and got to know every bar in the city who served free food. I actually met my, then to be, future wife on free “Spaghetti Night” at the Hudson Bay Inn. Always the optimist, I did not look at my first year as a failure. I felt much more like General Douglass Mac Arthur when he said, “I will return” after the allies were forced out of the Philippines during World War Two. .

As far as color book printing was concerned, the next 20 years went pretty much like the first. I made plenty of money selling other types of printing but not full color hardcover books. After Japan, Korea showed up on the scene. They were followed by the Italy, Spain, Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China. There always seemed to be someone less expensive than the Americans. I spent many hours over the years trying to come up with ways to make printing in the US, work. I knew that the only real advantage offshore printers had, was cheap labor rates but that was a major advantage. Labor made up over 75% of a typical color picture books. The major culprit at that time was prepress which included color separations, proofing, stripping and composing (all ancient prepress pre-digital terms). It was not uncommon for the page of color that Hong Kong or Korea charged $100, to cost upwards of $1000 using US printers. With this in mind, I came up with a program where we would buy prepress from Korea and do the actual printing in the US. The assumption was that part of the pie was better than none of it. While this combination worked on a limited basis, there were quality issues faced in using the offshore generated prepress and that the combined pricing was still higher than Hong Kong. Even with the prepress removed, the labor to materials ratio on a color printing project was still high so the advantage remained offshore.

When I started RJ Communications in 1994, I temporarily “threw in the towel” so to speak and started representing a printing company from Dubai. (If you can’t beat em, join em) Not long after that I joined forces with my partner, Dana Cole who had extensive experience working with offshore printers during her years at Abbeville Press, a major New York art book publisher. Dana brought with her many offshore contacts. My feeling was that the more familiar I could become with how these offshore printers worked the easier it would be to try to work out a way to compete with them.

It was about this time that the technology explosion in the US occurred. Multi-million dollar pieces of prepress equipment were soon replaced with much less expensive, faster equipment. The playing field was starting to level. Just like I remember the day that I was first told that I was 40% high, I remember the day when one of Dana’s Hong Kong color houses made a sales call at our office trying to sell us prepress. We had just worked a deal with a U.S. prepress house to do 3 scans, output and proof for $60 and the offshore prep house couldn’t come close. The offshore printers’ rep softly said, “They can’t do it for that price”. I tried not to chuckle. The tables had started to turn. While there were some problems with those $60 pages, you could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

When we started our original Children’s Picture Book program at www.BooksJustBooks.com it was still significantly less expensive working in Hong Kong as compared to the US. The main problem working overseas, other than the “flag waving” aspect, is communication. A normal 6-8 week US printing schedule grows to 12 weeks or more, working in Hong Kong. The time zone difference often presents additional delays because you can rarely get answers to anything in less than 24 hours. Shipping proofs back and forth also adds additional time and money. Since 911, additional delays bringing books into the country are quite common. Even after several years of working a program in Hong Kong the whole FIS, CIF shipping thing remains an unpredictable mystery to me. All these disadvantages were offset, however, with the price savings advantage so people put up with it. While we have printed many beautiful books in Hong Kong through our industry unique Hardcover Children’s Picture Book program, the idea of cost-effectively printing domestically has always been my goal.

Today I am pleased to announce that we have reached that goal. Technology has won out over cheap labor. Lower makeready and running times on technologically advanced presses and book binders in addition to direct-to-plate prepress technology have shifted the labor/material ratio to the point where the offshore labor advantage has been offset by material and transportation costs as well as overall product efficiencies of the U.S..

The new color picture book program features “Printed in the USA” for all color picture books where digital PDF files are supplied by the publisher. Production schedules will be in the range of 6-8 weeks with short schedules possible under the right circumstances.

There will certainly still be some circumstances where it will be more advantageous to use Hong Kong or other offshore printers. As soon as your project shifts from 100% automatic, the pricing advantage will be overseas. Situations that would cause this shift include, inserts, over sized originals and odd sizes. Pricing is available for three different standard sizes online “Instantly” at www.BooksJustBooks.com.

While it has taken about 20 years longer than MacArthur, the US printer has returned!!

Need a cover designed or complete book layout? Try www.BudgetBookDesign.com . - Only $250 for original cover design. Complete text layout from $250.

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

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