Handling Problems – What to do when a printing job goes bad

Handling Problems – What to do when a printing job goes bad – As I have written numerous times in the past, printing is not an exact process. Technology has certainly helped but there are still ample opportunities for mistakes to be made on each side. How mistakes and problems are handled are not only the difference between a good printer and a bad printer but a good print buyer and a bad print buyer as well.

I help oversee the printing of almost one thousand print projects per year. While I would love to say all of these jobs were printed and delivered without a hitch, I can’t. No printer can. It’s not that kind of business. I have no idea if there is a national average for problem jobs but mine runs about one to two percent. Problems can run a whole range of issues from printing on the wrong paper, to cover curl to final printing not matching the proofs. Some issues are quite clear. Printing on the wrong paper is pretty clear. I recently printed a book that was missing the copyright page, which had come in as a late correction. That was also clear. Other issues are not so clear.

Generally I believe that a job is either good enough to use or bad enough to reject. As I age, I have softened up somewhat on this stance a little to include, good enough to use at a discount. In the case of the book printed on the wrong paper, few end users would notice a book that was supposed to be printed on 60# offset was actually printed on 50#, or bright white vs. natural, for that matter. A smart buyer will look at a problem like this, not as a chance to make a printer redo something but as an opportunity to make a few extra dollars profit, which is why you got into publishing in the first place. In this case, the difference between the 60# and 50# plus an extra 10%-20% is a fair settlement. Anything more than that is not fair and a sharp printer will say “forget it”, take back the old books and reprint. Tip: Don’t be greedy. Most printers will accept a fair offer on something like this but if they feel the customer is trying to take advantage of a situation they will take a loss on principle. Negotiation tactics that may work in the Moroccan open air market do not work with the most printers.

In the case of the missing copyright page, there were also several options. The printer was obviously wrong and had the obligation to correct the problem. A book needs a copyright page. In this case, as in all cases, the printer has the choice of whether to repair a book or completely reprint. In this particular case, there was a whole, non-bookstore direct to consumer market where a neat rubber stamped copyright would have worked fine. A 20% discount would have gone right to the bottom line and nobody on this earth would know the difference. In the end, though, this customer decided they wanted the books fixed which the printer gladly did.

The above two examples are very clear as to who is right and who is wrong. These types of issues occur, from time to time, and are normally easily settled. The next group of problems falls into a little greyer area. This area is covered by printing industry trade customs and aren’t as black & white as the first two examples. Someone last month asked me to comment on a cover “curling” problem. Most printers buy special “Lay-flat” film lamination which is, in theory, guaranteed by the manufacturer to lay flat. In all the years of this product being available, I have never seen a curling claim honored by the manufacturer. It is always blamed on the printer and the way the lamination was applied. This, of course, presents its own set of problems for the printers. If you look in the window of most book stores, you will see covers curled on display copies to the point the stores need to use tape to keep them closed. The main culprit here is humidity. If moisture is absorbed on the uncoated side of the sheet and not on the laminated side, the paper tends to curl or “lift” a bit. This is perfectly normal. Whether a cover has a “lift” due to nature or a “curl” due to improper application of the lamination makes for a sometimes lively discussion with no clear cut answer. Personally I haven’t had any curl/lift problems in quite some time which means I am either very lucky or I have the right set of suppliers or a little of both.

The next example is much more common and often trickier than even the cover curl issue. This example is “The color doesn’t match the proofs”. I have said this a thousand times but will say it one more time for everyone’s benefit. If you are looking for “perfect” get out of publishing immediately and go into tool and die-making or something like that. Perfect has no place in printing. Did you ever wonder why you/your designer is adding 1/8 inch bleed to your covers? It’s because that is the machine tolerance of the various pieces of equipment used to produce your book. Same thing goes for color proofs. If the printed sheet matches the color proof exactly, it’s dumb luck. The proofs today have actually taken a step backwards from where we were ten or fifteen years ago. Today, if you get 90% of what you see in the printer’s proof, you have an acceptable printed product. If you are looking at a digital proof on your computer screen, that number probably drops even lower. Sorry, but it is what it is. Unless the green grass has turned blue and the blue sky has turned green, you probably have a commercially acceptable job.

If your printer problem falls into the above category, you are much better to not take a hard line on the issue because you are going to lose. You are much better to aim at a printers’ sense of “fairness” and customer service and try to negotiate something on an upcoming project. Printers understand the difference between “Great and not great but acceptable”. Printers would love for all jobs to fall into the first category but it’s the acceptance of the existence of the second category that keeps every printer in business. Tip: If you try to nit pick each and every little blemish in an effort to get a “discount” you are not going to get very far. I know it’s an old cliché but I’ll use it anyhow…Always try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. This works well for both sides of the publishing/printing process. If “fair” to you means you always get your way, you will not be successful in this business, or any other business that I know of.

Remember, the hardest part of publishing is after you have printed books safely stored in your garage or other storage facility and it’s down to the marketing end of the business. Don’t waste too much energy searching for the perfect printer or printing job. Neither exists. The main goal is selling books, not printing them. Keep that in mind as you continue in your publishing venture.

PS: In case any of you are wondering, I have been to court one time in thirty-five years over a printing disagreement. You might want to ask your current printer if they can say the same.

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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