Which trade customs do I need to worry about when I am dealing with the printer?

An unexpected stay in the hospital gave me new insight into understanding trade customs and their application in all of our business dealings. I think you’ll like it.

Last month I was writing to you from 34,000 feet somewhere above the USA. . This month I am in a hospital bed on the Upper East Side of New York City after a routine procedure went a little out of whack. I am not sure whether it’s the medication or boredom, but to help pass the time I started making comparisons between health care and the printing industry. I compared the various components of my medical experience with experiences I had in the printing industry and found that they are really not all that different.

I am fifty two years old and have had heart arrhythmias (rapid heart beats) for over twenty years. Over the years I have found that arrhythmias are actually quite common and while they can be serious, my case was quite benign. The primary causes include alcohol, tobacco, caffeine and stress. By the time I hit 40, I had given up the fun causes leaving only the stress to deal with. Originally, open heart surgery was the only cure so I was quite content to have these arrhythmias controlled with medication.

About two months ago I started developing symptoms that, after a quick Internet search, I felt might be related to the medication I was taking for my arrhythmias. My wife, an RN, knew a doctor who specialized in the treatment of arrhythmias. My first office visit ended with the doctor saying that, “I’m not sure what is causing your symptoms but I think I can cure your arrhythmias”. Somewhere in the past 20 years a procedure called Radio Frequency Catheter Ablation had been developed . This procedure included inserting a catheter through a vein or artery into your heart where the pathway causing the arrhythmia was found and blocked by killing the cells. The prospect of doing away with the arrhythmias along with the medication was too good to turn down so I said, “Let’s do it”.

The printing equivalent of “let’s do it” is “let’s do it”, except with printing we are talking about when the publisher lets the printer know he is going to print their book. The first step in the printing process is to agree on a set of specifications and a price. The same thing goes for a medical procedure except in most cases the “price” part is between the doctor and the insurance company. The next part of the printing process is to prepare customer files for manufacturing and to show a proof for approval before going to press. The medical equivalent to this part of the process was to give me an event monitor, to take a picture of the arrhythmias so the doctor could see the nature of the arrhythmia. In addition, the doctor ordered an echo cardiogram to give him a clear picture of my heart structure as well as blood tests. I was also given a brochure which described the procedure. When you allow www.BooksJustBooks.com to handle your printing, you are suggested a book titled Publishing Basics – A Guide for the Small Press and Independent Self-Publisher. This book is designed to answer many of the questions that the novice print buyer will have concerning the manufacturing process. My copy of Understanding Catheter Ablation was not nearly as good looking as Publishing Basics but served the purpose pertaining to my upcoming procedure.

In reading this booklet I found out that they were going to insert two catheters into my groin (Ugh!) as well as one into my arm which would travel into my heart where they would burn the cells causing the trouble and that would be that. I’d be cured. The procedure was described as taking anywhere from 2 to 8 hours and I would be home either the same day or the next. The printing process is described in pretty much the same efficient non-eventful way. After you Ok your proof, printing plates are made which are put on the printing press to print your book. After your book is printed, it goes to the bindery to be made into books, inserted into cartons and shipped to the destination of your choice. The whole process generally takes no more than 3-4 weeks for paperbacks.

Catheter Ablation had a section titled “Understanding the Risks” which was very similar to what the printing industry calls “Trade Customs”. In both cases they address the possibility that things might not go as smoothly as described earlier. In my case the risks were listed as:

Bleeding
Blood Clots
Perforation of the heart muscle, blood vessel or lung
Heart Block (Requiring a permanent pacemaker)
Damage to heart valve
Stroke or heart attack (rare)
Death (extremely rare)

The doctor certainly seemed to be covered for just about anything that could come down the pike. As much as I would have liked to, they wouldn’t let me sign the consent papers and delete the “death” option. Same thing goes for printing. Fortunately we don’t have the heart attack or death options in a printing agreement but we do have the fact that you might be delivered more or less copies as specified and you have to accept the order as full count. Also the folding and trimming of your books might vary +/- 1/8 inch and you have to accept it. In either case the patient/ customer is acknowledging the fact that nothing is guaranteed. Best efforts will be made to do a good job but if perfection and guarantees are what you are looking for, you probably shouldn’t be printing a book nor having a procedure done on your heart.

I was supposed to report to the hospital at 2PM on Tuesday and was to be discharged on Wednesday morning. I told everyone that I would be back in the office on Thursday and even made a lunch appointment on Friday. Over the years in working with publishers, I have pleaded on numerous occasions, “Do not schedule a book signing to coincide too closely with a projected book delivery. There are too many things that can happen that are beyond everyone’s control.” I should have known better. Let it suffice to say that I did not make my Friday lunch appointment.

I actually got into the procedure room/lab about 4PM, only two hours late. The nurse prepped me during which time I was quite relieved to find out where those catheters were actually going. Within a short time I was up on a table in the middle of a cold room being jabbed with catheters by a couple of doctors. After a few minor medication adjustments, I was off into an altered state called conscious sedation. I don’t remember much except joking around with one of the nurses. The next thing I know I am in my room with the doctor at my bedside. Having been married to a nurse for almost 20 years, I knew that this was not a good sign. Within a couple minutes I realized that my heart was beating at around 180BPM (another bad sign). I am a little fuzzy on the exact chain of events from there but I know that it included telling me that they burned as much as they could; they already had me in complete heart block before they backed off, I would have to go back and let them redo the procedure and I would probably need a pacemaker. In answer to how all this came about, I was told I had something screwy with my electrical system. I thought to myself, whoa…. I’m being blamed for the problems. My mind flashed into print mode and heard, “It’s your files that caused these bad plates, not our prep department”. Wait a minute, how about the proofs? (Echocardiogram, EKG, blood work, etc). If I had a screwy electrical system, shouldn’t you have known? I was actually much calmer than anyone around me expected. It could have been the valium/morphine combo. I prefer to think that it had to do with the way I educated myself to the process and understood the risks and rewards before entering into the agreement to have the procedure.

At this point, if this were a printing project you would be discussing whether the job had to be reprinted as a result of a PE (Printers Error) or AA (Authors Alteration/error). If a job has to go back on press, someone has to pay for it. That is why you need to check your proofs carefully before signing them as OK. If you catch a problem after your book is printed it can get expensive. If the printer made a mistake but the proof that you OK’d as “OK to Print” reflected that mistake, it’s your problem if the book has to be reprinted. In health care it’s a little different because unless they kill you, you just go back in and get the procedure done again and the insurance company pays for it.

I was not able to be rescheduled to have the procedure repeated until Thursday despite the fact that we all expected to be done on Tuesday. The same thing can happen to you whether a mistake is the printer’s or yours. You might not be able to get right back on the equipment to remedy the problem. Try to stay calm. There are certain things that you are just not able to control. If you are with a good printer they want to get a problem remedied as much as you.

In the end, they repeated the procedure on Thursday. The problem causing the arrhythmias was corrected. (Knock on wood). I wound up not needing a pacemaker. I went home on Friday and was back at work on Monday. (And my previous Friday’s lunch appointment was happy to reschedule.)

Life is full of risks and challenges. There are “rules” that govern just about everything we do. Printing is no different. The first rule is that there is no perfect product. If you are looking for perfection in a printed product, do yourself and the printer a favor and don’t publish. You are just going to drive yourself, and everyone around you, nuts. It is your responsibility to know the rules. If you’re in New York City and get a traffic ticket for making a right hand turn on red, no one is going to care that you are from Ohio and didn’t know the rule. It is your responsibility to know the rules. The same thing goes if the printer delivers your book 150 books short on a 2000 print run. If his quotation says +/- 10%, it means that you have received full count and you can not make him go back to press. You need to read what you are signing. Once the rules are understood, things tend to go smoother all around.

If I had awakened the first time with a pacemaker, I wouldn’t have been thrilled but I wouldn’t have complained either because I fully understood the rules going in. Do yourself a favor and do likewise before you submit your book to be printed.

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