Short run book printing is generally used by novelists looking to self publish their work. The great advantage of this style of printing is that as it’s a short run print, you can order fewer copies so you don’t end up with piles of books if your work doesn’t sell too well. If you do find you have a future best seller on your hands then you can simply reorder more copies to be printed as you require them. Other benefits of short run book printing are that it’s better for the environment as there’s less wastage and you are also more likely to receive your finished book quicker as the volumes are lower. This type of printing also helps to remove some of the risk associated with self publishing such as paying for large volumes of books before you’ve sold any as short run book printing is a flexible options which offers a ‘print as you sell’ approach. Once your book is printed, the next step to get it onto the shelves is book binding.
Good printers will also offer perfect binding services which means the quality of your finished book will be just as professional as one from a large publishing house. Perfect binding uses water resistant glue to stick the aligned and ordered pages of a book together, giving you a flawless completed book with a squared edge. As the definition of perfect binding on Answers.com states, “Perfect binding is sometimes used to denote quality.”Using the book binding services of your printers will mean that the whole self publishing process will run smoothly and will probably be much cheaper than going to different suppliers to complete both elements of the book. Another option which is a little more expensive is PUR binding this is more reliable than perfect binding and by using this method you are not restricted by the material or the fact that the ink runs to the spine edge.
The techniques behind short run book printing and perfect binding can also be applied to other large printed documents such as brochures, catalogues, magazines, journals and any other documents which benefit from a ‘print on demand’ approach.
