Save Money With Your Book Design & Layout

Jun 30, 2008 in Marketing

by Joshua Prizer

“The way I lay out my book can have an impact on my final printing cost?” In a one-word answer: Yes!

Printers print pages in blocks, called signatures. A 32-page signature is most common, so if your page count is divisible by 32, that’s the most economical option possible. However, the general rule of thumb is to try to not print less than a quarter signature of 8 pages. So if your book is 266 pages, see if you can drop a couple pages to get it down to 264. You’ll definitely notice the cost savings for the print run.

To get to an appropriately divisible page count, play around with the margins in your book. Make them a little smaller or a little larger.

Another easy change to make is to adjust the line spacing or leading. Here, too, a small adjustment can have a major impact on the page count. Don’t go overboard - if you look at your adjustment and it looks too squished, it might not be worth it. Get a second or third opinion to make sure your book remains readable.

However, before spending too much time worrying about your page count, talk to your printer. It may be that the price difference isn’t worth the hassle of adjusting your layout (although it probably is). Also, if you’re using a digital press, you don’t need to worry about page counts since they don’t use signatures. Other presses may use unusual signature breaks as well.

One last area that can save money on the print run is by rethinking the trim size of the book. Too many times I’ve seen customers insist on a specific print size when adjusting it by 1/4″ or 1/2″ would save them quite a bit of money. Why is that? Because different trim sizes are set up differently on different presses. A trim size that works well on one press might generate a lot of paper waste on another press. And guess who pays for that extra paper waste - you!

So don’t be afraid to ask for help from your printer sales rep. And shop around. See if the trim size you have in mind might work better for a different printing plant. Or see if you can get recommendations from a plant as to what trim sizes work best for them. Minor variations can save a lot of money on your book publishing in the end.

About the Author:

Josh Prizer has been working in book publishing for 15 years and is a cheap book printing expert. To learn how to publish your own book, visit his web site.