Reading a print quote
Ask three printers for a price on the same book and you get back three documents that look nothing alike. One is a paragraph in an email. One is a spreadsheet with four quantity columns. One is a formal PDF with terms on the back.
They are saying the same things in a different order. Once you know which things, comparing them stops being guesswork. This guide is about the document; Working with a local printer instead of print-on-demand is about the conversation that produces it.
The run length and the price breaks
Almost every quote is priced at more than one quantity, and the per-copy cost falls as the quantity rises. That is not a discount for being a good customer. Setting up a press is most of the work, and once it is running the additional copies are cheap, so the setup spreads thinner the longer the run goes.
This is the whole economics of a print run, and it is what makes it different from print-on-demand, where the per-copy cost barely moves. See Print on demand or a print run? for which way that decision usually falls.
Read the breaks for their shape, not their lowest number. Where the cost per copy drops steeply and then flattens, the flat point is where the press has stopped being the expensive part, and printing beyond it buys little except boxes to store. If the quantity you want is not shown, ask. They will price it.
The specification
This is the part to read twice, because everything else is downstream of it. A complete specification names:
- Trim size, as a finished measurement.
- Extent — the trade word for the page count, and it is pages, not sheets or leaves; The words printers use has the rest of the vocabulary a quote assumes you have. Give them the final number from your typeset file, not an estimate.
- Text paper by name and weight, sometimes with a caliper or a bulk figure. "80gsm cream offset" is a specification. "Cream" is not.
- Cover stock and finish — board or card weight, and the lamination, if any.
- Ink — one color or four, and whether it is one side or both. An interior printed black-only on both sides is the normal trade book. Four-color throughout is a different price entirely.
- Binding — perfect bound, sewn, case bound, jacketed — and any extras such as headbands or printed endpapers, which should appear as their own lines.
If a quote does not name the paper, it is not a quote yet. Ask for the name and weight before you compare it to anything.
Proofing
Look for whether a proof is included, and what kind. A digital proof is a PDF or a screen check and confirms only that they have your file. A physical proof is printed and bound, and is the one that shows you the paper, the color and the trim.
Check whether the physical proof is run on the actual stock or on a proofing sheet, because those are different objects, and whether it is included or billed. Then check the deadline for approving it, since that date usually sets the delivery date. Order the proof. Then read it in daylight covers what to do with it, and Why your proof and your production copies differ covers what even a good proof cannot promise you about the run.
Delivery
Books are heavy, and delivery lines are more specific than authors expect. A quote should say where the books are going, roughly how many boxes that is, and what kind of vehicle and unloading it assumes.
The thing to flag early: a pallet arriving on a truck with no tail-lift, or a driver who will leave it at the curb rather than carry it inside, is a real problem in a residential street. If you need an inside delivery or a smaller vehicle, say so before the quote is written rather than on the morning.
Payment terms
A first-time customer is usually asked for payment up front or a deposit with the balance before dispatch. Established accounts get invoiced terms. Neither is a judgment about you. Note the currency, note whether tax is included or added, and note whether the quote has an expiry date, because paper prices move and most quotes are only good for a stated period.
In the tools. A quote is only as good as the numbers you hand over, and both come out of the same place: the Interior Formatter gives you a final page count and a print-ready PDF with fonts embedded and the interior ink black only, and the Cover Maker builds the wrap around that page count. Start your book → · about the tools
What is not in it, and will cost you later
- A second delivery address. Splitting the run between your house and a warehouse, or shipping some to an event, is a second job and a second charge.
- Corrections after approval. Once you sign off the proof, changes mean new plates or a new setup, and that is billed. Fix everything before you approve. See Fixing a book that is already published.
- Overs and unders. Printers deliver slightly more or slightly fewer copies than ordered and bill for what they actually deliver. It is standard trade practice, not an error, and it surprises first-timers. Ask what tolerance they work to and make sure you are not committing to an exact number you cannot meet.
- Storage. The books become yours on delivery and they live somewhere. If the printer holds them, that is a service with a monthly cost.
- Shipping to readers. Not the printer's problem. It is about to be yours: Holding stock, and shipping it yourself.
- The cover design itself. A printer manufactures the file you hand over. Making that file is a separate budget with a very wide range — What a cover actually costs.
Comparing two quotes
Normalize the specification first, before you look at a single number. A quote that comes in cheaper is usually a lighter text paper, a thinner board, a laminate instead of a better one, a digital press instead of litho, or a quantity that is not the quantity you asked the other shop for.
Put both specifications side by side line for line, get the differences quoted as equals, and only then compare totals. Then add the lines that are not in either: delivery to the right place, the proof, and the tax. See Paper weight, opacity and show-through for what those paper differences actually do to the book.
When something is unclear, ask. Estimators answer specification questions all day and would far rather explain a line now than reprint a run later. Asking reads as a customer who knows the job has parts, which is the opposite of naive.
Make your book
The tools are free to use: name your book, bring your manuscript or your artwork, and work as long as you like. You only pay when you want the files without the preview watermark.
Next: Working with a local printer instead of print-on-demand · More: Print on demand or a print run? · Bulk and corporate sales · The records a self-publisher needs to keep