Working with a local printer instead of print-on-demand
Print on demand is a vending machine. You upload a file, software checks it against one fixed specification, and copies are made one at a time as people buy them. A local printer is a person with a press, a schedule and opinions, and working with one is a different job from the first phone call onward.
It is often a better job. It is never the same one. The authors who have a bad time email a KDP cover PDF to a trade shop and assume it will be accepted because it was accepted elsewhere.
What they will ask for that print-on-demand never does
- A file built to their template. Most shops have one per trim and binding, drawn from the stock they will run. It does the same work as a print-on-demand template and is not interchangeable with it.
- A bleed of their choosing. Print-on-demand settled on 0.125 inch on the outside edges. A trade printer may want 3 mm, may want more on a hardcover wrap, and will tell you which.
- Crop marks, sometimes. Print-on-demand rejects files carrying crop marks, because the equipment imposes the page itself. A shop running sheets may require them, at a stated offset from the trim. Ask before you export — it changes the page size of the PDF.
- Cover and interior as separate files, sometimes with the wrap built to a spine they measured off a physical sample of the paper rather than from a published formula.
- Paper by name and weight. Not "white" or "cream" but a named sheet at a stated weight, because they buy it by the ream.
- A signed proof. Written approval before the press runs, which moves the risk from them to you.
Get their template first
This is the whole difference between an easy job and a week of resends.
Ask for the template or spec sheet before you build the cover, not after you have one you like. Then build to it. Sending a file cut to another printer's geometry and waiting to hear what is wrong costs you the same work twice, because a wrap is a set of measurements and those measurements were taken for someone else's press.
The interior is easier. A print-ready PDF with fonts embedded and black-only interior ink is what a trade printer checks first, and a file that satisfies one shop usually satisfies the next. The cover is the part specific to the press.
What a local shop is genuinely better at
- Paper. You can hold samples, compare shades and weights side by side, and pick a sheet rather than a menu item. It shows up the moment a reader opens the book.
- Finishes. Soft-touch lamination, spot gloss on a title, foil, an embossed device, uncoated stock, French flaps. Print-on-demand offers matte or gloss.
- Short runs you own outright. Boxes of books in hand for an event, a course, a shop that will stock you locally. You set the price and keep what you sell. See Selling books directly to readers.
- A human checking the file. Their prepress operator will notice a low-resolution image or type over a fold before the press does, and will call you. Ask to see the cover on the real stock, in daylight, before the run. See Order the proof. Then read it in daylight.
- No distribution taking a cut. Nobody stands between you and the reader. What that is worth depends on how many copies you move.
What it is worse at
- You hold the stock. A run lives in your house until it sells, and unsold copies are money already spent.
- You ship it. Every order becomes packaging, postage and a trip. That is a job, and it scales badly.
- You pay up front. Print-on-demand costs nothing until a sale happens. A run is a bill before the first copy sells, which makes the run size a decision rather than a preference.
- There is no listing. A local run produces books, not availability. Readers looking for you on a retail site will not find these copies.
In the tools. The Cover Maker exports a full wrap — back, spine and front as one file, cut to the geometry you choose, with the spine computed from your real page count and paper. The Interior Formatter outputs a print-ready PDF with fonts embedded and the interior ink black only, which is what a trade printer checks first. Start a book → · about the tools
Questions to ask before you ask for a quote
Have these answered in one call and the quote you get back will mean something.
- Do you have a template for this trim and binding, and can you send it?
- What bleed do you want, and do you want crop marks?
- Cover and interior as separate PDFs, or one file?
- Which papers can you run for the interior, and what does each weigh? Ask for the caliper too, because paper thickness is what sets the spine.
- What cover stock and finishes, and which of them are standard rather than extra?
- What binding — perfect bound, sewn, case bound — and the page count range for each?
- What is your minimum run, and where do the breaks fall?
- Is the proof printed on the actual stock, or on a proofing sheet?
- How long from approved files to boxes, and who delivers?
- Do you need the barcode supplied, or do you place it? See Barcodes, and the price code beside them.
If their geometry is not one of the four built in
The Cover Maker cuts wraps for Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu and B&N Press. A local shop's spec usually sits close to one of them — same trim, same standard bleed, a spine differing by a fraction of a millimeter because their paper is not the same paper.
Build to the closest of the four, then lay the shop's template over the export at full size and check three things: total wrap width, where the folds land, and whether anything you care about sits near a cut. Send them the file and the spine width you used, and ask them to confirm before the run. The printer's template, and how to read it covers reading one properly.
Make yours
Everything here is built into the tools, and they 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: Print on demand or a print run? · More: The printer's template, and how to read it · Paper weight, cover finish, and how the book feels · Where to print: KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu and B&N Press