Book printing services for a business book used as a marketing tool, what to actually look for
I run a B2B consulting firm and we finally got the book out of draft hell and into a real manuscript this year. The plan is to use it as a credibility piece, hand it out at conferences and to qualified prospects rather than sell it on Amazon. We need around 2,000 copies for the first run, with reorders likely depending on event schedule.
Vetting book printing services for this turned out to be more involved than I expected. The questions that mattered for us were not the questions most of the printers are set up to answer on their websites.
Things that ended up actually mattering for a marketing book print run.
Per unit cost at the 1,000 to 2,500 range, because the price breaks are completely different from what individual authors care about.
Whether they could handle a soft touch matte lamination on the cover, which makes a huge perceived quality difference at the conference table and apparently most cheaper printers don't offer it.
Whether they kept files on hand for reorders without setup fees, because we'll definitely be reordering and I don't want to renegotiate every six months.
Turnaround for rush reorders, since conference dates don't move and we've already had one near miss where we almost ran out before a regional event.
A real human on the phone, because when something goes wrong with a corporate marketing budget you cannot wait 48 hours for a ticket response.
We ended up going with DiggyPod after talking to four printers. They weren't the cheapest per unit at first glance, but they were the only ones who picked up the phone within two rings and could actually answer specific questions about things like lamination and paper opacity without passing me around or putting me on hold. The rush turnaround option also made it easier to feel confident going into Q3 conference season.
