r/BookPublishing

I'm working on a coffee table book of historical photographs from my city across the 20th century, planning a hardcover with dust jacket, 9x11 trim, 160 pages, full color throughout. Print run target is 500 copies for the first edition.

I've been vetting hardcover book printing services for this and the options are surprisingly different from the standard novel printing market. Coffee table books have specific production requirements that not every printer handles well.

What I'm finding.

Photo reproduction quality varies enormously between printers. Some run inkjet presses that handle color well, others run toner that produces muddier results on photo-heavy work.

Dust jacket production capability isn't universal. Some printers do dust jackets as standard, others charge premium, others don't offer them at all and you have to source them separately and assemble.

Paper weight options for coffee table work go heavier than novel printing typically supports. You want 100lb or 120lb gloss text for serious photo work, and not every printer has those options available.

Binding quality on hardcover varies more than people realize. The case binding, end sheets, and gluing process all affect how the book opens and how it ages. Some printers do this well consistently, others have variable output.

Minimum quantities for hardcover often start at 100 or 250 copies, which works for my 500 target but means the per-unit math is rough if I were considering smaller.

The printers I've gotten quotes from are DiggyPod, BookBaby, IngramSpark, and a regional photo book specialist. DiggyPod was the most responsive on the phone and could answer specific questions about paper weight options and dust jacket production process. Their per-unit at 500 copies was competitive within about 8% of the regional specialist, and the lead time was actually faster than the specialist for my volume.

Anyone else done a coffee table book in this range, who did you use and what would you do differently. Specifically curious about the photo reproduction quality question because that's where most of my anxiety is.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HB7C2Y6N?spcref=PUBLISHED\_PREORDER\_LIVE#

He’s an artist and made one of his sketches while traveling !!! Please go check it out and his work is on his instagram - Orfinart

I'm a first time author with a finished manuscript and I've been getting editing quotes for a month now and I'm completely confused. The reason is that I don't actually know what kind of editing I need, and the editors I'm talking to seem to be quoting me different services without clearly explaining the difference.

Here's what I've been told.

Developmental editing focuses on structure, pacing, character arcs, plot holes, big picture stuff. Apparently this is what I need first if my manuscript hasn't been through this stage.

Line editing focuses on prose at the sentence level, voice, rhythm, clarity. This comes after developmental.

Copy editing focuses on grammar, punctuation, consistency, style guide adherence. This comes after line.

Proofreading is the final pass for typos and surface errors. This comes after copy.

The problem is I don't know which of these my manuscript actually needs. I've done three rounds of self-revision and have had two beta readers go through it. The beta readers caught some plot issues which I've addressed. But I genuinely don't know if my manuscript is "developmentally sound" or whether I'm fooling myself.

The cost ranges I'm seeing are huge. If I need all four stages I'm looking at $4,500-8,000 total for my 85K word manuscript. If I can skip developmental I save $2K. If I can combine line and copy I save another $1K.

For other first time authors, how did you figure out what level of editing your manuscript actually needed. Is there a way to evaluate this before you commit to the full stack of edits, or do you basically have to trust the editor's assessment.

I've been running a poetry micro-press for the last four years, putting out about six chapbooks a year in print runs of 100-250 copies each. Wanted to share what I've learned about short run book printing because the math and the printer options are different from what most self-publishing content covers.

The economics of micro-press short runs.

Per-unit costs at 100-250 copies are genuinely brutal compared to longer runs. The setup costs spread across so few units that we typically pay $8-12 per copy for a 60 page chapbook with a quality cover. The same chapbook at 1000 copies would be closer to $4. We pass some of this through to retail pricing but our margins are thin.

Printer selection at this run size really matters because most printers are optimized for longer runs and either won't quote small quantities at all or quote them at absurd surcharges. The printers who do small runs well are a relatively small group.

Chapbook-specific binding decisions. Saddle stitch for thinner chapbooks under 40 pages, perfect bound for the longer ones. Most printers do both but the quality varies more on saddle stitch than people realize. We've had cover wrinkles and inconsistent staple placement from printers who do saddle stitch as a side service rather than a focus.

Paper choices for poetry specifically. Cream stock is the norm in literary work and most of our chapbooks use it. The paper weight question is interesting because chapbooks are short so heavier paper makes the object feel more substantial without adding much cost.

Cover lamination is where we save money. Matte lamination reads as more literary than gloss, but it's also slightly cheaper at most printers because gloss requires an additional curing step at some facilities. Win-win for poetry chapbooks.

For other small presses operating at this run size, what printers have you found that handle short runs well. Always interested in alternatives because losing a reliable printer to a service change or pricing shift is a real risk at our scale.