Hi Laura,
Print-on-demand (POD) and digital printing, although they share a technology, are separate functions. Which you choose depends on several factors. Will you store the books yourself or have the printer handle fulfillment? With POD the vendor fulfills one order at a time and ships to the purchasing customer (although I suppose you could also print a few copies and have them shipped to yourself). There are also publishing services like LuLu (
www.LuLu.com), which give you the opportunity (or the hassle, depending on your point of view) of producing the book yourself. I have no personal experience with this type of service, but have heard good reports of LuLu.
How many copies do you need? Because traditional printing presses are made to run hundreds or thousands of copies at a time, many printers now have digital printing equipment to produce "short run" (50 to 200 copy) jobs. Since you want to sell the products in your gift shop and don't need the fulfillment service, I assume this method would be better for you.
What type of book do you want to print? You don't mention specific projects in your e-mail. (And I assume they are original works for which your oganization holds copyright.) I wouldn't recommend doing precise color work this way (certainly not books that focus on art or photography reproduction), but a book with black-and-white interior pages and 2- or 4-color cover can be printed well using digital technology. The quality of digital printing can vary greatly; see samples of a printer's work before getting involved. Making sure you choose the best paper for the job is also important.
Keep in mind that the shorter the print run, the higher the cost of each book. So think through how many you can comfortably store, how many you expect to sell, and how many you can afford to pay for at one time.
Hope at least some of this has been helpful. Recommending specific printers is more difficult. I would look for someone local, and perhaps get a recommendation from a local university press or niche publisher.
Elizabeth Simon
Publications Manager
CSWE
On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Laura Seifert
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
hello everyone,
Has anyone had experience with small batch printing (or on-demand printing). We would like to print stuff for sale in our gift shop. I know the question was recently asked about on-demand printing, but I was hoping to shake a few more recommendations from the knowledge tree.
thanks,
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