Printing and Printing Methods

When do you do the first print run?

About 6 weeks before publication.

How many copies do you print for the first print run?

We keep initial print runs (before publication) small, usually in the dozens.

If we feel we have good reason to print more copies, we will. Reasons might include:

• Your marketing has been successful.
• There is some noteworthy PR which could increase sales.
• Your previous books have sold very well.

Tell us if you anticipate a spike in sales

If you anticipate a spike in sales, for whatever reasons, let us know on the Forum, and add the reason as a Marketing Activity as soon as you can.

We have had unfortunate experiences where a book sold out very quickly as we were unaware the author had been working hard to create demand as nothing was added to their marketing activities.

As a result, there was a slight delay in restocking. Knowing your marketing activities in advance will ensure we have plenty of stock ready to complement your marketing efforts as well as assist the sales team in pushing for bulk sales to key distributors like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

How does CI manage its print runs?

From one month after publication, we aim to keep stock levels at the number of books that have sold in the previous three months.

We have an automatic stock replenishment system (ASR), which brings new stock in at under two weeks.

We also check stocks daily on titles which could be "in the news" or where we are forewarned about likely demand – because these orders are often done manually, it can take a little longer, around ten days.

We do our best to forecast print demands, but also have to avoid printing too many.

If you forecast higher demand for your title e.g. for launches, PR programs etc., please let us know on the Author Forum

Can I see how many printings my book has had?

Yes you can.

Visit your book’s Production page and scroll down to the Printings section.

You can see:

• The date the order was sent.
• Which printer it went to.
• The total quantity printed (for all territories).

The date that the print order was sent is not the same as the date that the text and cover files went to the printer.

What printing technology do you use?

We use SDR Printing (short run printing in the dozens or hundreds) to print the vast majority of our books.

This is opposed to Web offset (litho printing), where the print runs are only cost effective in the thousands, and print-on-demand (POD) which prints single copies for each order, but offers a lower quality product.

SDR offers quality virtually indistinguishable from web offset, better than POD, and allows us to manage costs and print more if the demand increases.

Want to know more? Enjoy this article on offset litho vs digital printing.

My book is printed and released, but I have spotted a correction. What should I do?

See Corrections.

Help! My printed copies are faulty. What should I do?

All printers sometimes produce faulty books. Nineteen times out of twenty it only affects a few copies; let us know as soon as you can if you come across one. After a month or two, it’s too late to seek remedy from the printer.

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