As a ghostwriting and publishing company, we often field questions from potential clients who wonder whether offset printing is better than print-on-demand. Our answer is…it depends! When you’re deciding how to print your self-published book, many factors come into play.
We’ll talk you through the main considerations in this article, but first, let’s get some quick definitions out of the way.
What is Offset Printing?
When you think about the old-fashioned traditional publishing industry, you’re thinking of offset printing. Offset printing begins with custom aluminum printing plates, etched with a book’s text and treated with chemicals that attract ink and repel water. The plate is mounted onto a printing press, which stamps the image onto a rubber blanket. The rubber blanket transfers the text onto paper.
The process is most accurately compared with digital printing, which is at the heart of print-on-demand. While book manufacturers use digital printing at scale, the process is essentially the same one you’ve used with your desktop or commercial printer—a computer sends text and images to the printer, which produces each page in one pass. This process is much simpler than creating print plates.
However, as anyone who has tried to print dozens or hundreds of pages on a small desktop printer knows, there are also disadvantages to digital printing. That brings us to the specific advantages of offset printing, both for self-publishers and small (or large!) traditional and hybrid publishers.
What is Offset Printing Used For?
The major advantage of offset printing is quality. While digital printing can introduce inconsistencies in terms of saturation, tone, and color, offset printing takes the production process down to its bare bones, which makes it much easier to replicate. This means that the second, third, fourth, and all future print runs (“print run” refers to a single order of books) will look exactly the same, ensuring that someone who buys your book now will get the same quality as someone who buys your book many years in the future.
But as with everything else in life (sigh), that higher quality also comes at a cost.
As you may have guessed, the special equipment and training required for offset printing can get expensive, particularly during set-up. Books that are created through offset printing require your manufacturer to create custom plates, mount them in their press, and check for quality and preparation before they begin the print run.
The cost of the plates alone can be very pricey, and, of course, books also require paper, ink, and binding agents.
In this digital world, many people wonder, then, whether offset printing is still used? The answer is yes! Traditional publishers still widely use offset printing, and so do some self-publishers and hybrid companies, particularly those whose brands depend on a very high-quality product. Some ghostwriting and publishing companies fit this bill—our company, for instance, uses both offset and digital, depending on the particular author’s needs. Other ghostwriting and publishing companies, particularly those aimed at a lower-end market, will often use digital, print-on-demand exclusively.
“when you choose print-on-demand, your book will be printed at the plant nearest your reader. Your proof will have come from the plant nearest you.”
So why do traditional publishers still use offset printing? Because, once the equipment is set up, the cost to print a single book is much lower than with digital printing—if you order thousands of books, the set-up cost is distributed among those copies, bringing the per-book set-up fee to just pennies.
With a digital print run, there’s no fancy set-up…but you also won’t save money by printing more or fewer copies. Your price-per-book stays the same, no matter how many you order.
But the issue of quality and price may be offset (get it?) by a few more important differences between offset printing and digital printing, including print-on-demand.
Which is Better: Offset Printing or Print-on-Demand
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Quality: Offset printing is better
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Price: For large runs (500+ copies), offset is much cheaper; for just a few dozen books, use print-on-demand
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Speed: Print-on-Demand is much faster
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Distribution: Print-on-Demand builds in distribution; offset will leave it up to you
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Support: I personally prefer to call my offset print rep rather than wade through the massive print-on-demand support networks, but your mileage may vary
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Proofs: If you need a physical proof, you’ll have to go print-on-demand
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Consistency: Offset printing is more consistent in every way
How Long Does Offset Printing Take?
Given the specialty equipment, training, and set-up required for offset printing, most readers won’t be surprised that this method takes longer…sometimes much longer.
When we order offset print runs, we allow for at least eight weeks from the day we put in the order until the day the books are ready to ship. A twelve-week lead time is even safer.
Even a brand-new print-on-demand book can typically go from final files to book-in-hand within 7-10 days, and once the book exists in KDP or IngramSpark’s platform, things go even faster. Just like with other Amazon Prime purchases, you’ll often receive your copy within just a couple of days.
Now, there’s a caveat to this. If you’re placing a large order (which, recall, will be cheaper through offset printing), you may overwhelm the print-on-demand company’s capacity. It’s not unusual to see significant delays in publishing if you’re trying to order a hundred copies of your print-on-demand book (or if thousands of adoring fans try to order your book on the same day).
In fact, if you plan to do any kind of major promotional activities—such as appearing on national-level stages or media platforms—we strongly suggest that you at least have an offset printer ready to go. Nothing will turn readers off more than seeing that the title they want to purchase won’t be available for months (or worse, that it’s off the market for an unspecified amount of time).
You can always use both print-on-demand and offset printing simultaneously, allowing you to make larger purchases, pivot to meet demand for a surprise best-seller, and have your book ready for those who just want to buy a single copy on Amazon.
This question of how readers will purchase your book raises another important issue in deciding between offset printing and print-on-demand: distribution.
Do Offset Printers Handle Distribution?
This answer is easy: no.
While I wouldn’t be surprised to see some offset printers adding a distribution service to their offerings, traditionally, offset printers do not distribute books to readers. If you choose to order an offset print run, you’ll have to arrange for two things: storage and distribution.
The question of storage is obvious when you think about it, but many authors and small publishers forget this aspect. Since an offset print run is ordered in advance, based on your best guess of how many copies you’ll sell, you’ll have to store those books until they actually do sell. And, since you’ve invested in the higher quality of offset printing, you’ll want to make sure you store those books in a safe place, not a leaky basement or non-temperature-controlled garage.
The other piece of the puzzle is distribution. When a reader orders your print-on-demand book from Amazon (or Barnes & Noble or Target, etc), it’s automatically printed and sent to their door. The author or publisher doesn’t have to do anything to make that process work except upload their files to the print-on-demand service.
But if you choose to do an offset print run, you’ll have to handle packaging and shipping books to your readers. You can absolutely do this on your own—it’s very simple to set up an Amazon seller account and, of course, you can also sell books in other ways, such as BOR (back of room) sales after a workshop or keynote or through bulk sales to a company.
Or you can partner with a fulfillment center who will charge you a storage fee as well as a per-book distribution fee.
When you add up all these moving parts, it gets easier to see why traditional publishers have lower royalty rates for authors—they’re handling a lot of logistics and expense to get super high-quality books in the hands of your readers!
Customer Service for Offset Printing vs. Print-On-Demand
The final consideration if you’re considering an offset print run for your small press or self-published book is support. When you’re choosing between offset printing and print-on-demand, you’re probably looking a local/regional offset printer or one or both of the major POD services (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing/KDP and IngramSpark are the largest companies, but others like Draft2Digital are also popular).
In our experience, the customer service you’ll get from a local or regional offset printer will be much, much better than with the big companies (no surprises there, right?). Offset printers realize that you are partnering with them, probably for the life of the book, so they will make sure you have what you need to make your book special. In fact, many offset printers will even fix any minor issues in your files for an hourly fee. This can be more than worth it if you’re stuck and don’t know how to resolve your issue.
KDP and IngramSpark both have customer service departments who will answer your questions, but, if I’m being 100% honest (and I always am!), they leave a lot to be desired. When we were preparing our last book for print (both offset and print-on-demand, as we typically do), I ran into a strange issue with how the cover was uploading to the KDP platform. I reached out to KDP, and about a week later, I was directed to the set-up form for KDP’s cover templates. This is very, very, very basic support (of course, I’d already used a cover template—the issue was actually just a fluke, and I’d resolved it by the time I heard from KDP). I needed a more personalized answer to really know how to move forward.
I knew I wouldn’t get that from one of the big print-on-demand services, but the trade-off is in the ease of distributing single books to readers.
Do Offset Print Companies Provide a Proof?
Due to the nature of offset printing, you won’t receive a physical proof of your book. This makes sense if you think about it—if the printer set up your book, printed a single proof, and sent it for your approval, it would cost hundreds of dollars for that one book. If you wanted to make any changes, you’d be back at square one. Since the printing equipment has to be manually configured, a “small tweak” can actually require that the entire set-up be redone.
Print-on-Demand, on the other hand, can take very small adjustments in stride. That’s why you should always order a proof copy of your book before you press publish on KDP or IngramSpark—for just a few dollars, you can make sure everything is as it should be. And if you want to make a change, you’ll just be out a few more dollars for a second proof.
That doesn’t mean you’ll sacrifice quality—in fact, as I discussed above, your offset print book will probably be a much higher quality than its print-on-demand cousin. But if you choose offset printing, you’ll be trusting that the company you’ve contracted knows what they’re doing. They’ll contact you if anything seems off and, as I mentioned, may even have in-house staff who can correct any issues with your files for an hourly fee. With most offset printers, you’ll get an electronic proof, which, when combined with the knowledge and standards of offset print companies, should be plenty to set your mind at ease.
Just be sure those files are completely ready before you send them off!
Are Print-On-Demand Books Consistent?
One final note as you’re weighing the pros and cons of each type of printing: when you choose print-on-demand, your book will be printed at the plant nearest your reader. Your proof will have come from the plant nearest you.
For example, I’m located in Kansas. When I order proof copies from KDP, they are created in Monee, Illinois (this information is printed on the very last page of the book in case you’re curious). However, if a reader in North Carolina ordered a book, it might be printed at a plant in Atlanta (for instance). A California reader might receive a book printed in Oregon.
“This question of how readers will purchase your book raises another important issue in deciding between offset printing and print-on-demand: distribution.”
The files are the same for all of these printers, but they are independent contractors with KDP—they aren’t necessarily monitored for quality in any universal way.
So, while your proof might look amazing, your reader might receive a copy with a slightly off-center cover image. In one instance, a children’s picture book even arrived at a reader’s door…with the second half of the book accidentally replaced by a calendar of cats, uh, using the bathroom! Not exactly the pinnacle of consistency.
I’m sure KDP reprinted the book at no charge, but, of course, the unacceptable book had already gone to a reader.
An offset printer will usually bet set up with quality control checks in place, and they’ll make absolutely sure everything is as it should be—they tend to be smaller companies, and their longevity depends on it!
Should You Use Print-On-Demand or Offset Printing?
If you’re self-publishing a book, it can be difficult to know what to do. As a ghostwriting and publishing company that works with many debut authors, we’re happy to share our approach:
Do both. You can get the best of both worlds if you take advantage of both print-on-demand and offset printing.
There are two components to this approach:
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Set up your book with print-on-demand companies—we use both KDP and IngramSpark.
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Order an offset print run for any live events or bulk orders—we use Kansas City Book Manufacturing.
That’s it! That way, you’ve got a supply of high-quality books you can sell at your events (plus, if you’re giving these are company, supplier, or marketing gifts, you’ll be using the absolute highest quality for that purpose—win-win!). You’ll also get the benefit of allowing readers to order their own copies without any extra work from you. If you end up with books left over from your offset print run, you can set up your Amazon seller account and sell them alongside the POD orders.
It can be difficult to navigate printing, storage, and distribution (and you thought the hard work of writing the book was over!), but with a little consideration, it’s easy to pick the best of both worlds.
If you’d like help figuring out any aspect of book publication, we’re here for you! Just reach out, and we’ll be happy to set up a time to talk!
