Reply With QuoteI haven't used them, but you might try lulu.com or some of the other print on demand places.
I have a .pdf of a 14-page book I've written that I would like to send somewhere to be printed and bound in hardcover. I think there are services out there that do this for around $20. Has anyone used such a service, and would you recommend the one you used?
Thanks in advance!
I haven't used them, but you might try lulu.com or some of the other print on demand places.
I'd go with Lulu. Very easy, no glory-of-self-publishing bullshit to wade through, reasonably cheap, as good quality as you'll get anywhere else.
I've used Lulu to bound my MA thesis. You can't tell the difference between a Lulu book and a book you'd buy at retail. Great service, great product.
14 pages? Is that a typo?
lulu it is!
Thanks, dudes.
No.. it's a gift for a particular person.Originally Posted by Robert Sharp
I've used Lulu recently to print up a 218pp compendium of the role-playing games we published 15 years ago, and the end results were great - very impressed with the quality. I did one set as hardcover full-colour insides, and another as softcover bw insides. I'd use them again in a shot for printing books. The hardcovers struck me as a great wedding present for couples if you can get the high-quality pics from the photographer's CD after the wedding.
Some caveats:
- The cropping wasn't as accurate on the colour hardcovers. It was out by as much as 3-5mm on some pages, and was probably a side effect of the stitching.
- You must send them a pdf in Acrobat 1.4 format, which flattens all transparencies. I went one extra step and rasterised each master page pdf file (they had a lot of design elements) to a 300dpi bitmap to make sure there would be no issues. Make sure the fonts you're using are embedded in the pdf (which they probably are, but I've heard of Lulu having issues if the same font is included more than once - I had a lot of sub-setted fonts and it went fine).
- Make sure you understand what's bleed and what's page before you send them the pdf. They're fussy for sizes, and they will reject your cover if it's the wrong size. The format for the casewrap hardcover is unusual due to the large folds over the cover itself. The spine width calculator on the webside was always out by a few mm, so I had to upload every cover twice.
- Factor in time to get a proof copy if possible. The turnaround for the hardcovers is slow - about 10-15 days and you'll be tempted to get fast shipping, which is crazy expensive on Lulu.
- The last one is probably the biggest - the hardcover books have a 40 page minimum, so you might be looking at a saddle-stitched book instead!
Thanks, mrbloo!
I don't know the format that you are using Dave, but you might consider using one-sided pages, too. Otherwise, it becomes only 7 actual sheets of paper (maybe 8). In hardcover, that could cause the covers to essentially touch. When I got copies of my dissertation (which was 200 pgs), two different companies sent me copies (long story). One did them double-sided and the other single-sided. It made a big difference, as did the font size. So some of my books look less than half the size of the others, which may be even more noticeable with a smaller book.
Hmm.. the thing is, it's a story book, with stories on one side of the page, and artwork on the other. And they go together. Maybe they can use extra-thick paper?
I thought it might be something like that. Yeah, thicker paper should work. Consider a filler page on either side as well (you'll notice most books have that anyway, which acts as a protective page, although I think it's real purpose may just be to help with binding).
Maybe I should write some more stories, too..
Sounds like fun, but in the meantime, try taking a couple of pieces of cardboard and putting 7 or 8 sheets of paper between them, just to get a feel for it. A lot of children's books are shorter. You'll notice that those that are only about 15 pgs often use thick paper, and sometimes even cardboard style pages. So I'm certainly not suggesting you haven't written enough or trying to discourage you in any way. I just want to give you a feel for the results, so you can make a decision you'll like.
No worries. Just one correction. The minimum page length for hardcover is 24 pages. 40 is for perfect binding. It was bugging me, so I looked it up. The hardcover automatically adds a blank page at the beginning and the end (it's to make the cover wrap look neat and tidy.
I don't think you get to choose the thickness of the pages (and I didn't see any specific kids book that has cardboard-style pages). The pages in the colour hardcover I printed were 100gsm or so, about the thickness of quality laser printer paper.
You could always add 10 pages of filler after the story, or just repeat the story upside-down and have both covers the same (but inverted), if that makes sense. It'd be a cheap way of getting your page count up to 28 pages. Title and copyright pages are another piece of filler that add a page, and maybe a page where the kid can write in their name (assuming it's a kid's book of course!).
It's a great feeling when you get it back in the post and it's utterly amazing that you can print a single copy of a hardcover book at the level of quality Lulu puts out. I'll see if I can get some pictures together over the weekend so you can see the colour repro quality in the hardcover books. I tried the other night, but my blackberry made a pig's ear of it.
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