Publishers always hope to find new ways to save costs and production time. Whether book publishing and printing companies can share each other's secrets in cost and time savings depends mainly on whether they can communicate effectively. Although printing technology has made tremendous progress in recent years, for book manufacturers to succeed, they must rely on effective coordination and skilled cooperation.
Case 1: Consolidate paper options to save time and cost
ã€Publisher】 Oxford University Press
[Corporate Background] Oxford University Press is a publishing house specializing in academic and educational books and periodicals. In recent years, it has been severely affected by the shrinking demand of university libraries and the increasing popularity of electronic content. Michael Weinstein, vice president of production at Oxford University Press, gave his own tips on how to save costs and production time for printing customers.
ã€Single Tips】
1. Always consider the needs of end users
Weinstein said: "On-demand printing has entered Oxford. We are not producing a printed product, but creating a printed document that can be quantified on a printing press or printed on demand and submitted to the website." He repeated Requiring your employees to produce documents that are easy to reuse is a way of doing business that takes full account of market demand.
Weinstein pointed out: "Today, customers have put forward new requirements for the delivery method and delivery time of printed materials. They hope to receive different forms of products at the same time-printed and online, especially in the education market. And we did it. "
2. Merge paper options
Weinstein said: "In the past 10 to 15 years, mergers have been the most popular vocabulary in the production field, and this trend has spread to paper. In fact, we are currently discussing with printers to reduce paper problem."
Weinstein pointed out that having a printing house prepare 12 different papers for a publishing house is a luxury, because no one can afford the cost of paper or delay the time to market for printed matter. So they eventually let the printing house choose one of three or four similar papers to print.
Weinstein believes that merging paper options is an effective measure to save time and cost, because publishers do not have to order a small amount of special paper at high prices, and the printing house can provide them with suitable paper at any time.
3. Prepare for reprint in advance
Weinstein said: "The attitude of the publisher determines the quality of the book reprint. They can choose to lower the paper grade during the second or fourth printing, or always keep the paper grade unchanged. So you must inform the printing in advance The factory stores the paper and determines whether it needs to be reprinted. If you plan to reduce the grade of the paper when reprinting, then you must ask the printing house to prepare the paper for the first and second printing in advance. "
4. Consider the changing needs
Academic Press has long realized that as college libraries continue to cut their budgets, online content has become increasingly important. Weinstein said: "This trend also affects our pre-printing process. In the future, online content will become more streamlined than it is now, and customers are starting to need them."
Case 2: Let the printing factory understand the needs of customers
ã€Publisher】 OrangeFrazerPress
[Corporate Background] OrangeFrazerPress is a publishing company headquartered in Wilmington, Ohio. It mainly publishes books related to sports, history, nature and travel.
As a small-scale publishing house, it must ensure the printing quality of products under the premise of reducing costs. Marcy Holly from OrangeFrazerPress has her own exclusive trick in this regard.
ã€Single Tips】
1. Check the specifications
Hawley said: "The experience we have learned is that when you get an order, you must first carefully check its specifications. The printing house must check the quotation very carefully. We have found many wrong quotations , It should arouse our high vigilance. "Holly pointed out, don't just pay attention to such big things as the number of pages, especially when your books and magazines have complex design functions, such as cover flapping.
2. Choose your printer carefully
Holly said: "You have to choose the type of printing press (web printing press or sheet-fed printing press) for your job. Some items are more cost-effective to print on web printing presses-if you do n’t have Putting too many illustrated books on the web to print will save you a lot of money, which depends mainly on the size of the work and the number of prints. "
3. Carefully choose a printing house
Hawley ’s agent recently ended a partnership with a printing house in Canada, mainly because of the continued depreciation of the US dollar and the company ’s serious quality problems—they cut some text and page numbers from the book. Since the printing house has to reprint these books and periodicals, the publisher will lose four or five weeks of valuable sales time.
In order to avoid this situation, you must carefully inspect your printing plant and communicate patiently and meticulously when you need to print important and urgent jobs. Start with a small project first, and try to extend the inspection period of the printing plant as much as possible. Understand the characteristics of printing houses, their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction (some printing houses may not care whether you will come back, especially when they think you are not as important as other large publishing houses).
If you find something wrong, you must make the printing house responsible. We can take the quality problem mentioned earlier as an example. Hawley said: "The printing house has refused to help me find out the badly printed books, so I can only find out the 750 unusable books by myself. We will deduct this part of the cost from the final bill. The remaining new books will be delivered today. I do n’t know how to make up for this month ’s sales loss. "
4. Establish a good relationship with the printing house
Hawley said: "Build a good relationship with a printing house and their customer service representatives to let them understand your needs-this is especially important when you want to save time. If you can do this, You wo n’t suffer much. "
Case 3: Control printing environment to reduce costs
[Publisher] Harlequin Publishing Company of Canada
[Corporate Background] Harlequin Publishing Company is a pioneer in exploring new methods of digital on-demand printing. They are the first to implement on-demand printing of large catalogs. Therefore, Jim Robinson, vice president of operations from Harlequin Publishing Company, offers a few tips for digital printing.
ã€Single Tips】
1. Construct documents suitable for offset or digital printing
2. Standardize the width of the roll paper to facilitate format conversion
3. Carefully control the humidity of the room
Robinson said: "Humidity can prevent the paper from drying out during the printing process and minimize the bending of the paper after printing, especially when the paper is to be cut online and folded.
"
4. Don't neglect the time wasted when replacing the drum.
If the width of the web is the same, then the roll-to-roll mode of operation can be considered.
5. Keep the web printing machine clean.
He said: "Paper, especially low-grade papers often carry dust. If the printing cylinder can be kept clean, the accumulation of dust on the printing will be slower, the performance of the printing machine will be better, and the cleaning of the equipment The cycle can also be longer. "
Case 4: Controlling the number of pages means controlling costs
ã€Publisher】 American Research and Education Association
[Corporate Background] The Research and Education Association, headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey, is a publishing house that specializes in publishing education and test preparation books. It can provide reference materials for various exams (basic education and qualification exams, etc.) The company often presents the latest test questions, manuals, study aids and reference books. Pamela Weston, vice president of the American Research and Education Association, summarized some of his experiences.
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ã€Single Tips】
1. Template helps to increase the production speed of series of books
Weston said: "Under normal circumstances, a series of books have a set of templates that we can strictly follow. These templates allow us to easily add or delete content. In many cases, we have to carry out the content in the book. Fine-tuning, so you ca n’t do without the help of templates. "
2. Walk at the forefront of development
The Research Education Association is very concerned about the latest changes in examination policies, educational laws and scientific research, and hopes to reflect them in their publications in the shortest possible time. Editors should regularly look for updatable content and maintain close contact with the author. Only by always staying at the forefront of development can creators integrate the latest and best information into their works.
3. Add clear job responsibilities to the workflow
Weston said: "Each editor has its own responsibilities, so that we can know who is responsible for each project. Through the weekly production meeting, everyone can understand each other's work progress."
4. Pay attention to the number of pages
The best way to reduce the unit cost of books and periodicals is to control the number of pages. Weston said: "When designing a book, be sure to pay attention to the cost. The less paper used, the lower the cost of production."
5. Change the choice of paper
Although most of the research and education association materials are printed on paper containing ground wood pulp, some materials are printed on expensive transparent paper. In recent years, in order to save costs, the company has replaced many printing papers with cheap ground wood pulp paper.
Case 5: Proofing program is the goal of compressing time
[Publisher] Elsevier Press
[Corporate Background] Elsevier, headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a leading global science, technology and medical publishing house. In addition to magazines, the company publishes approximately 1,900 books per year. The experience from HansLaeven, the vice president of the publishing house, is not without reference.
ã€Single Tips】
1. Expand external resources
Laeven said: "We are refining all aspects of the cost structure; but some of the work will be outsourced by us. Both typesetting and printing are now in a low-cost market environment."
2. Eliminate repetitive workflow
According to Laeven: "Coordination of work helps to eliminate repetitive procedures in the creation of books and periodicals. Whether employees from Elsevier Publishing or from printing service providers, no matter what stage of the production process they are in, they can pass the new The technology-driven end-to-end workflow controls the entire production. "
3. Use on-demand printing technology when conditions permit
4. Seek integration of the production process
For example: centralized installation of printing presses can reduce the cost of transporting large quantities of printed materials to the warehouse; consider the type of paper needed to facilitate large-volume purchases; use electronic files as much as possible to avoid repeated printing of the same file and standard cover design, etc. .
5. Carefully manage the workflow
Elsevier has always attached great importance to the management of the planning process between the author and the internal development department and production department, so that they can bring books and periodicals to the market as quickly as possible. This includes authors providing template tools, shortening the production cycle of certain books and periodicals, and starting "fast track" when necessary.
Laeven pointed out that when they start the "fast track", they will basically not reduce the production steps, but will compress the time of certain steps. Among them, the proofing program is their main goal of compressing time. All production steps should be managed more effectively. Obviously, the price of the "fast track" for publishing houses is higher, because printing service providers have to pay higher costs for this. So, "fast track" does not skip production steps, it only shortens the waiting time between steps.
6. E-book: Nothing is faster than it
Laeven said: "The transition from traditional books to e-books is the most fundamental change in the industry. It allows customers to see the contents of the books at the fastest speed. This is a major advance in the field of books and journals. The emergence of books not only shortened the cycle of publication of books and periodicals, but also significantly prolonged their life cycle. "People need to modify XML coding, improve bandwidth and develop new platforms for e-books in order to increase their usability.
Case 6: Use advantages to purchase materials and services
ã€Publisher】 Transcontinental Corporation of Canada
[Corporate Background] Denis Beaudin, information product strategic business development manager of Transcontinental Corporation in Ontario, Canada, from the perspective of dealers, provides a series of suggestions to reduce costs and speed up production.
ã€Single Tips】
1. Integration of dealer list
Beaudin said: "At present, more and more publishers are beginning to integrate their distributors and purchase lists. The purpose of integrating these lists is to obtain more cost-effectiveness from bulk procurement. Publishers should learn to use their own advantages to go Purchasing materials and services. Small and medium-sized publishing houses have also begun joint printing to reduce costs. "
2. Learn about off-season discounts
Publishers can publish republished books in the off-season, which can maximize the use of preferential policies provided by printing service providers.
Generally speaking, publishers can enjoy the highest discounts during the off-season printing season from January to April each year.
3. Don't invest too much money on the cover design
Beaudin pointed out that cover design, especially in the textbook market, generally has no tricks, nothing more than bronzing and embossing.
4. Specification size and material
Beaudin said: "Publishers need to regulate the size of printed matter and the materials it uses. Products that meet traditional specifications are more economical to produce."
5. Seek solutions to speed up the process
From a production point of view, a printing machine that does not require printing preparation can also speed up the production schedule. Digital printing will still achieve significant growth.
6. Starting with prepress is the most critical
According to Beaudin, new technologies that focus on document preparation can significantly reduce the unit cost of printing. Appropriate prepress solutions, such as electronic file conversion systems, soft proofing and no proofing workflows, can significantly accelerate the speed of print production. This is an important factor most worthy of consideration by publishers.
He emphasized: "The most important part of the workflow is pre-press. In the coming days, more publishers will adopt new technologies and provide customers with certified PDF files. Providing error-free printed documents is The key factor that simplifies the entire workflow. The increase in speed and productivity of printing machines and bookbinding machines will also play a role in reducing production costs and saving production time. "
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