Originally Posted by
Cook
So the latest statement as to why Justin Cronin’s “City of Dreams” is not being published ahead of all the other CD publications you’ve announced, sold, published & delivered is because nobody else in the US or elsewhere is capable of handling the 7 x 10 trim size?.
Did I say no one else can do it? Nope.
We found out in mid-May that the printer that bought our long-time printer was essentially only buying them for their existing customers. The presses, etc, were all be sold off. The building itself is being cleared out to make it into a paper warehouse for their other plant in town.
Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, except none of their presses can handle the 7X10 trim size at this BULK. They expect to have a new press in September that CAN, but I've been trying to find someone else for the job in the meantime to get it started and finally DONE. So our collectors won't have to wait any longer than they already have.
But finding a new book printer isn’t the same as going into Staples and picking out whether you want to HP or an Epson.
I recently contacted 10 different printers, and I have spent way more hours than I would have liked on this process because everything takes
time. You need to find out what their "house" stocks are -- not everyone uses the same papers, ribbons, etc. Some materials that were "standard" at your old printer are special orders somewhere else.
Then you have to revise your spec sheets to use the appropriate materials for the new printer while keeping the look and feel as close as possible, especially for a book that is part of a series.
After you adjust your spec sheets, each printer confirms whether they can even handle the job and then they have to generate the actual quotes. Some of the printers have been so slow to send back quotes that I fear they are too busy for additional business anyway, which is how mistakes get made during the printing process. (Been on the receiving end of that many times over the years.)
Eight of the printers I've contacted couldn’t even handle the types of jobs I want to send them, but they couldn’t confirm that until after they saw spec sheets and tried to price out the jobs. The sales rep will say "yes, I want your business, let's do this!" and then the people who actually figure out what is needed and what it will cost will say, "Wait, we can't actually do this!"
So, yeah, finding a brand new printer for certain types of books takes time. I know we can do it, though, and have the books look just the same as from the old printer if we can find the right printer for the job.
We'd send more updates about this sort of thing, but it gets pretty tiring to hear from people who say we're just “shuffling the whatever plausible excuse deck of cards." Why give more information than needed if giving that information is just going to be thrown back in your face?
Best,
Brian