One of the first questions to answer once your book is written is: How many books should you print? This is really the million dollar question and where a lot of money is often made or lost. Print too many -- you'll be stuck with a huge inventory of unsellable product. Print too few -- you'll get stuck doing costly reprints.
While I can't definitively answer this question for you, I can give you some valuable input based on years of helping people just like you get their books printed. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people being overly confident as far as how many books they will sell.
Compare your worst-case and best-case scenarios. Do you have marketing channels in place that convince you that in your worst-case scenario you are sure to sell 100? 500? 5,000 books? What's your optimistic guess as to how many books you will sell? Now I'm not talking about the scenario where Hollywood options your book for a movie - let's stay realistic.
Now pick a quantity in-between those two numbers, but probably closer to the lower number. You'll find it's much less expensive to do reprints than it is to be stuck with a garage full of unsold books. Plus, you'll feel more successful having gone through your first print run.
Which type of printing press should you use? You'll basically need to choose between a digital press or an offset press. (There are other types of printing presses, but these are the main two options.)
A digital press is usually most cost effective for print runs less than 1,000. If you decide to go with a digital printer, you definitely want to lean toward a smaller quantity. The cost savings per book for 100 copies vs. 500 copies on a digital press just aren't that great usually.
If you're printing 1,000 books or more, your best bet is probably an offset printer. For an offset printer, there's a lot more set-up involved. So quantity discounts can be substantial. Get print quotes for a variety of quantities so you see just how those quantity discounts break down. When you see a much lower cost per book for a higher quantity, it might help push you toward one quantity over another.
In other words: start small, but don't be afraid to dream big! Keep working at it, and with a little luck and a lot of perseverance you'll eventually start hitting those larger print runs.
Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/
Get a Free 7-Part Mini-Course demonstrating how you can publish your own book. As a cheap book printing expert, Joshua Prizer has worked in the book printing industry for some 15 years.
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