The Logistics of Self Publishing: A How to Guide

If you have something that you want self published, whether it is a book, pamphlet, comic book, or other creative piece of work, it can be a tedious, frustrating and overwhelming process to do so. The most important thing is that you not wait until the last minute, as you will have a lot more options if you give yourself plenty of time. Having extra time allows you to shop around and pick the cheapest place to get your work printed. Some online printing services provide good quality printing for less than what you would pay locally. However, many of these services take somewhere around two to three weeks from the time you place your order until you receive it. You can shorten this time by paying for expedited mail, but this often is not worth it if the point of printing online is to save money.

One of the best places online to get your work printed at is Lulu.com. They are very cheap and can print in color and black and white. They don't charge any fees to post your work to their site and you can order as many or as few as you like, because there is no minimum order. You can also advertise and sell your work through their site. They also don't take very long to print and ship. When I had a book printed with my art work, it only took them about a week and a half from the time I submitted the order until it arrived at my door. The quality was above and beyond what I could do with my home printer. The price couldn't be beat either. There is a flat binding fee depending on the binding you get and then it's only two cents per page for black and white or only fifteen cents a page for color.

You'll want to make sure that you carefully read all the guidelines for submitting your work to a website for printing. Some sites are only equipped to handle certain formats, like .pdf and can only print in certain sizes.

Another good online printing service is CafePress.com. You can actually have a variety of items and merchandise printed through them, not just books or pamphlets. They also don't charge anything unless you want to have a merchant shop. The good thing about having a merchant shop is that you can have multiple things printed with the same items. In a standard free shop you can only have one item per design, but there is no limit to the number of shops you can have.

If you procrastinate and need to have your work printed up sooner than having it done online would allow you do have some local choices. Many towns and most all large cities have privately owned printing services. These can be just as cheap as printing services that you find online when you factor in shipping. They also may be able to print your work in a few days.

If you need it faster, usually chain stores catering to office supplies and services can print your work in less than twenty four hours, depending upon the volume that you need printed. Stores such as Kinko's and Office Max can print and bind your work; although you may have fewer options than if you searched online. Some stores can only do certain types of bindings or only have certain types of paper, and so you may be limited in your choices.

The good thing about having your work published locally, besides the fact that it puts money back into your own community, is that you can talk to the people who are publishing it face to face and make sure that they understand what you want. This is especially important when you are trying to design something to go for instance with a gallery showing or for an art class, where it's not just the content that is important but the overall design of the work as well.

If your work is not very long, like the length of a comic book or pamphlet for instance, you could try printing it yourself off of your home printer. This can prove a tedious task, especially if you don't have the proper tools. Also hand feeding paper into a printer so that you can have it print on both sides, isn't very much fun. If you plan on stapling it, you will need a special stapler, you can buy one at an office supply store, that extends so that you can staple down the inside of the spine. You can also hand stitch a binding but you will need a punch to poke wholes in the spine, a large needle to sew binding thread that is coated with wax through the holes. These items can be purchased at some art stores and at some sites online. You will also want to have a paper cuter so that you cut multiple pages at once so that the booklet is even on all three cut sides. If your work is too thick though, it will be impossible to bind your work at home without professional binding and cutting tools. I would recommend having a business with the proper tools print and bind your work because it will save you hours of work, a whole lot of trouble and probably your sanity as well.