Producing Convention Art books.

[Teratophile]

Does anyone have suggestions on which printers to use for making books/prints?



I saw some stuff from Ka-blam and wasn't impressed.

[Inkthinker]

Howso not impressed? I've seen good work come from Kablam. A lot depends on what's give to the printer, but if you're printing B&W it's kinda hard to muck it up too badly.

I'm doing a print job with McNaughton & Gunn (my first!), and I'll try to remember to come back and let you know how it goes. 64 pages, squarebound, B&W interior and full-color cover. I'm going with M&G because they were suggested to me by a client and they were able to meet a very quick turnaround on a low print run (100) at a comparable cost-per-unit, but I would have considered Kablam if I'd had more time to wait.

As it is, I won't see my copies of the book until I arrive in Indianapolis, and that's not making me nervous at all, no sir...

[Teratophile]

Maybe It was just the product I saw, but the paper wasn't much better than newprint. The colors seemed washed out. I suppose if the book was designed better and had been in B&W i would have felt differently?

Ink, definitely let me know how your book comes out when you see it.

[Juggertha]

I'm doing up a book here next month... Will let ya know how it works out for me here.

[Inkthinker]

I think they let you have a choice on paper weight, and cheaper paper is cheaper. I'm using 60# myself, but I'm also publishing a book which is meant to act as a companion to another publisher's material, so I chose to match their standards.

If I were publishing a comic, I might choose to go with something like a newsprint stock if it meant I could get my cost/unit down enough... I've got to hand off 20% to the retailer (that's 20% of sale price, not 20% after printing cost). So if my book were $10, I'd get $8, and I think $4 of that is a recoup of the initial printing investment. Not too bad, but I could easily see the appeal of getting that unit cost down to $3 or so. Not sure if I would DO it ('cause I believe in the long-term benefits of quality over short-term returns), but I can understand it.

-EDIT-

My mistake, Ka-Blam does not offer paper options. Their site says it's 50# high bright.

Hm. I filled out the Ka-Blam form for a magazine-sized book at my specs, and unless they're including the shipping I think M&G is cutting me a slightly better deal ($3.92/unit vs. $4.07) on better paper. BUT, I can't promise you that I'm not getting a bit of a deal 'cause I'm hooked up with one of their other clients.

Still, let's see what I get in a couple weeks when I get to Indy.

[amadarwin]

I'm doing a print job with McNaughton & Gunn (my first!)

Is there a particular reason we're only hearing of this now? I'm surprised there wasn't any heads up from you....or am I jumping the gun?

[Inkthinker]

Well, I don't actually like you guys very much.

KIDDING.

It was all very spur of the moment. It's a collection of my work for Crafty Games over that last 5 years, focused on 3 books. I wrote and assembled the whole thing in like, 6 days, and then spent another 3-4 editing (and STILL some shit got past me. This is why real editors are important). It went to print two days ago.

Technically, this is the first public time I've mentioned. So you ARE the first to know!

It's also not comics (though I guess the artwork is in a comics-suitable style), and as I mentioned it's a VERY short run, limited edition kinda thing. And lastly, until after Gen-Con there's no way to purchase one just yet (unless you're attending Gen-Con in Indianaopolis this August 16-19, in which case I suggest you come on down and buy two). When I can sell 'em from home or through my retailer, I'll tell everyone about it.

[Teratophile]

Ink, How did this turn out?

[Inkthinker]

So-so. The images had a definite screen tone that was discernible at close examination but not at reading length, but I think this was a product of the printer's processing of the PDF (the PDF file does not create the same degree of screen).

The book did fairly well at the convention I think (sold enough of the stock that I made back the cost of the print job) but still, I feel the print job should have been finer.

On a related note, I picked up an art book by Vinod Rams which was quite fine, though a little dark. And that book was printed by KaBlam, so I think I might try going with them next time.

If you want to see my book for yourselves, I still have 5 copies available from me personally (comes with a sig and a sketch) or you can pick 'em up from Crafty Games.

[Teratophile]

That helps a lot!