A Brief Overview of Printing TechnologiesMost books are printed using one of three methods: offset/lithographic, digital, or POD.It’s imperative that you choose the right method for each project. Choosing the wrongmethod could cost you lost profits or leave you with boxes full of books you can’t sell.Traditional (Offset/Lithographic) Printing is the technology that has been used to printbooks for decades. Traditional publishers use this for the majority of titles. While offsetprinting has the highest initial cost, it also produces the lowest cost per book when run inquantities. Offset is best used for longer print runs (generally above 1000). Offsetprinting allows you to add specialty cover treatments like matte lamination, foil, andembossing.Digital Printing produces shorter print runs (1000 and under) most cost effectively, andis the best option for printing smaller initial quantities to test the market with a book.With digital printing, the per-book cost is higher than offset but lower that POD. Digitalprinting is also ideal for printing Advance Review Copies (ARCs) for pre-publicationbook reviews.Print on Demand (POD) produces books one at a time, as they are ordered. While thisbrings the start-up costs down, the higher cost of producing books one at a time canprevent you from making any real profit, as these titles may need to be priced abovecomparable books on the market.

A Basic Publishing GlossaryBasic Copyedit- before the book is typeset, this checks for spelling and grammar errors,incorrect word usage, missing and incorrect punctuation, and consistency throughoutyour manuscript. We highly recommend every manuscript has at least a Basic Copyeditbefore it is typeset.Page Design/Typesetting- the process of formatting the book’s interior pages usingspecialized design software that ensures your book will look and print beautifully.Proofread- after a book has been typeset, it needs to be verified against the manuscript toensure no errors have been introduced, and all fonts, styles and formatting are consistent.A proofread is included in our typesetting cost.PDF- Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) allows files to look and print the sameon different computers. Although a press-ready PDF file allows you to have your bookprinted virtually anywhere, it limits the changes that can be made without having to re-typeset your book. When selecting a publishing services company, make sure they willprovide you with the files for your artwork. Forever Books provides files upon request- atno charge to you.Copyright- Literary Rights Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws ofmost countries to the authors of “original works” including literary, dramatic, musical,artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both publishedand unpublished works and is in effect as soon as your manuscript has been written.Registering your copyright with the government is an additional measure that can helpprotect your work in the case of an infringement.ISBN- An International Standard Book Number is a 13-digit identification number whichuniquely identifies a book. Books that will be sold through bookstores (online or offline)require an ISBN. The owner of the ISBN is the publisher of the book.Barcode- Most books include a scannable barcode on the back cover. Books sold throughbook stores will have a Bookland/EAN bar code. This barcode contains the ISBN and(optionally) the retail price.