This is the first post on our new information hub. We built this as a place to share the things we know about book printing and self-publishing — the practical stuff that helps you make better books, and the industry context that helps you understand why we do things the way we do.
What you’ll find here
Posts will fall into four loose categories:
- Guides — practical how-tos. File preparation, ISBN basics, choosing a paper stock, working with cover designers, that kind of thing.
- Insights — industry knowledge that goes a bit deeper. ONIX metadata, distribution channels, the difference between hardback and paperback economics, why short-run printing is different from offset.
- News — what’s changed at our end. New equipment, new capabilities, new tools we’ve built.
- Stories — books we’ve printed, customers we’ve worked with, things we’ve learned along the way.
Why a hub, not a feed?
Most printing companies’ blogs are dead. The most recent post is from three years ago, the second-most-recent from five. We’re not going to post weekly — we’re a small team and we’d rather print books than write listicles — but everything we put here will earn its place. If it’s here, it’s because someone we’ve talked to needed the answer and we wanted to put it down once for everyone.
Got a question we should write about?
If there’s something you wish a printer had explained clearly somewhere, drop us a note. We genuinely use those messages to decide what to write next.
For everything else — the questions we get every week — our FAQ covers 73 of them across design, printing, quotes and shipping.