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Short Run Book Printing: Add a CD in a Box or Sleeve

A commercial printing client of mine wants to produce 50 or 100 copies of a 352-page family history book. For those beyond the family who don’t want to pay the somewhat expensive unit-cost for such a short press run (approximately $70.00 per copy), my client wants to provide a CD of the book.

I just received prices for this component of the job. The CD ranges from about $4.00 to $5.00 for a 50-copy to 150-copy press run, and the accompanying 4-page booklet ranges from $2.70 to $4.20 for the same number of copies, including assembly of the job.

Since it is such an inexpensive portion of the entire project, I wanted to suggest that you give thought to adding a CD when you produce a print book.

Things to Consider When Adding a CD to Your Print Book

A CD duplication run involves several components. First you will need a PDF of the print book. It need not be as high resolution as the press-ready PDF from which your custom printing supplier will produce the hard copy of the job. In fact, a 72dpi copy (a copy optimized for screen viewing) will suffice. This is your master copy.
Consider whether you will need CD duplication or DVD duplication. Your commercial printing vendor can tell you. It will be based on the amount of data you will need to save on the disc. Unless you are adding multimedia capabilities (such as sound or video), I would think that a CD would suffice (700 MB of data), particularly since you will be saving a lower resolution version of the InDesign print book file as your master PDF file.
Will you want to insert the CD into a sleeve attached to the interior back cover? If you can’t immediately picture this, look at computer books in a bookstore. Many of these include a CD of the book in a plastic sleeve attached to the inside back cover.
Or will you want to insert the CD into a plastic jewel case? If so, you might want to print an additional 4-page slip sheet describing the CD. This may be helpful, since a CD in a jewel case will travel separately from the book, unlike the plastic sleeve that’s actually attached to the book.
If you produce a booklet to go in the jewel case, here are some starting points. You might want to use a 100# gloss text sheet, print it via offset or digital technology, with bleeds, and have it folded into a four-page, 5” x 5” print book.
Make sure your custom printing supplier includes a label on the CD. My personal preference would be for the printer to inkjet the label directly onto the plastic CD. This way it won’t come off and get stuck in your optical drive.
Make sure that if you go ahead and order the CD, jewel case, and print booklet, your custom printing supplier includes the cost of assembly (affixing the label to the CD and then inserting the CDs and booklets into the jewel cases).
Consider how many copies you will need. In the case of my client, the options will be 50, 100, or 150 copies, all of which would necessitate printing the CD booklet digitally. If you have a longer press run, you may want to explore offset printing the booklet.

Benefits of Adding a CD to Your Book

If you include a CD with your print book you will provide the reader with a number of benefits.

Readers who get both the print book and the CD will have two ways to access the “content.” Some people prefer ink on paper and like to read a book from cover to cover. Others will benefit from the “search” or “find” functions available on PDFs. Those researching specific topics in your book can jump from one reference point to another quickly in this way. Then they can either read the pages on their computer or print them out on a laser printer. Of course, they can also email the PDF to their tablet computer.
Beyond the “search” function and the ability to read the content on paper or online, a CD will increase the value of your print book project if you choose to add hyperlinks to additional media. This will probably require a larger storage medium (a DVD rather than a CD). If you include additional text resources, photos, interviews (MP3 audio only or sound plus video), you will provide a multifaceted learning experience. Your print book combined with additional text, sound, photos, and video will give your readers many more ways to experience and learn from the content you are providing. And this added value can be reflected in the price you charge.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2013 at 12:57 am and is filed under Book Printing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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