8 Factors That Determine How Long It Takes to Print Your Own Book

Once you have your book written and ready to publish, you want to know how long it will take to print to get the book in your hands. Many factors determine how long it takes to print your own book. Generally speaking, the number of options selected for the publishing process significantly impacts how long it will take to print the book. Here are a few of the factors that influence the amount of time it takes to print your book:

Pallet of books printed by a great self-publishing book company

1 – Number of Copies

The larger the number of copies you want to be printed, the longer it will take to print them. Twenty-five books will take a lot less time to print than 1000 books.

2 – Book Binding Type

A softcover perfect-bound bookbinding takes anywhere from 25% to 50% of the time it takes to print the same book as a hardcover book. For example, at InstantPublisher, a perfect-bound softcover book with a color cover takes between 7 to 10 business days, where a hardcover takes about 20 business days to print the same book.

3 – Black & White or Color Print

Adding color to a book, whether this is color to a book cover, or colored illustrations within the book adds time to the production process.

4 – User-Provided Content

Suppose the user provides a printer-ready manuscript, including the cover, all illustrations, and other content to the book printer’s specifications. In that case, it will take less time to get the manuscript ready to transform into a printed book. On the other hand, if you do not follow the book printer’s exact specifications, it could take a lot longer to fix the errors and get the manuscript ready to print.

5 – Illustrations

Color illustrations add time and cost to the book’s printing costs. If you need to hire an artist to help create the graphics, you will add the amount of time it takes for the illustrator to complete the work to your satisfaction to your publishing process.

6 – Time of the Year

Some times of the year are business than others for printing books. If the printer is very busy with many projects, it may take the printer awhile to find more help to print the books, juggle their schedule, and get it done.

7 – Book Manuscript Design and Layout

If your book manuscript and layout have already been completed and meet the self-publishing company’s specifications; In that case, you will cut down on the review time for your book significantly and get it through the printing process a lot faster than if you have the printing company lay out the book manuscript for you.

8 – Cover Design

If you design your own book cover, or hire an artist that is not associated with the publisher; In that case, you will save time by avoiding the need to select an available book cover template or waiting on the printer’s preferred cover designer to get you on the schedule to get the cover design done.

InstantPublisher Prints World-Class Self-Published Books

We are a full-service self-publishing book printer that can take your camera-ready book manuscript or work with our internal designers and manuscript layout specialists to get the book printed and in your hands as fast as possible. For more information, call 1-800-259-2592, fill out our online contact form or send an email to questions@instantpublisher.com.

15 Elements of Front Matter to Consider When Setting Up the Book Manuscript Format

What is front matter exactly? In the publishing industry, the front matter is the content in the front of the book before the book’s main content begins.

Why is Front Matter Important?

Readers expect every book to include appropriately formatted front matter. Failing to include the front matter for a book signifies that the author is an amateur or merely unprofessional. When designing the final draft of your self-published manuscript, the best approach is to design the front matter the same way that traditional publishers do it. To do this successfully, you need to know what each section of the front matter does and what it is used for.

Front matter book manuscript format

1 – Praise for the Book or Author

In almost every book printed by a traditional publisher, the first page inside the front cover is a page of pull quotes praising the book. The praise page is something many readers will look at before deciding to purchase the book. This is why getting blurbs or quotes praising the author or the book is so important. This page provides “social proof” about the book or author.

2 –About the Author

Front matter does not always include an About the Author page. Sometimes this page is not included in the front matter and gets moved to the back matter. But if it is placed upfront, it appears on the flipside of the Praise for the Author page.

3 –Other Books by Page

If there is no About the Author page, then the Other Books By page is on the flip side of the Praise for the Book or Author page. This lists the other books the author has published.

4 – Title Page

This page lists the title and author’s name for the book–usually in large print in the center of the page.

5 – Copyright Page

Also known as the Imprint or Credit page, this page contains the book’s copyright notice, publication date, edition number, publication information, catalog data, legal notices, and ISBN. This page also may include credit information for design, editing, illustration, and production (when applicable).

6 – Dedication

Not all books have them, but when they do, they are typically on the page opposite the Copyright page.

7 – Epigraph

The epigraph is a quotation that the author includes because it has some special meaning to the book or the author. It is usually inserted on the page opposite the Table of Contents or opposite the book’s first page.

8 – Table of Contents

The TOC is a list of all the chapters or major sections of the book, commonly used in non-fiction works and occasionally in fiction works.

9 –List of Figures

Occasionally included in complex non-fiction books, the List of Figures provides the titles and page numbers for each illustration in the book.

10 – List of Tables

The List of Tables is similar to the List of Figures above. It lists the page number and title for any reference tables included in non-fiction books.

11 – Foreword

A Foreword is a letter of sorts about the book (or author) written by someone else.

12 – Preface

Prefaces often are confused with Forwards, but the main difference between them is that the author writes the Preface for the work.

13 – Acknowledgments

The Acknowledgments page is where the author thanks those who helped with the book’s creation and production.

14 – Introduction

An Introduction provides a high-level overview of the book that often includes its goals, context, and organization for the reader.

15 – Prologue

A Prologue is like an Introduction to a work of fiction. It often sets the story’s scene or provides critical background information about the tale from a character’s point-of-view within the story itself.

Providing properly formatted front-end matter is what readers expect when opening a new book, and with high-quality manuscript

InstantPublisher Delivers High-Quality Book Publishing Services

InstantPublisher has been a leader for independent, self-published authors for many years now. We know how to print your book so it is indistinguishable from a traditionally published book. Our years of experience with book printing services allow us to print high-quality books for your readers. To learn more, contact us at 1-800-259-2592, fill out our online contact form, or send an email to questions@instantpublisher.com to get more information about our book publishing services.