Stitching Costs

Hi,

We've been printing a 32pp self cover magazine, which has just dropped in size to 28pp. We outsource our binding and stitching and as the publication has now changed from a 2 x 16pp book to 3 sections (16pp + 8pp + 4pp) both our printing and binding costs have increased dramatically. Our client cannot get his head around the fact that a smaller publication will cost him(and us) more to produce. He threatens to pull the job from us, claiming other printers will charge him less - how can this be?? Just wondering if anyone has any clues to what might be solution here,

Thanks for reading, Johno

 

At 32 pages how about going with a cheap saddle stitched option if they want to do it on a tight budget?

 

count the stitches and not the sheets

Hi there, I'm a commercial printer and from my experiance I can tell you that printers and trade binders do not calculate multi-binding (Gather, Fold, Stitch and Face trim) based only on the number of sheets in the job. Instead we use a formula that is based on the number of sheets for gather and fold and the number of finished books for stitch and trim. As an example I'll use a run legnth of 1000.

Old Job:
1000 x 8 signatures (32 page) 8000 sheets @ 10/M gather & fold - 80.00
1000 finished books @ .06/ book to stitch and face trim- - 60.00
Total 140.00

New Job (same folmula)
Sec 1
1000 x 4 sinatures, 4000 @ 10.00/M 40.00 + 60.00 stitch & trim 100.00
Sec 2
1000 x 2 signatures, 20-00 + 60.00 80.00
Sec 3 fold only (only 1 signature) 10.00
Total 190.00

In my example on the new job I've included a face trim on sec 2, but if you are trying to low ball it you could delete it as there is not much of a noticable creep with just 2 sigs. Even with the delete the new job would still be 170.00or 30.00 more than the old job.

As for how another "printer" can do it cheaper, I'd guess that it's a cheapo joint that through shear inexpearance charge only by the copy when they run and in-line booklet finisher. In the end this will bite them in the *** as production speeds drop to a snails pace when using an in-line finisher. Also most in-line booklet finishers do not face trim and that will make for a crappy job. Ask your customer to check to see if face trimming is included in the job.

If you would like to do your own multi-binding in house look for a used off-line booklet maker such as the interlake Stitch n Fold. You can face trim with
a small used lever or power cutter. You should be able to pick up both on Ebay for 2000.00 to 3000.00.

Hope this helps!