If we do not have all the specifications we need on your quote request, we will either call and ask for the missing information or, if it seems obvious, we'll make an assumption and then spell it out when we send the quote. When the copy comes in, you should reconfirm those earlier specifications and then clearly point out any changes that may have been made. Also, if you feel the price may be affected, it's not a bad idea to ask the printer to confirm the new price to you. They could call you with the price before proceeding or else start the job and confirm the new price in the mail. If you do ask for a price confirmation, it should be done by the printer the day the job arrives so it won't hold up production.
Sending the specification sheet with the order is good insurance that the printer will produce what you want. I have seen mistakes made when the publisher sent his copy in and assumed everything was clearly understood but didn't reconfirm what he wanted. Twice in the last year we have produced books in the wrong trim size because of changes the publisher thought we knew about.
As a further check to insure things get done properly, we send out a confirmation of specifications the day we start the job in production. This confirmation again lists all the specifications as we understand them. It tells you when we will send proofs if you requested them and also when we anticipate shipping the finished books.
It is always a good idea to read that confirmation over to be sure we interpreted everything properly. We have some customers who actually check each specification on the confirmation and mail it back to us saying all is well.
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You could use 7 x I 0" stock for the 5 x 7" size and just cut it in two but then the grain would not be parallel to the spine.
Printing and binding against the grain is, we believe, unacceptable in case bound books and a bit questionable in perfect bound books. The spine of a book printed against the grain will not accept glues as well as it should and the binding will not be strong. In addition, the natural curl of the page will be across the page and this is the opposite of accepted manufacturing procedures.
One solution is, if you have an order that will use at least 4000 lbs. of paper, it can be ordered specially, with the correct grain, at an additional cost of just $.02/lb.
For trim sizes smaller than 5 x 7", the production difficulties escalate. There are several problems producing those small books.
The first of these is that the signatures can be too small to stand easily in the gathering machine and the jigs that hold them upright may have to be moved. Once they come out of the gatherer, they go on a conveyor belt and can go into the three knife trimmer cock-eyed. Finally, the three knife blades don't adjust easily to sizes smaller than 5 x 7" and the set up time here is much longer than normal. Thus ... 5 x 7" is not an efficient size but sizes smaller than 5 x 7" become very inefficient.
On the other end of the spectrum, 9 x 12" books are another size we do not stock paper for. For case bound books in that size, unless your book would require 4000 lbs. of paper so it could be obtained with a special order, we would likely decline to bid on it. If it is a perfect bound book, we could print that size against the grain, if that is what you wanted.
9x 12" is large enough that weakened perfect binding should not be a problem but there is still the inconvenience of a book that doesn't want to open as easily as it should and the natural curl runs opposite its normal direction.
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