It is a problem to estimate a book printing job. There are many factors and conditions for these. Successful book printing company is founded on contracting good books that sell, and each new book is a business in it own right contributing to the business as a whole.
The decision to print a book is the crux of the whole enterprise. If the mistakes are made here, all efforts of management to control overheads will come to nothing. Books which fail to achieve their target sales and profitability must be counterbalanced by equal profits from other books which exceed their target. We said earlier that in order to gain approval for a project, editors must prepare a costing to prove the profitability. There are varying degrees of sophistication in this process, and electronic templates are now in widespread use. What is important, however, is to understand the principles behind a new title costing. The editor is not simply finding out a cost for the book, but comparing revenue and costs to maximize profitability, while working within the price constraints of the market and the format chosen.
