Trying to find Printing websites

[crystalfilgian]

So in short, I'm trying to find a company or website that prints books, manga or graphic novels with reasonable prices including being able to look at demos that I would pay for as well. I'm trying to print my manga and well Lulu.com and there changes doesn't suit me anymore. Since Lulu wants to keep what you make.

[GamerPrincessXI]

Amazon is a great company for printing comics. There's also this one: https://www.printninja.com/printing-products/manga-printing

[nostalgicroxas]

I'm trying to print my manga and well Lulu.com and there changes doesn't suit me anymore. Since Lulu wants to keep what you make.

Do you have a source for this? I use lulu to print my novel so I'd like to see this change you're talking about. Especially since I've officially filed everything with the copyright office in the US.

As for a place to print: ka-blam is one that's been recommended to me before.

[crystalfilgian]

From what I can recall, They can throw your book on Amazon anytime they like? something about that's part of their contract? If I am wrong, then I am wrong. I do apologize.

[nostalgicroxas]

Technically no and yes. It depends on which choice you pick when Creating the Work. There's a private (you only), Lulu Marketplace (just Lulu.com), and then the larger Marketplace (gives your book an official ISBN for free, puts it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other sites they're affiliated with). However this is strictly only if your book can be made with Amazon/ect's work. My novels specifically are a measurement size that isn't "standard" in the eyes of Amazon, so I've been blocked from releasing on their site for literal years. The closest size they have available is too small, or too large, for my purposes, and Amazon's Createspace specifically charges (for my book) about $5 more to be sold on their marketplace.

Here they talk in their ToS specifically about how they utilize the publishing platforms of sites like Amazon, without specifically naming Amazon or other shops since affiliations can change.
http://www.lulu.com/about/legal#thirdParty

[crystalfilgian]

Very interesting, I can choose to be this private and just print the books the way I want to and pay for the shipping?

I am using my cat's computer and she needs help with this, Hello my name is Full Moon.

[nostalgicroxas]

Correct. If you pick Private, I believe you can later open it up to the broader marketplace, but access to the full affiliates like Amazon & Barnes & Noble is strictly based on your book size. I think that's because it'll go through different printing companies. I purchase a few copies of my book once a year to restock what I have to sell, and one time I got a batch that wasn't wrapped in plastic inside the cardboard and had no bubblewrap of any kind and the books were damaged. One call to customer support + images, and they sent me the same number of the damaged books for free + free shipping.

[crystalfilgian]

Oh wonderful this will work very well for me! I can now print my cats books and she will be very happy. She doesn't trust the evil business suits people, but I'm letting her do this the way she wants to. But yes this is very helpful and I can get a purchased hard cover volume manga. She works in 8.5 x 11. at 300 DPI which is a pain.

Thank you so much dear. May Dimah's Moon guide you through out your journey.

[elyss]

One of the people I sub to on Patreon uses Kablam to send out comics and they look nice and have affordable prices.

[Croik]

When I did research for our Kickstarter last year we settled on Keness as the best combination of cheap + lower minimums + quality product. They were super professional and great to work with!

http://keness.com/

[joannekwan]

My friends have used Ready Comics to print their artbooks and zines!

(as an added note, I'm not as big a fan of Kablam. I've gotten other people's products by them and I find the overall paper weight to be on the light side, which I'm not keen on. But it is the cheapest alternative I believe, so if you're just starting out and want to print 50 or fewer copies you can go for it.)

[punkarsenic]

in the uk i recommend mixam as the cheapest and decent quality

in america i hear kablam is popular?

[nostalgicroxas]

From what I hear you can get discounts from kablam depending on the size of the ad for the kablam company you allow- the entire back cover, back page inside or others i think.... I recall a comic artist in an AA telling me about it when she showed me her kablam printed comic

[crystalfilgian]

I have just checked up upon the Kablam website. Sadly, 64 pages will not do it for me when it comes to the size of a graphic novel.

[StorySeamstress]

I printed my ~120 page webcomic/graphic novel through IngramSpark (6x9, standard 70 color)--that seemed to be the best price for color printing, unless you are ordering a thousand copies through someplace like printninja.

[Shanny8]

From what I hear you can get discounts from kablam depending on the size of the ad

I dont know about that. I've been printing my comics through Ka-Blam for a couple of years(4) and the discount isnt that super- it's okay...

I use Ka-Blam...and I like their interior stock. I mainly print my 24 page comic series through them; the webcomic I print through Greko Printing- their prices are a little cheaper than Ka-Blam and they have the same type discount for printing with their ad. With Ka-Blam, they only want to print the ad on the back- which was an issue with my webcomic coz I had designed a back cover for that series.

If I do get to the level where I print my comics into a collected GN format, I'd like start looking at printers who would be able to do that (stock/prices/quantity/value).

[elyss]

They beyond 64 pgs. I'm pretty sure you have to go with perfect bound for it is all, unless they changed that recently...