Road Trip to the Printer

From state highways to county roads to gravel lanes, a recent trip to our new printer did not disappoint and I can’t wait to share the details!

A few weeks ago we got word that the first run of books for Hope’s soon-to-be-launched I Saw Bigfoot book was complete. Rather than have the books shipped to us, Hope and I jumped at the chance to go pick up the books so we could meet our new printer, Laura, in person.

The morning air was crisp, and we sipped our hot coffees from our yeti mugs as we settled in for the 75-minute drive to our newly-found local printer, Lakeside Press. Conversation was as easy as the drive down the empty two-lane highway. In no time at all, we connected with Highway 71 S and turned on to Highway 7 to head closer to the little city of Blomkest. However, rather than turn the direction given by the green destination sign, we followed our Apple Maps to the gravel road going the opposite the direction.

As we turned off one gravel road onto another, the lane narrowed and our curiosity grew. Finally, we were notified that we had arrived at our destination. Turning down the quaint gravel driveway, a sense of satisfaction settled in as we took in the modest farm site with its worn, rounded silos facing a modern-looking shed.

As I’ve mentioned before, we are taking steps to part ways with Amazon printing, and what we experienced as we approached this family-owned business operating out of a shed on their farm site already felt more personal. I put the van in park, and we walked through the door of Lakeside Press.

We were greeted with a friendly smile from Laura. She had our books all boxed up for us. I appreciated the extra copy she left outside the box for us to review to ensure that we were pleased with the final outcome. Once again, the printing quality and attention to detail impressed us. We enjoyed learning about how Laura and her husband both found themselves in the printing industry and how they ended up moving their printing press to the farm. Their services have a nationwide reach, and the quality of their printing seems unrivaled when compared to Amazon.

Let me expand on what impressed me with the service from our new printer:

• Personal attention to detail: It gives me great confidence knowing that an experienced individual is inspecting the print quality of the final product. Too often when it comes to Amazon’s KDP Printing, I have received books with images askew, irregular margins, inconsistent color saturation and more. I’ve had to return dozens of copies because they did not measure up to my expectations of a product that I would be happy selling.

• Superior Packaging: When I opened the boxes of books, I immediately thought, “Now this is how books should be packaged!” First, the books were double-boxed. There was no extra space in the box for the books to move around, which avoids unnecessary page bends and cover creases. And my favorite part? The books were shrink wrapped in bundles of 10. Why do I love this? Again, it avoids unnecessary damage during shipping or transporting, but conveniently, our inventory stays in tiptop shape until we ship out our orders. Contrast this with the subpar packing from Amazon. I never know in what shape to expect our books to arrive. Again, I’ve had to return books because they have had too much room inside the box to get shuffled about during shipping which causes pages to get bent. (See images below.)

• Satisfaction guaranteed: Our printer told us that they want to assure that the books they are printing are of great quality. If they find a printing error caused by them, they will personally fix the issue and make it right. This tells me that I can confidently place our book orders knowing that the print quality will be inspected and approved by human eyes. And that makes us very happy!

Now that we have the books in hand, we are just a month away from the launch! A few things need to get buttoned up before I Saw Bigfoot will be available. In the meantime, make sure you are the first to hear about the launch date by adding your name to the preorder list below.