Book Printing in China - FAQs

You may be wondering about what is involved in book printing in China. What is the quality like? Can I get my book printing questions answered correctly and in a timely manner? Are the cost savings worth the risk of printing in a foreign country?

Our FAQs about overseas book printing overseas will dispel the myths you may have about using a Chinese printing service for your book. Callawind also prints books in North America and handlesprint on demand (POD) books.

uprintingplus contains other products and information you need, so please check it out.

For many years, we have been successfully partnering with superior printing companies in China to deliver beautiful books for our clients.

Let us put your mind at ease about China book printing. Below we address typical questions so you can focus on preparing your book, and leave all the overseas book printing details to us.

Why should I consider printing in China?

There are several reasons why our clients print a book in China. The main reason is price. Offset book printing in North America is expensive. This is especially true if you are printing a full-color, hardcover book with coated paper. China printing is usually 40% less expensive than book printing in Canada or the US. Even if you add shipping, duties, and sales tax (where applicable), you still save considerably.

Overseas book printers can do a variety of special binding and printing effects at very little extra cost compared to North American printers.

What level of book printing quality can I expect?

This is the biggest concern that clients have when book printing overseas. You assume that since you are getting a great price on book printing, the quality will be low. In fact, you receive as good or often even better quality by printing overseas. The machinery used by overseas book printers is virtually the same as what is used in North America. Not only have overseas book printers invested in state-or-the-art equipment, they put a lot of time and effort making sure that employees are carefully trained on the equipment being used. Finally, employees are encouraged to take pride in their work and quality control is of the utmost importance.

Will I need to communicate directly with the overseas book printer? How is their customer service?

You do not need to communicate directly with the overseas book printer. Callawind does that for you. We have dealt with production and sales support at our chosen overseas book printers for many years. We know them and they know us. We want to provide the best customer service to our clients. That’s what we look for in an overseas book printing partner. When we need information from our overseas book printers, we get answers most often within 24 hours. The staff we deal with is friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, and will go above and beyond to make us and our clients happy. The work ethic is truly impressive.

Do I need to arrange for customs brokerage myself to ship books to North America or Europe?

No, our overseas book printer will prepare all the paperwork and coordinate the book shipment with their export department. In addition, the export department will work in conjunction with their customs broker representative in each country.

Book shipments are typically quoted as “DDP” (delivery and duty paid), and included in our book production quotes.

For book shipments to the US, you will need to provide your EIN number.

For book shipments to Canada, you will need to obtain a GST/HST business number and register as a Canadian importer. Visit your province’s government website to easily obtain these numbers. 

If I have already have a customs broker, can I arrange for brokerage and book delivery myself?

Ye, you could if you wanted to.

How long does book printing in China take?

On average, figure about 8 to 10 weeks. Usually, a book can be printed and bound in about 4 to 5 weeks from the time printing files are submitted. This includes generating and reviewing the printer proofs, through to printing and binding the finished books.

Depending on where you are located, shipping on average is another 4 to 5 weeks.

How does payment work? Who do I pay? In what currency?

We take care of paying the overseas printer (in US dollars). A 50% deposit on the total production cost will be payable at the time of signing the production agreement and starting the work. The remaining balance (including any additional chargeable costs and supplies) will be payable upon the client’s approval of advance printed and bound books. Please note that overseas book printers will not ship the bulk of books until they are paid in full.

Payment options include: bank wire transfer, check, or credit card (through PayPal, where a 2.9% surcharge will apply).

Isn’t shipping books from overseas expensive?

Relatively speaking, no. Book shipments are loaded onto container ships, and the cost per square foot is inexpensive.

What is book overrun and underrun?

It is standard practice for the book printing industry to deliver either more books (overrun) or less books (underrun) than you have ordered. Depending on the printer, the overrun or underrun will be 5 to 10% of the order quantity.

Usually, there is a small overrun of books. Printers tend to print more copies than ordered in case some books are damaged during production. For example, if you order 3,000 books,with a 5% overrun, you may receive and be invoiced for up to 150 extra books. These overrun books are typically priced at a lower cost per book. Underruns occur less often—when there are more damaged books than the printer planned for.

For more information, please visit Photo Book Printing China.

Working on a cookbook or children's book? We have a separate resources section for each: cookbook publishing and children's book publishing.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions about book printing in China. 

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In about , a client of mine asked me to help him figure out how to print a catalog in China because printing in the USA was cost-prohibitive. A few years later, another client asked me to help her figure out how to print a faux leather journal in China. Since that time, more and more of my clients have printed journals or books in China, with me helping them to bridge some knowledge gaps and connect them with known printers. Here are a few “good to know”s about printing in China or overseas that could potentially save you thousands of dollars. Contact me with any more questions, or to work together on designing a book that you want to have printed overseas. And don’t miss previous posts about journal design and printing:

• Designing and Producing a Journal

• Planning Content and Preparing Files for a Journal

• Producing a Journal in a Small Quantity

• Marketing Ideas for Journal Creators

• Case Study - Journal Design for Podcaster and Content Creator

Researching multiple printers can be worthwhile, in particular if you expect to print your journal or book many times.

That said, researching various printers and getting pricing, timelines, shipping costs, etc. from each one takes a lot of time. This is why a lot of my clients appreciate simply being connected with one of the printers that I have worked with before. (While I cannot guarantee that they are the cheapest or fastest, I do know they have proven to be reliable.) One of my clients connected with the printer I recommended but also researched and contacted other printers. She estimated that this additional work took her at least 20 hours—budget that into your project time/costs!

You can ask for a discount to the pricing the printer presents to you.

This does not mean that you will get your discount. But you can ask!

Think about packaging ahead of time.

Do you want your journals to be shipped in sealed plastic bags? Inside a custom cardboard box? Or inside a paper envelope? Do you want the the overseas printer to provide the packaging or will you buy it more locally? Think about this when asking for pricing and design. The printer can often also provide images of boxes or bags they often produce. Here are some example images that one printer sent to me.

Always ask for printed proofs.

In my opinion, it’s too risky to order a journal or book from China after only approving a PDF proof (via ). It may cost about +$200 to get one printed copy of your journal airmailed to you, but it so worth it. I did have one client who found out some pages from his book were missing or out of order, and finding that problem in the printed proof saved him tons of money.

Rounded corners seem to help keep the books from getting as dented. Bags help to keep them from getting scuffed.

One of my clients ordered hardcover journals with square corners and PU (faux leather journals) with rounded corners and noticed that the rounded corner journals had fewer dings and dents. It’s also good to have each individual journal packaged in some kind of bag or wrapper to prevent scuffing during transport.

Ask for a picture of your products before your pay the final fee.

Often the printer will ask for 50% payment before printing begins and 50% after the books have been printed and are being shipped. You can ask for pictures or videos your final books on the pressroom floor or in the shipping area before they ship, just to be sure the final product has really been completed. This is just a small safety measure for you.

Prepare for printing, production and delivery to take longer than you expect.

Printing in China is not for people who are in a hurry. Maybe after the first or second edition of your book, when all the kinks have been worked out, you could place an order in the timeline the printer gives to you. But until then, there will always be some surprises or delays.

Order more books than you think you need.

If you absolutely must have a certain number of journals, order a few extras, or plan on about 10-20% fewer “perfect” copies than what you ordered. 

Learning about shipping options might save you a lot of money.

The printers I have worked with will usually offer an option to ship right to to your door, where they cover the duty and get the books through customs for you. However, if you want to take a more hands-on approach, you can find a shipping service yourself and may save money.

Turn your “problems” into creative marking opportunities.

Printing (whether overseas or locally) presents challenges. One of my clients had a problematic order. While the printer I recommended to her did reimburse her for the damaged books, she was still stuck with a pile of journals with sloppy glue, scuffed covers, etc. She turned this into a marketing opportunity, offering the damaged journals for free or cheap to her online following: a creative way to get her journal out there, make some new connections (who doesn’t want a free journal?) and save wastage.

Plan a lot of lead time for marketing.

While you could ask a digital artist / renderer to mock up images of journals before you receive them, I suggest waiting until the final products arrive to really begin marketing them with actual product photos. You can have all your marketing set up and ready to roll once you can get the photos, ie: book your photographer or have your marketing campaign planned.

Make a plan for distribution ahead of time.

I am often asked about distribution options for journals, for people who don’t want to stock them and ship them themselves. I have heard of Flowspace and Shippo in the USA—maybe this gives you a bit of a head start. Some people send their product to an Amazon warehouse and have it distributed from there.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Creative Packaging Solution. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.