Print-on-demand hardcover books

Cafe Society
1

I wanted a print copy of The Maltese Falcon with the original published text and spellings (apparently some “corrections” had worked their way into the published versions over the years) and I found one that I thought was a current publisher of public domain books or something. They had both soft cover and hard cover versions, so I opted for the latter. When it arrived I discovered it was a print-on-demand book, with the printed date on it of the day after I ordered it.

Now I have no objection to that at all. The paper they used, and the typeface and page layout are fine; the text block is glued rather than sewn, but that’s okay under the circumstances. The cover material is not lavish but it is attractively designed. But they rushed the binding process so much that the hard covers were warped due to the dampness introduced when they glued the end papers to the cover, and those end papers themselves were not securely glued. Clearly they skipped the final process of putting the book into a nipping press (that’s the big press you always see with a rotating arm or wheel to squeeze the top and bottom platforms together) for a couple of hours while the glue dries. That would have resulted in straight boards/covers and end papers securely glued down. By skipping that process they made what would have been a presentable book look cheap and slapdash. I don’t know how many requests they get every day for print-on-demand hardcover books at this publisher, but if you’re going to be in the business, and charge an extra $9 for hard cover, you ought to be willing to do it properly. Hell, you can build your own nipping press, I did (from plywood, a 2x4, and a metal screw that I bought for the purpose) when I got into bookbinding.

So I wrote a review that was all about the binding, and I’m also sending them a separate email. I don’t care about the money I spent, I just hate to see books poorly made.

2

I’m imagining you’re writing as a warning to others - we don’t know if your experience is standard or singular. Perhaps proper binding costs an extra $20 - I would think so these days. I’ve received plenty of books printed-on-demand but only ever expected the softcover binding. I hope the vendors up their game when they offer hard cover, I would also have been annoyed.

3

Not a warning, I don’t know if this is a common result or not, this was my first hardcover print-to-order book. Just sharing an experience.

4

I prefer hardcover books. And I agree with your observation - Any that I’ve ordered in the past ~year?~ have been print-on-demand. And any softcover have all been print-on-demand, with the date in the back of the book.

One series of softcovers inevitably started shedding pages towards the end of the book, for all of the 9 books in the series. It was very disheartening.

5

They call that glued-up binding “Perfect Binding” in the trade. I don’t know how they can say that with a straight face.

That said, if you do it properly (basically, you fan the pages out in one direction and apply glue, then fan them in the other direction and apply glue, so that the glue isn’t just on the very edges) it can last pretty well. This probably could be (and is, with better quality books) done by machines as well as by hand. It’s a choice that cuts into the profits (or cuts into the sales, if you factor the higher cost of production into the sales price) so they don’t bother.