OK, tonight I did some back of the envelope calculations on what it would cost to print, cut and bind my own books. I also got a quote from a printing company for them doing the same thing.

Taking into account the cost of the paper, the ink and the glue, it basically comes out to about $5 – $6 per book if I do it totally on my own. I could get that down another 30% or so if I buy a used laser printer, laser toner printing costs are a fraction of inkjet printing costs (which is why your office likely has a laser copier/printer instead of an inkjet one).

If I take it to a printer, its going to cost in the neighborhood of $22 per book to have it printed, cut, stacked, and bound.

So doing it myself will cut the cost by about 75%. Plus I would only need to print, cut and bind the copies I actually sell. lol, as if I’m gonna sell anything.

It would be fairly easy to set up a separate printer just for printing books. In fact we have two extra printers laying around the house right now that would work just fine. Plus I have extra computers that could be dedicated to printing.

The most difficult part of doing it myself would be the cutting of the pages. A paper cutter capable of cutting 200 pages of standard printer/copier paper costs about $300, which is about what it would cost me to have a printer cut and stack about 150 books.

Hmm…. I wonder what sort of cottage industry you could set up printing your own books or pamphlets…

This is totally doable you know….