It is a good question, what will your print company do for you as a part of their regular services? This is also a good question to ask. I, of course, can only speak for what Blitzprint does as a normal part of their service, and I have outlined some frequently asked questions below.

Will you tell me if there is something wrong with my files?
If there is something obvious, like your book files are set for a different size than you have been quoted, if your pages are missing bleeds when they need them,  your spine is the wrong size, so on, and so forth. We will sometimes catch other issues, like if you have your black and white images set to CMYK instead of grayscale, but we don’t guarantee that we will catch that. Our main concern is that your files will print and create the book that you were quoted for, so, those are the details that we look for.

Will you tell me if my sections are in the wrong order?
This is not something that we would look for. We don’t question the sequence in which you set your sections of your book up, as this is your book, and we will assume that it is set up the way that you want it to be, if that is how you have sent your files to us. Even if we are doing typesetting or formatting work for you, we will not question the order of your chapters, etc, because we will assume that your files are as you want them to be. This is something that would be tackled by your editor.

Will you tell me if I have grammatical or spacing errors?
If we notice something significant, or by chance, we will definitely mention it to you, but this is not something that we look for. This also falls under the jurisdiction of an editor.

Will you tell me if my photos are not going to print out well?
If we are doing a proof for you, there is a good chance that our prepress department will take a look at your photos and let me know of any concerns that they have. However, this is something that we try to make an effort to do, but not something that we charge for. As such, we can’t guarantee that we will catch every issue with photos. For that reason, I always strongly suggest a printed proof for books that contain images or any sort of grayscale or gradient.

Can I see a copy of my book before I go to print?
We will gladly send you a proof. A PDF proof is included in your pricing, but a printed proof would be additional, and something that you would need to request specifically.

Can you put an ISBN barcode on my back cover?
Yes, we definitely can, and yes we will, at no additional charge to you. However, with that being said, you must mention that you are requiring a barcode to be added at the time of placing your order.

Do you have any questions about your print company that I missed? I will be glad to answer them in a future post. Send them to me at networking@blitzprint.com.