Some clients come to PPG wanting us to help them design and publish hardcover books they can also sell online. This is possible. But there are limitations with print-on-demand (POD) books, particularly when it comes to endsheets endpapers endleaves. You can only produce this feature using a traditional offset printing press and manual binding process. In this post, I’ll touch on why this is the case.

As you can see above, one side of each folded piece of paper is glued to the insides of the front and back covers. This is what creates endsheets. It is a careful manual binding process that must be completed by a person. As such, it can’t be done by a POD printer. Digital POD printers are designed to mechanically print and bind individual books quickly.

POD Limitations [Endsheets Endpapers Endleaves]

Here’s another POD limitation. As I discussed in a past post regarding book trim sizes, digital printers can only handle certain paper sizes and weights. Because of that, you’re limited to certain book trim sizes, binding types, and paper stocks/colours if you wish to sell POD books online (which most of us do nowadays). Digital printers simply cannot handle the thicker paper stock that is used to create printed endsheets as illustrated below.

A Possible Solution to Have it Both Ways

When it comes to your book binding options, it is possible to produce a POD case-wrapped hardcover. But you cannot print anything on the inside of POD book covers. Nor can you insert endsheets with a different (thicker) paper stock than the book’s interior pages.

If you wish to have a traditional case-wrapped hardcover book created with printed endsheets inside, you can have this. A traditional printer in your area can print it for you. You just won’t be able to sell it online. You’ll have to sell those books direct. That said, you can also hire one of our graphic designers to produce a second POD version of your book that can be sold online. It will be almost identical to the traditionally-printed book; but the interior paper will be thinner, and there will be no endsheet included. It’s up to you.

You might consider syndicating this content on your own blog. If you do, make sure to attribute the original source so neither of us gets dinged on the SEO front. You can do that by including this line at the bottom of the article: This content first appeared on the PPG Publisher’s Blog and has been republished here with permission.

As a user of this website, you are authorized only to view, copy, print, and distribute the documents on this website so long as: one (1) the document is used for informational purposes only; and two (2) any copy of the document (or portion thereof) includes the following copyright notice: Copyright © 2020 Polished Publishing Group (PPG). All rights reserved.