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Take Control Print-on-Demand Service
Want to print your ebook, but frustrated with the speed of your printer, or wish the result was better formatted for paper and nicely covered and bound? If that's the case for you, you can now purchase a number of our titles via a print-on-demand service.
Although we recommend purchasing the ebook first and then ordering a print-on-demand copy by clicking Check for Updates on the first page, you can now purchase just the print version if that's what you want. The price is the same whether you buy just the print version or the ebook and an accompanying print copy, but print-only purchasers won't be able to check for or download updates to the text.
Depending on the popularity of the service, we'll be adding other ebooks to the print-on-demand list soon. If you have a request, let us know.
More Info
If you already own an ebook, this print service enables you to avoid using your own paper and ink when printing an ebook. The bound book is far more elegant and easier to use than loose sheets, having it printed for you is easier than baby-sitting your printer through printing hundreds of pages and replacing ink cartridges, and the overall quality will likely be higher. On the downside, the print service is slightly more expensive because of the costs of binding, providing a cover, and shipping. And it takes longer to receive your printed book than it does for you to print it on your own printer. (But of course, you have the ebook to read for instant gratification!)
Some salient facts:
- Pricing: The pricing of the print copies takes into account the cost of the ebook, so if you are buying the print version from an ebook's Check for Updates page, the price won't include the cover price of the ebook. Expect to pay $10-$15 for the black-and-white version, plus shipping (various shipping options are available). The exact price is based on page count and includes $0.25 that we'll be donating to a worthy charity that's nice to trees.
- Look and feel: The print copies are scaled to a 7" x 9" trim size (18 x 23 cm) to reduce the font size to what's expected in print, have laminated color covers, and use wire-o bindings so they lie flat on your desk (or can be folded back entirely). They're printed double-sided, and are based on a slightly different PDF file in order to make the appearance more sensible for print and to ensure the highest possible graphics quality. See below for pictures.
- Color or black and white? As the pictures below show, you can choose a black-and-white version that looks very good (and has a color cover), or you can pick the utterly gorgeous color version. The cost of printing in color is about twice as much, though, so we've left the choice up to you.
- Who does the printing? We're using a print-on-demand company called QOOP. That means ordering takes place in a different online shopping cart system than we use for our ebooks. Honestly, the ordering process is a little clumsy and there's an annoying Terms of Service you must agree to even though it doesn't apply to you, but we're working with QOOP to improve the cart.
Print-on-Demand Pictures
The pictures below should give you a sense of what your printed ebook will look like, both on its own and in comparison to a printout from an inkjet printer.
1: Here's what the loose pages might look like if printed single-sided on a normal inkjet printer. They'd be 8.5" x 11", would have 14 point text, and might suffer from a dying print cartridge.
2: Compare the alternative: here you can see the cover of the print-on-demand version, the interior of the color print-on-demand version, and the equivalent pages printed on a normal inkjet printer.
3: This picture shows the difference between a representative page printed on an inkjet printer and the same page in the print-on-demand color version.
4: Here you can see the front cover (which is always in color) and interior of the color print-on-demand version. Note the binding, smaller size (7" x 9"), and although you can't see it in this picture, nicer paper.
5: Finally, here's the difference between the black-and-white and color interiors in the print-on-demand version. The yellow and blue turn into light grays in the black-and-white version, and the paper used for the black-and-white version isn't as glossy.
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Readers Speak
"I am very impressed with your product. It worked flawlessly (and almost instantly.) On the scale of Web commerce, you guys get a 10 out of 10!" –DW
"Well done for making the ebooks screen friendly. That's so rare." –ES
"Take Control is one of the great publication ideas of the Internet age." –CF
"Take Control ebooks get straight As—they're authoritative, accessible, and affordable." –ET
"Congratulations on the next step in publishing!" –MW
"The experience of buying a book and receiving a free update is new to me and quite marvelous!" –CP
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