Advice on Printing Nature Calendars for Sale

[william_h._wiley]

Can anyone provide advice about producing calendars for sale? I want

to print 2,500 to 5,000 nature calendars in hopes of selling them

through local stores and vendors. Quotes from local printers seem

very high, sometimes $3-$4 per calendar. There are many printers on

the Internet that sometimes go as low as $1/calendar, but I'm very

wary about using a company far away when there is no personal

relationship established. Seems like it would be easy to spend

thousands of $ and have no recourse if there were problems.

 

So, is the only option to spend more and use a local printer? Or has

anyone used any of the Internet printers for calendars and had

quality work done? I'd certainly appreciate your comments.

Bill Wiley

[art_haykin]

Good luck with straight nature calendars, but I think you'd do better with nudes, pretty girls, exotic animals, fabulous cars, and the like. In any event, the shots must be quite good and well printed. I get at least a dozen free calendars in the mail every year, mostly quite well done, even those with ordinary subject matter. I usually keep one and toss or give away the others, and can't remember the last time I bought a calendar. If you work with an unknown "bargain" printer from afar, be sure you approve press proofs and do not pay in full up front.

[andrewpgrant]

Thanks for the dose of cynicism, Art.

 

Depending on what you want, $3-$4 per calendar doesn't seem too bad for a smaller run assuming you want high quality printing and typesetting, nice paper, decent binding and a look to the whole thing that isn't tacky. Keep looking... get more quotes. I know a couple of printers near where I live who mostly do corporate work but will often do small-run private jobs at a good price if you know to ask them... but that kind of service isn't as higher profile and simply requires some poking around.

 

So far as selling goes... keep other options open as well. For example, you see a lot of calendars flying off the racks at events such as local craft fairs - assuming the content has some relevance to the locality or audience at the fair.

[art_haykin]

You may call it cynical, Andrew, but I call it skeptical and realistic. How many nature calendars have you bought lately? The poster wanted input on producing calendars for sale, and I offered mine, base on a long lifetime as a professional photographer. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but I honestly think I'm right.

[Jochen_S]

I'm a offset printer and am working at a also mailorder printshop. We do calendars too, but they are above 1$ and usually made on a digital press in very small runs. (for "me, pop & aunt Sally"). We don't look where customers are located, we are doing our best. It doesn't matter where trouble comes from, if there is big one, there'll be no butter on the bread.

 

A simple suggestion: according to my poor math skills you are talking about 5000$ saving on ordering your calendars via the internet. I don't know how expensive you are, but 5000 dollars should buy you a first class ticket to Singapore or wherever the printshop is located, a decent hotelroom there and a pair of heavy steeltoed boots to kick the printers butt as soon as he's going to goof something up.

 

Forget about press proofs in advance. They'll cost a fortune! - Your run will be done in half an hour (per form) but taking in needs about one. A press proof should cost you 66% of the printing time, another set of pates and maybe 300 extra sheets needed to be wasted for each form, if done with the production press. Proof press prices may be different, but the same about possible outputs.

[andrewpgrant]

<i>"How many nature calendars have you bought lately?"</i>

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Honestly? It just so happens I've bought four... but mainly b/c certain family members like such calendars to hang by the phone in the kitchen... usually as Christmas presents.

<p></p>

I guess what I am saying is that it's a defeatist attitude that disregards this kind of niche in the market... it does exist provided you can exploit it with the right flair (eg. by marketing the calendar content to the right audience).

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That and your cycnicism (or skepticism or realism or whatever) serves no real helpful purpose in the context of William's question... no matter how hard you try to justify it.

[william_h._wiley]

Thanks for the comments. I recognize that there are 2 key issues here - calendar production and cost being the first and marketing and distribution being the second. I think there are pitfalls in both areas and that's why I wrote the question in the first place. On top of that, a calendar has a limited lifespan, which makes it salable for only about 3-6 months.

 

This is a tough call because it's something that I've wanted to try for a long time, but I don't want to lose my shirt. Your comments have verified that I need to make sure that I do my homework before jumping in.

 

Thanks,

Bill

[andrewpgrant]

I was talking to a friend last night who works for a local printer. His place falls into the 'mainly-corporate-but-will-often-do-a-lot-of-private-jobs-as-well' category.

I didn't ask him about cost, but he did mention that they often cater to much smaller print runs for these kind of things without the cost per calendar being too much higher.

 

Had you considered a smaller print run... say 500 instead of 5000, for example?

[jimmy_o]

I would think that other stuff might sell more. Like pictures of women but if you like nature then you should follow your heart. Either way people buy calendars a lot.

[william_h._wiley]

The research that I've done shows that there aren't usually any decent price breaks until the print job is at least 2,500 or 5,000. Interestingly enough, sometimes it's only a couple hundred $ more to print 5M over 2,500. That's because the press is up and running and all you're paying for at that point is a little extra press time and paper - but all the setup time is the same for any quantity. Either way, it's an investment of $ and my first object would be to recover my expenses. Then, it would be great to make any kind of a profit. At least I'd stand more of a chance recovering my expenses in photgraphy than if I were playing golf.

[andrewpgrant]

...that's what I was getting at.

 

5,000 calendars (or even 2,500 for that matter) is an awful lot of product to have to try and move in 3-6 months at a local retail level (regardless of content).

 

According to my friend, there is little price difference between having 100-1000 calendars printed (due to the reasons you noted above). I'm sure the numbers change depending on the printer... but perhaps just keep getting quotes?

 

I guess what I am implying, is 500 x $5/calendar leaves you far less out of pocket than 5000 x $3/calendar. The stakes are much lower, you'll have more chance of selling a higher percentage of your calendars and the price difference per calendar won't shave that much off your profit margin (you could even bump the sale price up $1/calendar to compensate).

[david_chananie]

Perhaps you should check first with the people you want to sell your calendar to and find out from them what they want? If you can find a market first you can develop a calendar later. That way you can develop some experience with this business and procede from that base.

[robert_lavelle]

I've had to look in to this for a specific project and learned that successful calendars build an audience over years...the first year, sales might be modest but if all goes well (great calendar for a good audience)the repeat purchasers combined with new purchasers grow with each release.

[gr_mughal]

sir can you just tell me what is the size you want to print and paper weight and binding style?

if you can send me a sample calendar, i will tell you the exact price of best possible printing in Pakistan.

me too is a photographer and related to professional printing field.