Special Report: Today’s Global Sourcing Market
Craley acknowledges that moving into offshoring requires a significant adjustment. “[Publishers] need to know that they have to work with a much longer lead time”—five weeks for shipping time alone from China to the warehouse when shipping to the East Coast, she says. “A typical black-and-white book that’s printed in the States might take six weeks for the entire process—from sending it to the printer to having it in the warehouse. Publishers should plan on approximately three months from the time files are sent offshore until printed books are in their warehouses. Most color books go through at least a couple rounds of color-correction proofing before they even go on press, and that time needs to be factored in,” Craley explains. “Of course, like printing in the U.S., schedules can be crunched, but the shipping and delivery time is fairly static unless more expensive methods of expedited shipping are used.