If commercial printing is in your bag of tricks, it can keep your client base strong. A customer never said to me, 'Take your time. N.Y. Distributors say commercially printed pieces are more time-sensitive than almost all other products in the document management industry. Miss a deadline for fliers advertising a one-day event at a racetrack, and you might be run out of town. Calif. The customer generates the publication's eight pages of text and gives a disk to Morris, who handles the project's proofing, preproduction and mailing.
Trick is, the issues contain letters from the mayor and other elected officials.
It can be tricky because we only have 10 working days from the time they give us the disk until the time it must be mailed. We constantly have to turn on a dime. Projects can run amok when text and graphics are supplied on disk, especially if disks are coming from multiple parties. Distributors often are caught between manufacturers that can't output artwork and end users who swear their disks are prepared properly. Many distributors say selling commercial printing is more difficult than selling forms because traditional products tend to have the same makeup and have more lenient turnaround times.