Short-run book printing unit for College Street publishers

This is a small unit that prints and binds books in short runs, from 50 to a few hundred copies. You print on a digital press (a heavy-duty printer), then glue the spine, trim and laminate the cover. Jobs include reprints, new titles, little magazines (small literary magazines) and student theses.

College Street, known as Boi Para (book town), is the centre of Bengali publishing, with many small publishing houses. Most old presses here use offset printing, which is cheap only for large runs, so a slow-selling title is either over-printed or left out of print. NABARD's 2023-24 credit plan lists printing presses among Kolkata's 1,980 MSME clusters. The winter book fair and Bengal's little magazine tradition add steady small jobs.

You need a trade licence, GST, a digital press on a service contract, a glue binder, a paper cutter and a typesetter at ease with Bengali fonts, which can get garbled when files move between computers. The hard part is cost and timing. Toner and per-page service charges add up, orders pile up before the book fair, and small publishers often pay late. Reprint a book only when the publisher holds the rights.

Visit publishing offices on College Street with sample books and promise quick delivery before the book fair. Also reach little magazine editors and research scholars.