Your needs for the publication

Here are some questions to ask about a publication that is to be given away free:

• How many copies do I want to have delivered to me? (Try to estimate expected demand for its use in your program over a two-year period.)
  
• Are any of my colleagues likely to use this publication in their extension programs, and how many copies would they like to have on hand for use over the next two years?
  
• Are there any other organizations or individuals to which a portion of the printing will be delivered?
  

OCS distribution

OCS distributes copies of new publications within and beyond the college. A “standard distribution” of a free publication is about 135 copies, and for a for-sale publication, about 70 copies.

Internal standard distribution is to CES county offices (of which there are 10), the three CTAHR research centers, the six departments, and the dean. In the case of for-sale publications, one or two copies are sent to each of these for circulation and display. In the case of free publications, eight of the CES county offices receive “starter inventories” of 10 copies (sometimes more), while the other recipients receive “FYI” copies.

After our external standard distribution to libraries, we considered a publication to have been published. Copies are sent to the UH system libraries, the National Agricultural Library, and the Hawaii Documents Center for the state library system. A courtesy copy is also sent to the chair of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, the Bishop Museum Library, and the UH Creative Services office.

Authors also receive copies. In cases when the author does not request to receive a bulk quantity of the publication, OCS sends five copies to the senior author, two copies to co-authors, and one copy to any reviewers or collaborators the author specifies.

Economies of scale

Printing costs vary significantly depending on whether the publication includes color. The cost of printing CTAHR’s briefer free publications (2–12 pages, printed in black ink only) are calculated in a linear arithmetic manner based on number of pages times number of copies. When it comes to color publications done by commercial printers, the initial set-up cost usually makes producing less than 500 copies impractical, and beyond 500, additional per-copy cost is usually quite low. Given a rough idea of the anticipated document length, requirement for color, and number of copies desired, OCS can help by providing “ballpark” estimates of printing cost for budgeting purposes.