Concertinas and a budding author

Q We have a job in hand which is 297mm wide and 4.4m long. We are printing it onto a 508mm-wide sheet on our Xeikon 5000 plus press. Our two major problems are how to top and bottom trim the sheet and how to get 20 creases in at 210mm intervals so the job can be concertina-folded to 21pp A4? Has anyone handled a job like this and managed to find a way to finish it? Hand finishing is an option as there are only 1,000 of them.

A Frank Elston, owner of Business Strategy Projects, kindly chipped in on our Q&A forum to say a similar problem arose for his business when it needed to provide strips for billboard pasting, which needed to be convenient for pasting up, like wallpaper. The solution he found was to use a Rollem (0114 246 8981) device called the Auto58. Unfortunately, with its price tag of £18,000-£25,000, depending on how the machine is configured, you must be confident that similar jobs will come up in the future. Hand finishing companies that will complete this task include Berkshire-based Fairway (0870 389 1701), which has a 1,400m2 hand-finishing facility, or Gloucester-based Makeup Print Finishers (01451 822701).

Q I am looking to self-publish a novel. I want an initial print run of only 50 copies, although I hope to print around 1,000 at a later date. Can you tell me some costs and what printing method would be the most realistic. The book is around 275pp and I would like it printed in paperback.
Dan Wilkins, Birmingham

A Digital technology is helping aspiring authors to get their work out there at a reasonable cost. Peterborough-based Printondemand-worldwide.com can cater for your specification and charge £314 for 50 copies and £2,548 for the full 1,000, should you choose that option later. For a high-quality litho option, the Athenaeum Press in Gateshead (0191 491 0770) could do 1,000 at a competitive rate, but cannot provide print runs as low as 50.

CHARITY CASE #2
Further to the request for cost-effective local printing from a charity, Darren Hall, of Printing.com, got in touch to say that the franchise could offer printing at a price that is up to 76% cheaper than customers are already paying. For example, he quotes 5,000 flyers at a cost of £100.