It was probably inevitable. Over the past several months, there have been ongoing reports about recalls of Chinese-made products due to excess levels of lead. In August, Mattel recalled over 10 million Chinese-made toys due to lead paint as well as tiny magnets that could be swallowed by children, as reported by the Associated Press. In October, Antioch Publishing announced the recall of seven non-book products, mostly bookmarks, due to excess lead levels. In early November, approximately 175,000 "Curious George Plush Dolls" and more than 405,000 Chinese-made products -- mostly toy cars -- were recalled, also due to lead, AP noted.
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It isn't surprising then that a number of booksellers have reported customers are raising questions about anything made in China, including children's books.
At Leaves of Grass in Willits, California, Rani Saijo said that, over the course of three weeks, three customers had questions about whether the ink used in Chinese-made books had lead in it. "It seems like it's in all the newspapers these days," Saijo said. "They didn't want to buy books from China and wanted to buy books printed in the USA. That was a challenge." She added: "My feeling is that we're going to see it more and more" as parents err on the side of caution and steer away from products produce in China.
Carol Chittenden of Eight Cousins Bookstore in Falmouth, Massachusetts, said there are other things she's worried about when it comes to children's books and sidelines. "I'm not aware of lead content in the inks -- I'm less concerned about that than a plastic bit that can come off.... Ink on a board book has a low priority."
Neil Strandberg of the Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado, told BTW via e-mail that on a recent Friday a group of three customers entered the children's section and then "came to one of the employees and expressed their concerns" over the fact that many of the tots books, board books, baby cloth books, and stuffies were manufactured in China."
The customers' questions raised concerns for Strandberg, who said he didn't enjoy the prospect that, at this hour in November, consumers were shying away from Chinese manufactured children's books, "unless they're right to do so," he added. "I'd like to know that, too." To that point, Strandberg queried, "Is there one stop in the publishing world to go and discover if book ink in China certainly does, or certainly does not, contain lead?"
The short answer to that question, unfortunately, is no. However, an informal survey of several publishers about printing methods and safety regulations indicates that fear of lead in book ink may be much ado about nothing. Still, that answer doesn't help a bookseller who has to deal with a customer who reads about recall after recall and decides to question any product with a "Made in China" label. "How do we as a retailer respond to customers who have concerns about the safety of our products?" Strandberg said.
Publishers responding to BTW all noted that product safety was a high priority and said they made sure all their products met all safety guidelines. "I know publishers are concerned and looking into the matter," said Michelle Buyak, marketing director for the Children's Booksellers Council, "and are being sure that any books being printed are safe. Our first customers are the kids."
Virginia Anson Turturro, vice president/director of manufacturing for Penguin Young Readers Group, told BTW via e-mail: "The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the American Society for Testing & Materials [ASTM, a voluntary safety code] set safety standards for children's consumer products in the United States.... Before producing a book containing toy elements or packaging a toy, novelty, or art materials with a book we publish, PGI undertakes a risk evaluation to consider such things as possible choking hazards and toxicity. We and our suppliers also engage independent, accredited safety testing laboratories to test these products to the applicable standards. PGI's standards meet and often exceed the applicable U.S. laws and safety standards for children's products."
"Specifically regarding your concern about lead," Turturro continued, "if toys are sold with any of our products they must comply with ASTM F-963 ... which incorporates all mandatory U.S. toy safety requirements, including but not limited to lead in paint requirements ... and hazardous substances and articles requirements."
In regards to printed material, Anson reported, "Non-scrapeable printing ink that becomes part of the substrate of book pages is not lead-restricted by U.S. law because it is not considered hazardous. In any event, PGI's vendors in the U.S. and China advise that only soy or other lead-restricted printing inks are used in children's books manufactured for PGI."
Tracy van Straaten, vice president of publicity, Children's Book Publishing, for Scholastic Inc., told BTW via e-mail, "At Scholastic, the safety and well-being of children is of the utmost concern to us.... For books, Scholastic requires documented confirmation from our printers that they contain only non-toxic inks and coating that meet U.S. ASTM safety standards. We take this precaution despite the fact that books are exempt from government regulated toy safety testing."
Jennifer Levine, director of publicity for Disney Publishing Worldwide, explained that Disney requires all licensed producers of its products to comply with all "applicable product safety laws and standards and to test their products to ensure their compliance. We test all of our own products (non-licensed) using a third-party vendor to ensure that they comply with all applicable laws. The product cannot be shipped until tests results are submitted to the company's product integrity office."
"Random House Children's Books treats all matters regarding child safety in relation to our books with the utmost concern and we regularly administer testing to ensure that our books meet the required federal regulations for toy safety," said a statement provided by Judith Haut, the company's senior vice president, communications and marketing. "All Random House Children's Books titles that include crayons and watercolor paints are produced in strict accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials standards and regulations (U.S.), which include testing for toxicity and choking hazards. Random House Children's Books puts warning labels on our products where applicable."
At Charlesbridge Publishing, Donna Spurlock noted, "We print most of our books in China, Singapore, and Korea, and, while we do not conduct testing ourselves, have documentation of safety testing of ink and materials and are able to produce this documentation upon request."
At Kane/Miller Book Publishers, Kira Lynn reported that "our printer is getting us individual reports for all of the materials used in our recent printing (ink and paper) for certification of safety."
Simon & Schuster indicated that all of its "products comply with all applicable safety requirements and are safety tested as necessary to ensure such compliance."
Michael Levin, CEO of Innovative Kids, said his company is a little different from other publishers. "Our product is very toy-like," he told BTW. "So we try to follow expectations set up by the toy industry. We spend a disproportionate amount of time on safety testing." He explained that the toy industry follows ASTM. "I don't know any quality toy manufacturer that doesn't follow these guidelines-it deals with choking hazards, heavy metal component."
Levin said that Innovative Kids puts every one of its products through a stringent safety process, which is not only good for the kids, but good for business, too. "Giant recalls are not good for anyone," he said. "And in terms of lead, that's a very inexpensive part of the test."
Leaves of Grass' Saijo said that she appreciated the fact that Antioch Publishing decided to test its imported products for lead after hearing about the many recalls of Chinese-made products. (A list of Antioch's recalled products is available on its website, www.antioch.com.)
Booksellers with questions about a specific book or sideline should contact the publisher or manufacturer directly. More information about recalls is available from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the websites of the Toy Industry Association, toyassociation.org and www.toyinfo.org. --David Grogan
China is the world leader in book printing. The country’s book printing industry is flourishing and U.S. authors and companies who publish printed word have taken notice. Book printing in China has massive advantages for clients worldwide including price, quality and speed of delivery.
New authors and publishers looking to make a switch to Chinese book printers typically find themselves in a sea of questions when researching a new printing partner.
Who to print with is definitely one of the biggest decisions you can make as a publisher or author. That is because printing is often the most expensive budget line for a book project.
It’s not only the cost of printing but the logistics of shipping often thousands of pounds of books across the country or world.
The usual starting place for those seeking a new printer is often the internet. Unfortunately browsing search engines to find an affordable book printer is a muddy process at best.
Dozens of results are going to pop up for book printers in China ranging from Chinese companies to Alibaba promising cheap book printing and great communication. The problem is many of these companies assume publishers or authors are already established in the world of printing and can handle printing decisions, specifications and global logistics on their own.
Other book companies in the United States or Canada are not competitive price-wise and feature extended lead times that stretch months for a book of the same caliber.
Book printing in china offers many options for paper types, special effects and bindings.The biggest reason to consider book printing in China is the price vs. quality ratio. Printing a hardcover book in China can typically save you upwards of 50% on a project versus printing in the U.S. This is especially true in print runes of more than 500 copies.
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Offset book printing requires expensive printers that take up a lot of space and resources and require skilled technicians to operate them at a high level. Printing with offset printers in the U.S. and in North America, in general, is expensive. Costs increase even further when printing four-color, full-color hardcover books such as children’s books, cookbooks and coffee table books.
Printing children’s books in China, for example, either hardcover or board books (thick heavy pages geared for young children) results in massive savings for publishers.
Chinese book printers are technically advanced and operate top-of-the-line printers. Because of this, they are able to offer a magnitude of paper types, bindings and special touches such as embossing and gold foil at affordable prices.
Offset printing : When to choose an offset printer over digital
An obvious concern when printing overseas instead of in North America is shipping and global logistics.
There are undoubtedly extra expenses when printing books overseas including shipping. Those include air or sea transport, import fees such as customs duties, taxes and handling multiple modes of transportation. The reality is, even with these fees, a book printed in China will end up significantly more affordable.
One of the most difficult parts of printing in China is handling the shipping process. Many China-based printers rely on publishers to take care of shipping, importation and final-leg transportation to their warehouse or office.
For new authors, some printers will offer to handle those aspects of logistics, but typically inflate the true costs and add on significant fees that will hurt the final price-per-book cost.
Communication between authors or publishers and book printers overseas can be difficult and cause delays and even errors in projects. This can complicate things even further for authors or publishers without years of experience with the minutia of printing.
Heao Printing contains other products and information you need, so please check it out.
Another point of concern when printing in China is the time difference and the language barrier. Communicating by email with a 12-hour delay or more can lead to delayed projects and a lack of clarity in the printing process.
At Prensa Press, our representatives handle all communication for our clients as well as all shipping and logistics. We ensure the printing process is simplified and easy to swallow. We started this company after working with overseas printers for years as a publisher. Our publisher struggled through frustration, delays, disagreements and costly misunderstandings with multiple printing partners.
We built a structure that takes the guesswork out of the process. Our goal is to ensure door-to-door delivery of custom printing projects at better rates than the competitors offer. We want our publishers to be comfortable and in feel in control.
Contrary to popular belief, printing in China usually expands the range of options of paper types, bindings and special features for book projects.
We specialize in offset printing of hardcover books and are able to offer high-end printing of custom jobs of any size. The typical book types we deal with are cookbooks, coffee table books, textbooks, children’s books and baby board books. We also specialize in magazine printing, notebooks, calendars and paperbacks.
Hard-bound books (hardcovers) can either be bound in a square or rounded spine and either casebound or sewn.
The minimum page count for a hardcover book is 32 pages and the minimum print run is 500 copies to make the project economically feasible.
For projects of under 500 copies, we can utilize a digital printer. This results in a faster turnaround time and a more cost-effective per-copy rate.
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One of the points of pride at Prensa Press is our full-service approach to printing overseas. But for customers who wish to handle logistics themselves, that option is available.
Be forewarned, the shipping process can be complicated. Missteps along the way with customs, importation or third-party logistics can be very costly.
We promise our clients a set quotation for door-to-door delivery taking risk out of the equation.
The timetable from file delivery to the books arriving at their final destination is often shorter than printing in North America.
We work with publishers to get their book printing files ready to send to the printer. Once they are in good shape, the process of obtaining a hardcopy proof takes about a week to receive.
Once our clients approve the sample, production takes roughly two to three weeks depending on the complexity of the print job.
Finally, shipping and final delivery take between two and three months depending on the state of logistics globally. COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions to the global logistics chain that have had lingering effects.
Click here for more details about how to print in China and overseas and why.
U.S. copyright law has very specific requirements for publishing and the copyright page typically found inside the first few pages of a book.
Like almost any product made outside the country, books must carry information stating where they were printed.
Customs officers use this information to ensure publishers and shippers paid the proper taxes on the import. It is also for consumers to know where the good was made.
Publishers must print the words “Printed in China” or “Printed in India” on the copyright page in the same size type as the address of the publisher. The publisher’s name can be printed larger or in bold, etc.
Publishers must ensure the “Printed in China” is close to the publisher’s address so as to not confuse readers that the address of the publisher is not the printer’s address as well, according to The Book Designer.
This piece of information should also be close to the publisher’s address so that the consumer is not misled into assuming the address of the publisher is also the manufacturing address.
Now that you know a bit about printing in China, we hope you are more confident with your big decision for your next book.
If you have any further questions please email us directly at info@prensa.press and we will get back to you quickly.
If you are ready to print, please fill out our free quotation form and we will get back to you within 24 to 48 hours with a detailed printing quote that includes door-to-door shipping.
Are you interested in learning more about Photo Book Printing China? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!