Printing novel for editing, need advice

I hate that printer ink is so expensive! I've used staples in the past (for other projects) I think it's around 11 cents a page or so and the more you print, the cheaper it gets. I'd go to staples online, upload your novel and see if it'll give you a quote before doing the check-out process.

I'd get a black and white laser printer; you can get a good one for between 100.00 and 125.00.

I just helped a friend order this one, for 99.00. Toner cartridges are about 50.00 and should easily get you through 2+ reams of paper (over 1000 pages) (that's an AW affiliate link to Amazon).

I have a friend who gets her manuscript printed and spiral-bound at the copy shop to do her editing on paper. I haven't tried that yet, but she says the cost is reasonable and the convenience--and joy--of seeing her manuscript that way helps her keep going in the editing process.

I have an old HP laserjet P1005 and it does a great job of printing out pages of my manuscripts. It is also very fast These little laserjets are not too expensive and they are a much better option than inkjets if you just want monochrome printing

Staples can be expensive, although if you happen to be a student, they offer significant discounts. Public libraries also have printers, and in my city they charge ten cents per page.

Brother laser printers do it for me. Love them.

I've used Staples, and you can get fast turnaround if you set up an account and submit your MS online. My Staples is a block away, and I can pick up the MS with a pleasant walk.

But a pro writer probably needs a more flexible solution, so I'd go with AW Admin's advice: Get a good B&W printer. I'm partial to HP printers, but I'm sure some others will do just as well. This way you can print a chapter at a time as well as the entire MS, or any other combination of printing. Face it: costs of paper and ink are a business expense, and one of many we'll be burdened with. You can minimize the cost, but not avoid it altogether.

You might consider printing your novel or chapter in two passes. The first in MS submission format: double spaced left-aligned etc. This gives you plenty of space to red-pencil your MS. Then after all the editing passes which seem right, print in something closer to the way it would look in a book. This is single spaced, with your margins set up to mimic a 6x9 (or 5.5 x 8.5) inch justified book.

I go one step further. I typeset my entire book (with Word, as I'm willing to accept Word's limited typesetting features) and set it up on Amazon's CreateSpace selfpub site. Then I order a copy. A POD book takes about a week to get back to me. Just keep your book marked private.

I'm adding my vote for a laser printer - just make sure it will print duplex. That will save you paper. I also print my ms for editing at the "draft" print setting, which uses less toner, but doesn't make much noticeable difference on the page. I'll probably jinx myself, but I've printed at least 5 full novels on this same toner cartridge.

I do an online edit pass, then final printout via FedEx/Kinkos. Cost is about 17 dollars for the binder and printing of a 55k book.

I recently read a post by another writer who will print out the entire book like this, make edits, reprint that section so the edit marks do not interfere with the read. When she doesn't catch any more edits, that's when she'll submit it. Sounds like a good idea, but a little tree kill-y.

If you go with a superstore print option like FedEx/Office Depot/Staples, shop for pricing and 3 ring binder options. It's worth it, IMO

I don't know about Staples pricing, but if your printer has a "draft" setting, use that. You'll use about 1/3 the amount of ink. It's what I use for editing and I can generally do a novel (double-spaced, double-sided) on one ink cartridge.

B&W laser, no doubt about it. You can get them really cheap too, I had a Canon that cost $50 and did ~5000 pages on a single cartridge. Unfortunately I gave it away when I moved.

Also, a lot of people on this board specifically suggest a double spaced wide margin copy for revision. Because that's what professional editors do when they edit. I'm not all that convinced this is necessary, or even that good a way to go about it.

My brother, who has his own small publishing house, edits on copies that are double-sided and feature two pages on one printed page, and are single spaced. This saves him thousands of printed pages a year. I decided to try it, and I found it to be much better than the standard style, because I see more of the text at a glance - for me this is important when identifying structural issues with a scene. I developed a system of using different color highlighters for different kinds of problem (yellow for single word, green for sentence, orange for structural, pink for logical issues with plot/chars). I write small, so I can use a pen and write between the lines if I need a single word replaced and normal margins are wide enough to do sentence, structural or logical issues. Worked really well and the pages look really cool with all the nice colors! But yeah, saves a lot of paper and I don't have to spread several pages on my floor to see a scene, and I can much more easily grab a 50 page wad with me than a 400 page wad.

Yeah others have already covered this but I'm going to throw my hat into the wring for get a good mono laser printer. Prints faster, cheaper per page, and the toner doesn't dry up. You print your thing, don't use it for a year, it will pick right back up and print again just fine. Not like Inkjet.

Just the thoughts of an IT person who works with printers a lot.

I wouldn't know what to do without a mono laser printer. It's vital if you just want to put out words.

I do have to respectfully disagree with Carrie in PA about duplex printing. While it does save paper (and you can duplex manually if you have to) I don't recommend it for a printout editing pass.

What I do is print the manuscript double-spaced and single sided using a monospaced font. Then I put it in a binder (it may help here that I'm left handed). I can then not only make notes and changes between the lines, but I can also use the back of the preceding page for more extensive notes.

Quiet Melody said:

Hope this is posted in the correct forum. If not, moderators, feel free to move it to the appropriate place.

I need some advice on printing my 100+ page novel. I did come across an old post on here about printing but thought I'd make a new thread to get some updated info.

I am currently in the editing phase of my novel, and while I can certainly edit it on screen, I feel like printing the whole thing so I can read it from a new perspective will help me out a lot. And also, I don't want to stare at a computer screen for hours at a time. (My eyes get too tired after a while)

The problem is that I have this cheap HP deskjet printer and I'm fairly certain it can't handle this print project without eating a ton of ink cartridges...and a lot of my money. So I'm looking for advice on either laserjet printers or document printing through some place like Staples.

Has anyone tried Staples document printing? And about how much would this service cost? Or would it be better off to just get myself a good printer since I'll be using it a lot more from now on? And can anyone recommend a good, but not too expensive model?


Melody

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You can buy a black-and-white laser printer these days fairly cheaply. The toner is expensive, but it lasts longer than the inkjet cartridges. And laser printers tend to be much faster.

Another vote for duplex. We got a Brother all-in-one about five years ago and while we've used it more as a printer, it's come in handy for making copies of my notebook pages or pages I've already printed that I want to split between different chapters. Again, duplex is great if you need to cut down on the amount of paper you're using for a particular job. Well-worth the price compared to the Apple Stylewriter inkjet I first had.

To save paper, I also reformat a version to print. First I flip the orientation to horizontal, select the type, and make it two columns, then change the line spacing to 1.15. It looks like a book to me. I also do duplex printing, and if you can't fit your notes in the margins, you can always add a post-it to the page. Sometimes a different font can give you more distance too.

Best of luck.

When I was living in Ontario, I just got my manuscripts printed off at the local UPS. $0.10 per page, I think it was. Each manuscript was averaging between fifty and sixty dollars. I, too, don't like doing major edits on the computer. My first edit, whether it's a novel or a short story, is always done with different-coloured pens on physical paper. Try UPS or your local printing place. I always tell them in advance that I am printing off five hundred pages or more, so that they make sure there's enough paper in the printer, and enough ink, too. I believe libraries will do it for you, too. So you can go on the website of your local public library and see if they offer printing services. If they do, shoot them an e-mail and see if it's okay with them if you print off something of that size, and ask for the price beforehand.

I do most of my editing on-screen, but occasionally I reach a point where some major structural changes are required. At that point, I do print off my WIP.

The OP's concern about costs of toners is a valid one--many printers, especially the cheaper ones, have a ludicrous cost per page. I've always been concerned about this, so I bought a Dell H625CDW, which is a low CPP, and does duplex and color if required.

I also make sure all chapters start on an odd page, so that I can move chapters around wholesale if necessary. The next thing is to make sure comments don't print with the hardcopy, otherwise you get a very small printed page with a huge margin on the right side (where the comments go).

The last thing is to get a comb binding machine. Don't buy the cheapest one, they're inevitably crap. A step or two up from that is ok.

I'll usually spend a couple of days with a printed copy, doing hand edits, before going back to the online version.

One last thing, the above setup also makes it easy to provide beta reader copies--many of my betas prefer hardcopy.

@ Quiet Melody. I saw a Brother laser printer that does a whole bunch of other things on sale for $100 this a.m. Too bad, I can't find it now. They go fast. Just run a search for what you want. I just did it and found some on sale at WalMart. I have one of those little ones that don't do anything but print. It is the best printer I ever had. I also have one that scans, copies, and does duplex printing that I paid $100 for. Nice, but the best printer is still the little one.

Quiet Melody said:

Well see I could print it at the library, but here’s the thing...I work at the library, and I’m not ready to share my story with all my coworkers. They’d have a million questions for me as you can imagine as we’re all book people lol. They can read it when I’m finished lol.

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I don't have a home printer but I do work in a large workroom with five different heavy duty printers. I edit drafts on paper because I get completely sidetracked with the whole doc in front of me on a screen. Thankfully I work early mornings, so when it's less busy I'll print out one draft (maximized for fewest pages and toner savings - draft setting, reduced font, spacing to 1.5, narrowest margins, etc)

One day, a coworker walks by "what are you printing over there, a novel? haha!" My 'play it cool' laugh was at least 50% panic.

TL;DR - a printer of your own sounds like a great idea!