Hot Off the Press

This past Monday I went to China for the third time as part of my work at Marshall Cavendish. Several of my colleagues and I travelled by ferry to Nansha in Guangzhou Province to visit Everbest Printing Co. Ltd. and see some of our books in various stages of production.

We were given a pretty thorough tour of several floors of the factory, as well as the paper storage warehouse and the 'library' of already printed books, including those that have won design awards. There is also a workers' dormitory on the factory grounds, but we did not go there, of course.

First, we saw books being printed in signatures (sets of 16 pages that are folded and cut to make sections of a book). Then, we saw the signatures being cut, followed by the pages being stitched together to be bound and then covered in either hardback or paperback. Additionally, we saw other printed materials, such as supermarket ads and 2014 calendars.

In many ways, parts of the factory reminded me of the press room at the Marshall Democrat-News, just on a much bigger and noisier, not to mention faster, scale. I was pleasantly surprised by the working conditions, too, which seemed fairly safe as far as factories are concerned. 

It is always an exciting feeling to receive a book that has just been printed after many hours and weeks/months of editing work. But, it is just as interesting to see first-hand the detailed process behind the book's production.

Listening & Speaking Level 3

Showing four pages of Unit 8, which I wrote

Listening & Speaking Level 3