We have worked with Sofawolf Press for over twelve years, printing short runs of their graphic novels, anthologies, and novels, including the Artistic Visions series, which looks at the creative process and artwork of illustrators and artists.
Based in Saint Paul, Sofawolf specializes in anthropomorphic animals, and they have curated a niche and loyal audience that is always growing. Sofawolf cultivates their readers through social media, Kickstarter, conventions such as Comic Con, and word of mouth. They sell their books Direct-to-Consumer (which Bookmobile is a proponent of), maximizing the profit on their end.
In 2012 one of their graphic novel titles, Digger, won a Hugo Award for author and artist Ursula Vernon. The story about a female wombat engineer trapped in a fantasy world started life as a web comic. It was highly artistically acclaimed, but its twice-a-week publishing schedule combined with its long complex story challenged the patience of its readers. Sofawolf recognized how exceptional the comic was and packaged and published it as six individual print volumes.
“Bookmobile was crucial in the process of getting the story to a wider audience and ultimately allowing it to be recognized like it was,” says President Jeff Eddy of Sofawolf Press. “Their print process was capable of reproducing the rich blacks and fine lines of the comic’s graphic style, and the ability to produce such quality in manageable volumes meant we could start small and work up as the comic’s popularity increased. Together this helped Ursula get the whole story out in a format that could be passed around and appreciated by everyone.”
Over the past twelve years, we have printed close to one hundred titles for Sofawolf Press—and that’s just the titles, not the orders. We typically have at least two to fifteen separate reprint orders in production for Sofawolf at any given time. Most of their titles are black-ink-only paperbacks, at about an 8-3/8″ x 10-7/8″ trim size, but we produce hardcovers with dust jackets and/or color interiors for them as well. While Sofawolf uses Bookmobile’s printing services, they do not use our fulfillment services. They have their own warehouse and handle fulfillment on site, so being able to easily manage their inventory by ordering short runs quickly is important.
Jeff Eddy, the founder, is a regular user of our online Print Run Manager. Through Print Run Manager, Jeff can estimate and order new titles and also order reprints as needed. His Book Printing Representative, Gretchen Franke, lets him knows when his reprints will ship, and if he has any special requests, estimates, or questions, Gretchen takes care of that as well. (Not set up for Print Run Manager? Contact your Book Printing Rep.) From Jeff,
Without a quality digital print provider like Bookmobile, we would have had to be a lot more selective in choosing the titles to present to our niche market. Being able to try out new titles in small quantities keeps our warehousing and distribution manageable, and the quality and reliability has always been exceptional, helping us to stand out in the market.
Looking for a better short-run printing solution? Contact me!