In-House vs. Outsourcing publication services
Posted by Peter Blaiwas on Thu, Mar 03, 2011
Vern Associates provides design, production, and editorial services for art institutions, schools and universities, policy institutes, and corporations that need to publish printed publications. Therefore our enthusiastic endorsement of outsourcing appropriate projects comes as no surprise. Because we tailor our services and approaches to fit the needs of each individual client, we may manage an entire project or just work on one or two subsets thereof. This method of operating highlights the value of being generalists, which permits us to bring shape, form, and concision to the material that our clients know so well—some of them might even say too well.
Over the years, as we meet with potential clients, we have noticed an interesting phenomenon that tends to separate in-house publication departments from other departments tasked with providing printed matter as a small part of their mandate (e.g., communications or marketing).
Often, the publications people are reluctant even to explore working with us because they're under the mistaken impression that an illustrated book packager will only take on complete projects, from unedited manuscript through delivery of bound books. Perhaps other book packagers do have such requirements, but that seems awfully limiting and a good way to lose a job.
Those clients whose job descriptions have little or nothing to do with creating publications, however, usually find our complete project management service to be a godsend. Some of them are small communications departments whose publications are shorter than books; others need the full "coffee-table book" Monty. No matter the project's specifications, however, these resourceful, determined people are required to produce whatever is asked of them, and routinely they learn on the job, at the school of hard knocks.
Even so, at first some of them are understandably skeptical when Brian and I present ourselves as publication "specialists." They're certain they can do the same work we do, as well as we can. In some cases they are correct, but when you factor in the additional time and energy this requires of them, not to mention the lack of industry-specific information like photography and print sourcing, diminished returns are inevitable.
A friend of mine is communications director for a large nonprofit. She self-indentifies as "control freak," which became abundantly clear when she described a recent project. Though not an editor, she was required to make a "manuscript" from the results of an extensive study compiled by several behavioral scientists. From this raw material, she forged a well-organized, extensive report that is both interesting and understandable to a general audience. My friend is incredibly hard-working, persistent, and thorough, but this report caused her day-to-day work to get so backed up that her already-long workdays turned into months of camping out at the office. While justifiably proud of what she accomplished, I question the wisdom of taking on such additional assignments that are so time- and labor-intensive.
I'm not suggesting that outsourcing this kind of project is a no-brainer. Without question, making it possible to pass along a complex publication assignment is bound to result in up-front work to get the contractor up to speed, so sometimes it is difficult to assess the pros and cons of showing someone how instead of doing it yourself.
Perhaps most telling, however, is the fact that several of our regular, long-term clients are directors of in-house publication departments that produce illustrated books. These people and their staff do exactly what we do. There is no doubt that they can do our work as well as—in some cases better than—we can, yet they continue to commission us to produce part of their lists. Without exception, the mutual respect we hold for one another has been key to our successful working relationship.
These clients know all too well exactly what each project requires. They're also keenly aware of how much of that work they can keep in-house reasonably. Their knowledge of and experience with the kind of work we have in common gives them full awareness of how much time a project will require and what will be an appropriate fee, so we go in knowing that everybody involved is on the same page and will deal with any surprises that crop up along the path to completion.