Firefighter goes from putting out fires to putting out books with new company
Matt Efford has been involved with his family's printing business since he was a child. (Submitted by Matt Efford)
For a St. John's firefighter, a new book-printing venture is all part of the family business.
Matt Efford recently launched printing broker Print N.L. as an option for authors looking to self-publish their books.
The book orders will be printed by his father George Efford's printing business, Modern Printing Group, he told CBC News in a recent interview.
"We thought that book publishing was a lost art. But just like bell-bottom jeans, it comes back," Efford said. "And we wanted to be able to be that service for — and rejuvenate that service for — the writers of the province, locally."
Efford, a firefighter with the St. John's regional fire department, said he and his dad recently had an opportunity to buy a perfect binding machine used to make books and they went for it.
Customers' manuscripts can be printed as books in two weeks, he said.
"We're excited to see what kind of reaction we get from the public and local writers. We're really excited to be a part of people's books and be able to be a part of their journey."
Rise of self-publishing
WritersNL executive director Jen Winsor says many writers turn to self-publishing after attempting to go the traditional publishing route hasn't worked out.
"I have seen a big uptick in people wanting to go the self-publishing route," said Winsor.
WritersNL executive director Jen Winsor suggests writers interested in self-publishing reach out to her organization. (Submitted by Jen Winsor)
There are pros and cons to either route, she said; self-publishing requires the writer pay all the upfront costs that come with publishing, but it also means they get all the profits, whereas a publishing company means the company takes on the risks and the writer gets advances on sales and royalties, she said.
Writing a book is like taking a gamble, she said.
"If you were successful in that gamble," she said, "it could really pay off for you, financially and otherwise."
Winsor advised people to look into WritersNL's resources before going down the self-publishing path so they can find reputable companies and know what they're getting into.
Family business
As a child, when his father's business was home-based, Efford shared his bedroom with a Heidelberg printing press.
He can remember getting up in the morning and his father would already be at work with the press and staff would be arriving, ready to take over his bedroom for the workday.
"It was something interesting to experience," said Efford.
Growing up, he became involved in the family business, first in collating — the process of taking all the separate printed pages and putting them in order — and then joining the sales team in his early 20s.
That's when he saw they had to turn down work or contract it out to other firms when they weren't big enough to handle it.
"Sometimes we would get requests for magazines or catalogs or books even, and we didn't have the perfect binding machine to be able to put those things together," he said.
Efford hopes to be a option for authors who want to self-publish their books. (Stephanie Tobin/CBC)
Print N.L. will act as a middleman for these types of orders. He stressed that when Print N.L. gets a quote for a print job, he looks for a local wholesale printer for the best pricing. When it comes to book printing, Modern Printing Group is his only local contact.
"So what I would do is, I would broker out the business to different local manufacturers and that way I can never have to say 'no' to anybody who needs something printed."
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