Press checks make me a bit loopy, since for the most part they’re all about sitting in a tiny room and waiting for someone to get you, so you’ll have to excuse the ode to Chubby Checker.  Once again, we’re here at Publication Printers, making sure all the colors are right (which is really what press checks are all about).  Because I have no idea what I’m doing, I always bring our graphic designer along with us to explain what it means when they ask if we should add a little more yellow or pull out a little more red.

It all starts with the waiting game.  We get told by our rep that we’ll be on the press Wednesday.  Then we wait for the call to let us know approximately what time they’ll start printing.  This time around, our time slot is 1:45PM.

Once we get the word, we head down say hello to our rep and prepare to camp.  Because we print a 60 page catalog, it has to be done in chunks.  Three chunks to be exact.  So, we park it in the customer lounge where we can either do work on our respective laptops or watch Pete’s Dragon or Trading Places on VHS (ok, they have DirecTV too, but how funny is it to see VHS connected to a tube TV??).

After hanging out for a while, we get the call that our first batch is ready for review.  We head over to the review station and that’s where the color negotiations begin.

See, the way it works is that if you add or remove color to make one page look better, it impacts all the rest of the pages on the sheet.  We print 16 pages at a time, so when we make a color change to correct one page, we have to make sure it doesn’t disrupt the look of the other 15 pages.  After we finish our color negotiations and sign off on the print, it’s back to the waiting room.

Assuming nothing goes wrong, the whole process should take about 4-6 hours, which means with any luck we’ll be done by 6-7PM.  Oh, and the catalog will be mailing in October.  If you aren’t on our mailing list (meaning you’ve never ordered from us before or requested a catalog before), head over to the catalog request page so you can get signed up for one.

You’ll have to wait on the cover, but here’s the first build of one of our inside spreads:

As per usual, we’ll be mailing the catalog in the late fall (typically right around the time we run out of 2011 catalogs).  I’ve been asked several times why we don’t do quarterly catalogs instead of just an annual.  There are a few reasons, but the biggest is that we simply don’t have the bandwidth to put together a catalog more than once per year.  Sure, we could change the cover to give it a new look and re-mail, but it really seems like a waste of trees.  Plus, I don’t have it in me to do all that copywriting more than once per year (which is what I’m currently knee deep in).

As to why we don’t put all the products in our catalog (we’ll be doing 60 pages again this year), that’s why we have a website.  Our catalog is more of a “new releases and greatest hits”.  At any rate, I just thought I’d share a glimpse of what the new book is going to look like.  You’ll have to wait for the fall to see the cover though.

This year’s theme is all about both the rock and the roll. If you click on the picture below, you’ll see that our spokesdawg Frank is decked out in a heavy metal style dog collar, standing proudly on the stage in front of a sweet drum set.

Keven and Alexis with the 2011 PoolDawg Catalog

In addition to featuring tons of new products, you’ll also find plenty of pictures of Frank with some of the folks he met in 2010.  As for when you can expect to receive your new catalog, they’ll be mailing throughout the month of October.  If you aren’t on our list (or you don’t think you’re on our list) and you want a free catalog, be sure to sign up here.

If you’d prefer to download it and print it out yourself, just click on the link below and it will open up for you as a .pdf file.  The file is pretty big though (20MB), so if you don’t have a high speed connection it might take a while for it to download.

Download the PoolDawg 2010 Catalog

As always though, the catalog only represents a small sample of what we have to offer.  If you’d like to see all the products we sell, we encourage you to go over to the website at www.pooldawg.com and check out our entire offering.

Of course if you want one in the mail and haven’t put yourself on the list, you can just fill out the form to get a copy of our billiards catalog mailed to you (please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery).

The good news is that everything is going swimmingly and our new 2010 catalog is almost done.  We’ve reviewed 3 of the 4 sections in just under 5 hours, so another couple hours and we’ll have put the catalog to bed.  Once the catalog is done printing, they’ll bind it, send it to the mail house and a few short weeks later, you’ll have a brand spanking new catalog in your mailbox.

If you haven’t signed up for the catalog or aren’t sure if you’re on the list, go ahead and fill out our catalog request form.  The catalog looks absolutely slammin’ and has a bunch of new cues, cases and accessories.