Page 54 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

Print Values
Printing for people
Donna Lund knows about the impact of the pandemic and it’s not all bad. She’s downsized her MIE Print business to three employees and moved production into her garage. Yet she’s got more work than she can handle.
Self-publishing is a booming area as more people finally get around to writing
their own stories during the lockdown. The Book
Printing Company, the self- publishing arm of Donna Lund’s MIE Print commercial operation, is working flat chat turning out book print runs anywhere from five to 200 copies. She has so much work she’s inviting other printers who may be suffering through the downturn to contact her to maybe share some of the load.
“I ask them to send me their contact details and we’ll see if we can work something out. I believe in karma and we’ve got to get through this together,” she said.
“I hope our industry comes out of this stronger and more ethical. It comes down to caring about the people, not just thinking about them as sales.”
Before the pandemic, MIE Print was a seven-person business in the Tuggerah Lakes town of Killarney Vale on the NSW Central Coast, and Swan Bay, Tasmania. Shortly
.../continued from page 53
She acknowledges the potential of fatigue when constantly dealing with some of the darkest days of her people’s experience, but believes she is immunised against it by the many stories of survival, love and redemption.
Ironically, the publisher herself
is an avid Kindle user, member of a book club that meets once a month and has done for 34 years. It’s now morphed into a digital book club over Zoom during the pandemic. It could be said publishing is in her blood;
her grandfather was the editor of the Rand Daily Mail in South Africa.
That may account for the fierce professionalism she brings to her role. Working two days a week and always within limited budgets, the team in Darlinghurst produce quite an array of printed books throughout
after everything went pear shaped, Lund reduced the footprint of
the business, let some staff go
and moved the digital production equipment into the garage of an employee and her own garage to ensure the continued operation
of the business. The binding she’s outsourcing to Wayne Rubin’s Twin Loop operation. Since then things have only improved.
“...although some of the others made very good offers, Fuji Xerox has always matched them.”
She believes quality print is the big differential, even if it’s a bit more expensive – that and taking responsibility for what happens in the production process.
“If we make a mistake, we own it. We don’t try to get out from under. The clients come first, and they know it. We rarely lose a client,” she said.
The self-described old-school printer trained on offset but sings the praises of the Fuji Xerox machine.
the year, taking them all the way from creating the manuscript to commercial printing and finally organising the book launches.
“People are amazed at the amount of work we get thorough.”
She takes justifiable pride in
the uniqueness of Community Stories, unaware of any similar self-publishing venture. Jewish Museums in other parts of the world publish many titles but not in the same self-expressive, self- publishing format. It is work that Wasilewsky believes fulfils a vital role in giving voice to the survivors while providing a cautionary tale for the world.
“The challenge for anyone working in this field is to find ways to make
it meaningful. It’s a very important lesson for the world to learn. I don’t want to say that history is repeating itself but when you look at the
“I started the book printing side
of the business six years ago and I’ve been with Fuji Xerox ever since. The quality from the Versant is as good as offset. I have a good relationship with them and although some of the others made very good offers, Fuji Xerox has always matched them,” she said.
There’s idealism to Lund that is rare in the industry. She supports non-profit organisations with printing at cost. The Jewish Museum’s Community stories are a case in point. It must go some way to explaining why even in the midst of the pandemic she’s looking to outsource work. 21
parallels that are happening in the world now, there are warning bells going off. It’s frightening. There are similarities you can see that were present in the 1930s.”
It is also work with a long way to go. Many people are still unaware of what happened. She tells of going to a conference in Krakow where a Canadian researcher asked university students what they knew about Hitler.
“They weren’t even sure which war he’d been in and they certainly didn’t know what the Holocaust was, or what Auschwitz was. It didn’t mean anything to them. And to someone like me, where it’s so central to my life, that was quite astounding.
“It made me realise that once the survivors are dead, it’s going to be a challenge for us to ensure the Holocaust doesn’t become just another episode in history.” 21
Above
Donna Lund working ... at home.
54 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020