Custom Printed Tote Bags for Bookshops, Publishers & Authors

What carries books — and why it matters

Books are the heaviest thing most tote bags are ever asked to carry. A bag that copes with a paperback and a coffee will sag under three hardbacks — and that happens on the walk home, at exactly the moment your shop's name is on someone's shoulder.

200 g/m² is the floor for a bag customers fill

At the till a customer puts in whatever they bought, and books are dense. Below 200 g/m² the fabric stretches at the handle seams and the bag loses shape after a few uses. At 200–220 g/m² it holds weight and keeps its form, which is what makes it get reused rather than folded away.

340 g/m² for a bag you intend to sell

If the bag is stock rather than packaging, heavyweight canvas justifies its own price and reads as a product. Independent shops selling a well-designed 340 g/m² tote at the counter make margin on the bag itself, on top of the advertising it does afterwards.

Handle length changes who can use it

Long handles clear a shoulder over a winter coat, which is how most customers actually carry a bag of books. Short handles are for hand-carrying and suit smaller bags and lighter loads. Both lengths are stated on every product page — it is a specification, not a detail, and getting it wrong is the most common complaint about branded totes.

Cover art and what screen printing can do

Screen printing lays solid, flat colour — excellent for wordmarks, imprint logos, line illustration and bold cover graphics. Photographic covers and gradients are the exception worth raising before you commit, because they need a different approach and we would rather tell you before the proof than after.

Print per title or per season, from 25

A minimum of 25 means a bag can be tied to one launch, one festival appearance or one imprint rather than a warehouse commitment. Publishers running author tours can print per title; independent shops can print per season and reorder what sells.

Order ahead of the publication date

Production runs roughly 10–15 working days after digital proof approval, plus delivery within the EU. Launch dates are fixed a long way out, so this is one of the easier deadlines to hit — provided the bag gets remembered at the same time as the posters.