Most of their clients are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who compile family histories as a part of their faith, but not all clients are Mormon, Hunt said. Business also comes regularly from California, Idaho and Nevada, and less frequently from elsewhere in the United States. They've also had some overseas orders.
Located in North Salt Lake's industrial park, DMT Publishing also publishes town and building histories and a variety of commercial printing items such as business cards, pamphlets and booklets for seminars.
Hunt and co-partner Mark Manser started the business after they left the employ of a another publisher. When they started DMT Publishing, they were producing a small number of family histories.
The business has grown mainly through word-of-mouth. "We've done very little advertising," Hunt said, al-though some business has come in through their Web site, www.dmtpublishing.com found on some search engines. They can also be reached at 397-1826.
"We're able to print on demand," Hunt said. That means that if a client has a file almost ready, the business may be able to have a proof ready by that afternoon or the next day.
Most orders are for about 100 copies, but Hunt said they are able to publish as few as a copy or two. "Our hope is that if the client has only four or five copies printed at a reasonable price they'll see a good finished product that they're pleased with," Hunt said.
Cost is based on the number of pages, type of paper and binding, as well as quantity. He said an order for only 10 copies of a book need not be outrageous. "If a person wants 10 copies of a 500-page book, that's 5,000 pages," which they can output at 130 pages per minute.
As more people have purchased personal computers, DMT's business has changed some. "People used to come in with shoeboxes full of photos. They'd need a lot of clean-up," Hunt said. "We don't see that so much anymore," he said, although it still occasionally does occur.
He remembers one older couple who brought their memories in a shoe box. An old photo of a woman seemed to be damaged. The woman had a large black mark on her face. Hunt said they worked to clean up the photo and printed out a proof, but when the client saw the picture, she started crying because, "she said 'grandma had a number of dark moles on her face.' I told her we could put them back," Hunt said.
Nowadays, people often bring files in already in a .pdf (portable document file) format, which makes it easy for DMT employees to put together the publication, and make changes even years later.
Sometimes Hunt admits he gets wrapped up in the stories presented in the books they publish. "We really enjoy doing this work. We have a good time meeting people. It's much more rewarding than the money alone."
mwilliams@davisclipper.com
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