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GROWING
TRADE IN BOOKS ON DEMAND
Many problematic issues relating to the printing of ‘one
off’ copies of out-of-print books have been resolved. In
particular, great headway has been made in the areas of cost and
quality. At Pira’s DIGITAL PRINT WORLD conference, wholesalers,
printers and publishers all confirmed that Print on Demand (POD)
is already working well in the UK.
Everyone agreed on the importance of the digital book retaining
the feel of the original. Nevertheless, speakers disagreed on
the threshold price for viable single copy printing. The lowest
estimate was under £10, so it is easy to see why more publishers
are taking POD seriously.
As Suzanne Wilson Higgins, Commercial Director of Lightning Source
UK said: ‘Obviously, the viability depends upon the extent
and make-up of the book. When you get up to 700 pages or lots
of colour it is harder to justify.’
Bob Kelly, Publisher Services Manager at Gardners Books was a
little more conservative on the pricing point, but fully agreed
with the benefits. ‘More books available more quickly leads
to increased sales.’ This was certainly the experience of
Helen Bailey from John Wiley & Sons who made it clear that
publishers have to rethink their systems to make sense of POD.
Apart from the increased availability of titles, Suzanne made
the point that the higher unit cost of a POD book does not carry
many of the extra costs of traditional printing, such as warehousing,
inventory costs, eliminating returns and the need for pulping.
Suzanne also outlined future developments, including
improved halftone quality and the falling price of colour text
printing. Both will bring many more titles within the scope of
viable POD.
Jonathan Earl, Head of Academic Marketing Humanities and Social
Sciences at Oxford University Press said that they were able to
benefit from monitoring the experience of OUP USA. ‘By early
2001, they had started a full POD programme with Lightning Source.
By the end of this month, well over 1,000 titles will have been
included and the New York office will see sales of over $1 million
resulting from POD in the current fiscal year.
In response to the current climate, Lightning Source are about
to introduce their second production line in the UK and Peter
Vincent of Antony Rowe Ltd also sees considerable scope for growth
in their POD joint venture with Gardners Books Ltd.
Link to our full PRINT on DEMAND feature, with articles on Lightning
Source, John Wiley and Antony Rowe.
The
Annual Digital Print World Conference took place at the Commonwealth
Institute in London on the 23rd and 24th January. Full details
of future events can be obtained by contacting Pira International
on 01372 802000 or email: printing@pira.co.uk
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PUBLISHERS
SEE POD IN ACTION
At
the end of January, Lightning Source UK Ltd. hosted two publisher
events in it’s Milton Keynes Print On- Demand facility. Over
50 members from ALPSP and IPG attended two half-day seminars and
tours to learn about how the POD process really works. The Lightning
Source print crew demonstrated single books printing on-demand.
‘Print-on-demand is beginning to take waste out of the UK
book industry, and increase efficiencies, with more consumer choice
which is good for the book business. Why print 3000 copies and
push them around the supply chain for three years if the market
will really only buy 500 copies this year? Why reprint 500 copies
when your sales projections say only 150 copies are likely to
sell this year? POD is helping publishers manage their inventory
and their
cash much more effectively,’ according to Suzanne Wilson-Higgins,
Commercial Director Lighting Source UK.
Speakers from Amazon.co.uk and Book Data spoke about how their
services help bring print on-demand titles to the UK market through
bibliographic data and rapid availability. Publishers achieve
significantly more incremental revenue on low demand titles when
they are rapidly available for purchase. Moving from ‘reprint
under consideration’ status to 2 day availability makes a
difference. Amazingly half the titles sold via retail outlets
in the UK actually sell less than 250 units per annum according
to BookTrack.
Even the smallest publishers amongst the ALPSP and IPG memberships
attending last weeks’ print on-demand tours Publishers See
POD in Action came away understanding how they might benefit by
making low demand titles available through print on-demand.
Lightning Source UK Print Crew with IBM 4000
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PRINT
ON DEMAND: A PUBLISHER'S PERSPECTIVE
At Wiley, we have been using single copy print on demand for some
titles for a number of years. As a publisher of science, technical,
medical and professional books, we normally work with printers
who offer short print runs, but developments in digital printing
now offer us the opportunity to use POD on a wider range of books.
POD eight years ago
Our original experiment had a number of limitations:
• Case bound books only
• Generic covers
• High priced books only (£40+)
The intention was to provide a service to authors by keeping their
work in print, and to enable us to continue to sell very slow-moving
titles. However, it did not suit enough of our list to enable
us to make changes to our stock management systems, so the project
was not scalable.
POD in 2002
Digital printing and the associated binding equipment has now
advanced so that we can use POD to supply unfulfilled customer
orders. These titles could not justify conventional reprinting,
but could be considered for POD. We have relaunched the POD concept
at Wiley with the following advantages:
• Four-colour digital covers
• Combined print and distribution
• Fulfillment of customer orders for out-of-stock books
• Reduction of warehouse space used for slowmoving stock.
• Hardback and paperback binding
• Suitable for lower priced titles.
Although not every title is suited to POD, enough books are to
enable us to invest in workflow and system changes to take advantage
of this opportunity. As technology continues to improve, POD will
become one of our standard options when considering titles for
reprint. It also has a role to play in producing proof copies
of trade books, and will lead to global distributed printing opportunities
in STM book publishing.
Helen Bailey
Production Director
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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PETER
VINCENT of ANTONY ROWE
INCREASING PUBLISHING PROFITS
Peter Vincent of Antony Rowe gives his view on where POD (and
the Antony Rowe/Gardners Books joint service) fit into today’s
publishing marketplace.
Just over a year ago, Antony Rowe, well-known for shortrun book
manufacturing in the UK, decided to take a bold step towards the
provision of new services for the publishing industry. That meant
looking far deeper into the whole process of publishing –
from original manuscript to finished book – to the point
at which someone has bought and started to enjoy reading that
book. The traditional route to publishing a title relies on each
key member in the chain as an individual link – rarely becoming
involved with areas other than their own direct role. Publishers
rely heavily on each of these players to perform their part. A
break in the links could cause serious disruption to a programme.
On top of this, there were growing problems with books already
in print, either on someone’s backlist, sitting doing nothing
in the warehouse, or dropped off the ‘in stock’ list,
waiting for enough back dues to justify a reprint. The implications
for assets sitting on a balance sheet unsold, or orders that can’t
be fulfilled, sends a shudder down the spine of many financial
controllers.
Publishers face squeeze on profits from several directions –
returns, shipping, warehouse and other business costs creep up.
Increasing sophistication of booksellers, emerging superstores,
and the struggle of independent bookshops to compete – all
complicate the decision whether or not to go ahead with a new
title or ensure a title remains available.
There is rarely a simple answer. To guarantee a level of sales
is rarely achievable – cashflow may end up the decision maker.
Commonly, the only way to alleviate the pressure has been to force
down the directly measurable costs.
What has all this to do with Antony Rowe? They understood. They
decided to see what they could do to provide more options. Through
a developing dialogue with a number of customers and the major
supplier of wholesale and distribution services to the industry,
Gardners Books, they set up an alliance with Gardners to provide
a true books-on-demand service. It enables academic and many specialist
publishers to take a title that has run out of copies and to place
it in a master archive which is managed by Rowe. As orders come
in, from any source (Internet, email, post) they are automatically
fulfilled. This means that there is no longer the problem of maintaining
“just-in-case” stocks, or allowing a title to drop off
the the backlist because there are simply not enough dues.
The book might be in PDF or hard copy. It doesn’t matter.
Rowe manage both. Administration and production are linked to
automated ordering and Web ordering. Production is digital, at
standards publishers are very pleased with. Distribution is direct
– to the point of order.
But what about the costs? It is true that low price point titles
will not necessarily work. It depends on what value the book can
be retailed for. Rowe and Gardners work with sales, marketing
and editorial departments to examine the best options and suitability,
so it’s a good idea to speak with them directly.
Antony Rowe’s ability to produce quality books, and Gardners’
ability to manage a dynamic wholesale and distribution process,
has provided a trustworthy, strong and reliable publishing link.
Bringing together their technology leadership, solutions capability,
and partnership attitudes has enabled these two organisations
to help publishers ensure books that make money continue to do
so . . . long after their initial publication. Greater productivity,
new revenues, additional profit – a publisher’s dream?
Certainly some accountants would agree.
Peter Vincent
Antony Rowe Ltd
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