Book Printing Forum

Are Book Publishers Going the Way of the Railroads?

2009-10-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Over 72% of publishers surveyed on the impact of digitization on book publishing by the Frankfurt Book Fair and the German trade magazine Buchreport said the development of new business models, new multimedia products and effective marketing strategies are the biggest challenges facing publishers as they transition from print to digital.

Duh! The publishers are slow to react to the changing customer demands.

The publisher’s lateness to the party reminds me of the train industry’s reaction to the airplane. Railroad companies ignored the airplane until it was too late, and air travel replaced the railroads for passenger travel and some forms of shipping.

The railroad companies realized too late that they were in the transportation business, not the railroad business. If railroad companies had realized this earlier, we would have had Union Pacific Airlines and Burlington Northern Airlines instead of American Airlines and United Airlines.

The book publishers are in the information business, not the book business. If they had realized this earlier on, they would have made the transition to e-books and other digital forms of communication more easily. Instead, they find themselves wringing their hands and searching for new business models to catch up to consumers’ demands that have already passed them by.

Ingram's Automated Telephone Computer Died This Month

2009-08-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

I regret to announce that Ingram's computerized telephone stock & sales system no longer works. The message when you call 615-213-6803 sadly says the telephone number is not on the phone system anymore. I confirmed with an Ingram customer service rep who told me the number no longer works. Sales and stock information must be obtained directly from the publisher or from an Ingram representative.

This telephone number was extremely useful over the years to check a book's sales through Ingram. It was easy to use and anonymous.

If I find a way to gather the same information, I will post it in a future blog post.

Opportunities for Savvy Publishers

2009-08-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

In the 20th Century, the American book market grew to be the world’s largest (with over 33% of total books sold) because of superior titles. From Fitzgerald and Hemingway to Kerouac to Tom Peters, publishers produced new titles so compelling that readers had to have them. In the decade of the 2000s, however, more and more books were published (thanks to POD and short-run, digital printing) and quality was negatively impacted. In 2008, over 400,000 new titles were introduced—many of them were not well written or properly vetted. The same hard cover book that sold for $19.95 in 1999 cost $29.95 in 2008, yet the production value and the content were worse than 1999.

When readers rebelled in 2008 and 2009 against paying more for the same or less quality product, publishers were forced to cut costs. Publishers worldwide laid off hundreds of employees and blamed it on the recession.

On closer examination, and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the slow down in book purchases (which should have increased, or at least stayed flat, as people cocooned in their homes) was caused by traditional publishers inability from 1999 to 2008 to provide new, compelling titles. Small publishers poorly informed readers of exciting titles traditional publishers were not providing. And the brick and mortar retailers made the business decision to offer less shelf space to all but the top selling titles. All this forced consumers from 1999 to 2008 to spend money on an increasingly limited set of titles—driving up prices and alienating readers.

Out of chaos comes opportunity. There has never been a better time to publish compelling titles that readers want.

The Future of the Book?

2009-08-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

You must see this video from France on the future of the book. It shows some pretty interesting ideas of what that future might be.

http://www.editis.com/pages_html/video_possible02.htm

I'm not sure I agree with the idea that traditional books will become simply objets d'art.

They say there's nothing new under the sun. Compare the French book video to one done by Apple Computer in 1987 (22 years earlier) on the future of the computer. See any similarities?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mLqJNDWx-8

Margin Erosion for Book Publishers, Booksellers and Authors

2009-01-09T06:15:00.000-08:00

David Streitfeld writes in the Sunday, December 28, 2008 NEW YORK TIMES, about the death of the book industry. In an article titled, Bargain Hunting, and Feeling Sheepish About it, Streitfeld notes the effect of online web sites on profit margin erosion for bookstores, publishers and authors. He writes of his experience buying ROOM FOR DOUBT for 25¢ on the Internet. He claims the book retails for $13.95 plus tax in a conventional bookstore.

While the article may be hyperbole (see Tom Campbell's rebuttal on his blog, http://regulatorbookshop.blogspot.com/), authors and publishers should note the trend of online book retailing and its effect on book marketing and distribution.

10 Ways to Maximize Cash Flow & Profits in an Uncertain Economy

2009-01-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

1) Start with the end in mind.
Understand how you will sell your book before you sell it. Have a sales plan and stick to it. Selling will be the number one problem in 2009. Clearly identify why anyone should buy your book. Distribution channel expansion is your number one job.

2) Know how to keep score.
What criteria will determine success or failure for your book? Focus more on profitability than sales growth.

3) Analyze your Balance Sheet.
The balance sheet is more important than the income statement during difficult times. Carefully manage your cash, inventory, Accounts Receivable, cash advances to authors and returns. Understand the hidden costs of the business—write-offs. Specifically, manage your inventory write-offs, your returns reserve write-offs and your royalty advance write-offs.

4) Print Fewer Copies.
Inventory is the number one expense for publishers. Print fewer books to keep inventory costs down.

5) Forecast Better; Print Smarter.
Be more conservative when forecasting how many books to print. Base your forecasting on sales of similar books. Package your books better before printing. Better packaging will help save printing costs. You will never fix a book after it's printed.

6) Reprint Smarter.
The hardest print run to forecast is the last one. It is inevitable that there will be books left over. Use Print-on=Demand technology to manage the print runs at the front end and the back end of a book's life cycle.

7) Ask for Terms.
Typically vendors pay accounts receivable in between 105-120 days. Demand faster payment. Ask your suppliers for terms—60 to 90 days. Suppliers may not agree on the first request. Keep asking. It may take up to 10 times before they agree. The, if they do agree, pay promptly on the 60th or 90th day.

8) Ship Fewer Books; Manage Returns.
Ship 60%-80% of what a vendor orders—based on return rates. For most publishers, returns are running around 35% of books shipped. Shipping fewer books may actually make you more money!

9) Collect What You Are Owed.
Control your accounts receivable. Run aging reports monthly. Alter payment terms to various vendors if they are slow to pay you.

10) Manage Your Marketing Budget.
During tough times, you'll read many consultants advising publishers to trim marketing budgets. If you've done a good job of forecasting (step 5), then you'll only need to manage your marketing budget, not reduce it.

Print-on-Demand Book Sales Figures

2009-01-04T05:33:00.000-08:00

The average print-on-demand book sells 75 copies, according to Penny Sansevieri, CEO of A Marketing Expert (www.amarketingexpert.com).

Print-on-Demand is a manufacturing process. There are circumstances when Print-on-Demand makes sense as a publishing strategy—at the beginning or end of a book's life cycle or as a bridge between print runs when a book's demand exceeds expectations. For most, however, selling 75, or fewer, copies of a book is unacceptable because most authors want their message to reach a wider audience.

THE ECONOMIST Facts & Figures on Book Publishing in America

2009-01-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

THE ECONOMIST reports in the June 7, 2008 edition that 411,000 new titles were published in America in 2007. The adult trade segment of the book publishing market grew at 4.3%. Since 1985, books' share of entertainment spending has fallen by seven percentage points. Books have changed little in the past half millennium, but they may be on the verge of going digital. Unlike digital music or video, however, digital books require consumers to change their consumption habits. Another new technology that is less visible to readers is making itself felt—print-on-demand (POD) which allows books to be printed and bound to order. POD makes million of books available even if they appeal to a narrow readership (see THE LONG TAIL by Chris Anderson).

Keeping Publishing History in Perspective

2008-08-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

Marshall McLuhan pointed out that the printing press was created in 1468. It took a hundred years before you get to Cervantes and Shakespeare.

What Are The Implications?

2008-05-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Five of the ten best selling novels in Japan last year were written on mobile phones, according to THE ECONOMIST magazine.

What are the implications of this for authors, publishers, distributors and printers?

Does this indicate a change in the way novels are written? Is this a sign that a younger generation of writers are more mobile and don't want to be shackled to a computer? Will future authors be more "nomadic" — able to work and write anywhere, even while on the move? Or is this a return to simpler time when authors carried their manuscripts with them everywhere they went and worked on them when they could?

Book Numbers Go Way Up

2007-06-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

R.R. Bowker issued their annual statistics on new books published: 291,920 for 2006. That's an increase of 120,000 over 20o5's figures.

The huge increase is the result of a new methodology Bowker used to calculate the figure.

Whether one believes the new figure or not, there is no doubt that many new books are published each year. This represents a great opportunity for book printers. It also reinforces the competitive challenge faced by any new author looking to break into the industry.

Nonfiction Trumps Fiction

2007-05-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

Shannon Rhoades, from Morning Edition radio show on NPR said, "when booking a guest on the show, nonfiction trumps fiction."

Morning Edition is the second most-listened to national radio show. The first most-listened to national show, Rush Limbaugh.

BookTour.com Announced at BEA

2007-05-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of the book, The Long Tail, will announce his new start-up, BookTour.com, at the Book Expo of America on May 31, 2007. No details are available yet. Look for coverage in all the major media when the announcement is made.

Television Shows Sell Books

2007-02-26T13:12:00.000-08:00

The New York Times reports Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report are among the most effective broadcast sales boosters for books. The two shows are on a par with 60 Minutes, Imus in the Morning, Larry King Live and Oprah.

The shows have ratings of 1.6 million and 1.2 million viewers respectively. Martha K. Levin of the Free Press called them "the television equivalent of NPR. You have a very savvy, interested audience who are book buyers, people who do go into bookstores, people who are actually interested in books."

Source: Shelf Awareness

Starbucks As A Bookseller

2007-01-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

Starbucks has sold 92,000 copies of Mitch Albom's For One More Day.

This is an incredible number of books sold. It clearly demonstrates that there are opportunities to sell books outside the bookstores.

Source: Shelf Awareness

Audiobook Facts

2007-01-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

Downloadable audiobooks represented 9% of audiobook sales in 2005. Audiobooks are often one third less expensive than CD versions.

Source: Shelf Awareness

Disappearing Booksellers

2006-12-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

Membership in the American Booksellers Association dropped to 1,800 from 4,000 since the early 1990s.

Source: Associated Press, October 2006

Competition to Books

2006-12-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

26 percent of all publishers cited "competition from online/Internet formats" as a business challenge. This is the highest this challenge has been in a decade.

Source: The Industry Measure, October 2006

E-Books as a Sales Opportunity

2006-12-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

The number of book publishers who saw e-books as a sales oppoortunity rose to 24 percent from 10 percent between 2003 and 2006.

Source: The Industry Souce, October 2006

Differentiating Between Critical Publishing Dates

2006-11-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

When working with a publisher, to avoid confusion it is important to understand the difference between three critical dates for a book; the Bound Book Date, the Ship Date and the Publication Date (more commonly known as the Pub Date).

The Bound Book date refers to when the book comes off the printing press.

The Ship Date refers to when the publisher releases backorders and ships to bookstore accounts and wholesalers.

The Pub Date is when the book is actively marketed to consumers. The Pub Date determines media appearances, advertising or in-store display promotions.

Typically, the time between the Bound Book date and the Pub Date is between four to six weeks to allow time to prepare marketing efforts.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

2006 Book Summit Reflections

2006-09-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Book Summit was a blast to moderate. I was, once again, fortunate enough to moderate an excited, interested and informed group of industry professionals as we explored the current and future state of publishing.

My first revelation was the mix of participants at this year’s Summit. We not only had publishers, digital book printers and distributors, we had Google, Microsoft, SONY and Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine. The incredible mix of new technology companies now involved in publishing would have been unthinkable five years ago.

The discussions were different, too. My second revelation was the in-depth discussion about metadata and its role in searching for information on the Internet. Publishers, distributors and authors will benefit from understanding metadata, its role and how to capture, store and display it on the Internet. For a good example of a site considered a prototype rich with metadata, see the International Movie Database, imdb.com.

The third epiphany I had was the importance of summits such as ours. Industry leaders rarely meet to discuss issues affecting the industry in a setting where there are no scripted messages, rehearsed speeches or company propaganda. Our roundtable format allows free, unfiltered, and sometimes critical intercourse about the industry. Participants from all disciplines report they learn something new through our dialog.

Based on the feedback, my final revelation is how valuable our participants feel the Summit is. The response to the event was gratifying and overwhelmingly positive.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

First Half 2006 Book Sales Figures

2006-08-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

According to the Association of American Publishers' figures, here is a breakdown of sales figures for the first half of 2006 by book genre.

Notice the percentage increase in e-books is the highest among all categories. This is a trend worth following. The impact of e-books and the digital world on book publishing and printing will be the topic of the 2006 Book Summit in New York City on September 27, 2006. Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail," (2006's most influential business book) will discuss the long tail of publishing. Joel Barker, author of "The Five Regions of the Future" will discuss e-books as a core enabling technology for the future.

International Interest for Short-run, Digitally Printed Books

2006-07-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

I check my blog to learn from where my readers come periodically. To date, I have had readers from outside the United States from:

Australia
Belgium
Canada
Chile
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Ghana
Great Britain
India
Iran
Japan
Korea
Mexico
Romania
Russia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Vietnam

This broad-based, international readership confirms a worldwide demand for short-run, digital book printing. Consider the opportunity of printing several copies of a single book in each of these countries. Book printing is experiencing The Long Tail phenomenon.

Thank you to my readers from throughout the world.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Book Printing Acceptance Guidlines

2006-07-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

The most exciting book printing & publishing job I am currently involved in is a book entitled, "The Death of Manolete," by Barnaby Conrad. The book chronicles the final days leading to his death in the ring of Manuel Laureano Rodríguez, known as Manolete, arguably the greatest bullfighter of modern times. The book is being re-released in trade paperback after being out of print for over fifty years. Its republishing is coordinated to coincide with the release of a major motion picture, Manolete, in March 2007.

Two things make this project exciting. First, the connection between the book and the movie gives this project high energy and cross-promotional opportunities. Second, the subject matter of bullfighting is quite controversial, especially with organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). PETA commends LolaFilms, the movie’s producers, for not harming any animals during the filming of Manolete. The bullfight scenes are recreated using Computer Generated Images, CGI. PETA remains steadfastly against bullfighting, however. In PETA’s opinion, therefore, the book is controversial because it celebrates bullfighting.

Book printers, in general, benefit from deciding in advance which types of books to print. In my opinion, the historical significance of "The Death of Manolete" outweighs the controversy over bullfighting. A little controversy is good for book sales, too, and I have no issues over exploiting it. I did, however, choose not to print two genres—pornography and hate books. This is a personal decision each book printer must make individually before accepting any book project. Clear book acceptance guidelines help employees make better decisions when dealing with customer. Put the policy in writing, whenever possible. You’ll be glad you did.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Explaining Print-On-Demand to Potential Customers

2006-07-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

New, digital printing technologies permit authors to publish a book and print as many copies as needed, in quantities as small as one book. Print-on-Demand provides the author with the control of self-publishing. Some profit potential is traded off for a smaller initial investment compared to self-publishing. Print-on-Demand is ideally suited for books at the beginning or end of their life cycle—before they find their true audience or as sales decline.

Book printers courting customers interested in Print-On-Demand may use marketing text such as the June 15th posting to attract prospects.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Self-Publishers As Potential Book Printing Customers

2006-07-13T01:03:00.000-07:00

When authors self-publish, they are making a statement about their book—they want to maintain control and reap the financial rewards of a successful book. In exchange, they understand they will take more risk because they assume all the duties of the publisher. Many successful authors have started as self-publishers— John Grisham, "A Time to Kill"; Richard Nelson Bolles, "What Color Is Your Parachute"; Rick Evans, "The Christmas Box"; Tom Peters, "In Search of Excellence"; Richard Nixon, "Real Peace"; James Redfield, "The Celestine Prophecy"; Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson, "The One-Minute Manager"; William Strunk, Jr., "The Elements of Style"; Irma Rombauer, "The Joy of Cooking"; Deepak Chopra; Mark Twain; Gertrude Stein; D.H. Lawrence; Mary Baker Eddy; and Benjamin Franklin.

Book printers that choose to serve self-publishers can use marketing text such as the June 14th posting to attract prospects.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Bloggers As Potential Book Printing Customers

2006-07-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

Bloggers get it. They understand the new dynamics of publishing. They know they are producers of content and go directly to consumers with their information rather than dealing with intermediaries such as retailers, distributors or wholesalers. They find and develop their potential readers before ever printing a single sheet of paper.

So it is with one blogger turned published author, Stephanie Klein. She began a blog, Greek Tragedy, which built a readership, got noticed and led to a book deal. Her book, “Straight Up and Dirty,” will be available in August 2006.

When asked why she blogs, Stephanie writes, “When you’re first trying to be a published writer, you just want to be heard. How do I get people to read my stuff? …I started a blog.”

Is this a portent of the future or an isolated instance? Only time will tell. Not all blogs are interesting, well written and worthy of a book deal. At the same time, Stephanie understood to be heard above the noise of other authors, she had to go directly to her potential readers through a blog—and it worked for her.

Book printers may want to keep track of this development. All bloggers have content—sometimes lots of it. The bloggers have found their readers. They know how many people may be potential buyers for any future items they publish. There is a great opportunity for printers to contact prolific bloggers to persuade them to consolidate their writings into a book and sell it to their reader base.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Revised Book Publishing Value Chain

2006-07-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

The book industry is constantly evolving. Since the March 19, 2005 posting, I have added more detail to the value chain of traditional book publishing. The new diagram looks like this.

In reevaluating the value chain, it is valuable to break down the different constituencies: producers, distributors and consumers. For book producers, I've added agents to the value equation. I've also added rights management to the publisher's responsibilities.

The intermediaries' section is the most expanded. I lumped the wholesalers such as Ingram or Baker & Taylor, with distributors such as Publisher's Group West or Independent Publishers Group with jobbers. The retailer's section is greatly expanded to include discount stores, warehouse clubs, food & drug stores, military and PXs, libraries, mail order and used bookstores.

The consumer's section is further differentiated to distinguish between book buyers and book consumers. This better represents those book buyers who buy presents for others.

The additional complexity further demonstrates the archaic and Byzantine marketplace for books. The book industry, like the automobile industry, is one of the few industries to build a product on speculation without a specific customer in mind. And, like the auto industry, the book business suffers from overcapacity and lack of differentiation. According to RR Bowker, there were 178,000 new books produced in 2005. The BISG figures there are 65,000 separate publishers in the United States. Meanwhile, readership continues to decline. Is it any wonder that many books are remaindered or destroyed?

According to Chris Anderson in his book, "The Long Tail," the average book sells 500 copies. This is putting enormous pressure on the Book Industry infrastructure. Independent bookstores are closing at an alarming rate. Distributors are closing unexpectedly or merging with other distributors. Large chains, such as Borders, are reporting weak earnings and lower same-store sales.

Why, then, would anyone want to understand and navigate the complex Book Industry structure? Smart publishers are finding ways to by-pass the intermediaries and go directly to consumers. As this happens more frequently, the current Book Industry structure will topple and collapse under its own weight.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Expanded List of Marketing Items for Authors or Publishers

2006-07-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of marketing items a book printer should offer. Every author/publisher needs these to help sell the book.

Review Copies
Extra book covers
Bookmarks
Posters
Letterhead, envelopes and business cards
Shelf Talkers
Table tents for in-store cafés
Success story letters to Independent bookstore owners
Synopsis sheets of the book for booksellers
Pre-written newsletter articles or inserts
Internet advertisements
Buttons

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Bringing Books To Life

2006-06-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

There is a fundamental shift in the nature of books being announced by the University of Ulster, according to the “Futurist” magazine.

In the July-August issue it says, “No more waiting for the movie version of your favorite book. New multimedia technology, combined with language processing, will allow books to be translated automatically into 3-D animated images. Software developed at the University of Ulster understands natural English-language input and maps it into 3-D multimedia presentations. The potential applications range from bringing a children’s story to life to creating interactive city maps. Filmmakers could also use the technology to produce vivid animated storyboards from screenplays so that directors may experiment with different angles before live actors are brought to the set.”

For more information, see the website: www.ulst.ac.uk .

This announcement marks the first fundamental change in the functionality of a book in over five hundred years. Books have always been the vessel for ideas and entertainment that drives the imagination of the reader. E-books provide a different type of delivery system for the content (an electronic reader versus a paper book) but are still only words that were seen and interpreted by the reader’s imagination. This new software creates 3-D images for the reader, taking imagination out of the equation.

What problem is this solution attempting to solve? Yes, it is a cool technology—both astounding and amazing. Will it reach mainstream readers, however, or be relegated to filmmakers and story boarders?

Does this device solve the illiteracy problem? People younger than 30 years old are reading less. Other media (TV, movies, the Internet, iPod, Xbox, etc) consume more time for youngsters than reading. Experts say that children favor images to words. Illiteracy is on the rise in this age group.

There remains a basic flaw in the adaptation of the software by users—both young and old. The software requires an intermediary computer to render the images—today a PC, tomorrow possibly a hand-held device. Will readers want an intermediary between them and the words? Traditional readers will not. They are fewer and fewer in number, however. Will younger readers want an intermediary? Probably not. There are too many other choices of electronic devices to capture their attention for entertainment.

Furthermore, the software lacks interactivity and variability. The 3-D software interprets the written words as they were written. It is linear. This cannot compete with the interactivity of video games with their multiple scenarios and interactivity for younger users.

It is not clear what problem this new software development solves. It is clear, however, that anyone interested in the printing, distribution, marketing or reading of books should keep an eye on this technology to see where it leads.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

Opportunities for English Language Books in China

2006-06-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Chinese are obsessed with English. Up to one fifth of the population (260 million people) is learning the language. Gordon Brown, the British finance minister, observed on a trip to China in 2005, in two decades China’s English speakers will outnumber the native English speakers in the rest of the world.

The appetite for English language materials seems insatiable. It is estimated that $60 billion a year is spent in China on materials comprising books, teaching materials, tests, teacher training and language schools.

So what? This thirst for English-language materials may be a windfall for book publishers of all types. Macmillian has sold more than 100 million school textbooks in China with its partner FLTRP, which has a fifth of the market and is the leading Chinese publisher of English-language books. Pearson subsidiary Longman, Oxford University Press and HarperCollins have popular bilingual dictionaries. Thomson Learning has licensed its teaching materials to People’s Education Press.

Who among the publishers with whom you work is ready to take advantage of this market? Which books are both simply written and interesting enough for the Chinese market? Perhaps there is a fiction book or series of books that would interest the Chinese.

Will it be easy to sell books in China? Undoubtedly no. It requires finding a partner such as FLTRP or a Chinese publisher to help you navigate the terrain. Fortunately, the Frankfurt Book Faire is coming October 4-8, 2006. This is the largest book fair in the world for buying and selling foreign rights and establishing partnerships. It requires preparation and planning for a publisher to meet, negotiate and execute a deal at the Frankfurt Book Faire. Engaging the services of an experienced rights agent may be a worthwhile investment. One with whom I have dealt is:

Godfrey Harris
THE AMERICAS GROUP
9200 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 404
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 278-8037 telephone
(310) 271-3649 fax
HRMG@AOL.com

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Is Print Where Words Go To Die?

2006-06-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

Print is where words go to die.

I heard this statement in a lecture the other day. It’s a great catch phrase. Is it true, though?

A first reaction is no. Non-fiction books have revised editions to keep them fresh and contemporary. Fiction books have series. Given the lead times to bring a book to market (anywhere from six to 18 months), however, how fresh and current is the content? I believe the speaker referred to the immediacy of the information, not the core content.

Other, more current technologies provide more immediate information. These include wikis, blogs and instant messages (IMs).

The first question a book printer may have is what is a wiki and a blog? Wikis are relatively new and blogs have been around for several years.

A wiki is a user editable Web site. It is comprised of many pages covering different topics. The idea behind a wiki is that one user posts some information on a subject and others add to the knowledge base. Some of the information added may be inaccurate or incomplete. That’s part of a wiki. Another user simply goes to the incorrect wiki page and corrects it. At all times, users can hit a “revert” button that returns the wiki to the last saved version. Sounds chaotic, doesn’t it? It is.

How did the wiki get its name? Wiki is Hawaiian for quick. You may have seen the vehicles in Honolulu called Wiki Wiki cabs that ferry tourists from the airport to the beachfront hotels. The wiki’s inventor, Ward Cunningham, wrote a few lines of code to create a place for co-workers to collaborate—quickly.

Blog is short for web log. A blog is a site where an author, such as myself, posts ideas on a particular subject of interest or expertise. Others may add comments to each of the blog postings to further elaborate an idea.

What are the differences between a wiki and a blog? Wikis and blogs are dynamic. Both leave a “memory” on the Web. That’s where the similarity ends.

Blogs promote the identity of the person writing the blog and the users who contribute. A blog is also one single web page. After a few postings accumulate, they are archived for future reference. On my blog, for instance, I accumulate the postings by month and year.

A community of users, on the other hand, creates a wiki. It suppresses the identity of the originator and all contributors. No one knows who wrote what. A wiki is also a complete web site with multiple pages covering multiple subjects or subtopics.

Why are wikis, blogs and IMs better than print? The lecturer contends that the instantaneousness of wikis, blogs and IMs make them more flexible and dynamic than print. Print is a legacy technology. These other technologies surpass it because each marks our lives as they happen.

Yet wikis, blogs and IMs have their limitations. Instant messages are well suited for synchronous decision-making or information disseminating. “Meet me at Tutti’s at 5,” is a perfect use for an IM. Instant messages die, however, once the user deletes them. Wikis and blogs, while they live indefinitely on the web, are hard to search and index for reference.

What, then, is the role of print? Print is good for memorializing thoughts, ideas and events. Print lends credibility. One often hears the phrase, “if it’s printed, it must be true.” More and more frequently one hears, “memorialize that statement” in business-speak. For now, whenever something must be kept for future reference, print is the medium chosen.

Ironically, one of the great sales opportunities for book printers is blogs. Many bloggers want to publish their blogs in a more permanent form, books. Searching out prolific bloggers and contacting them may be a way for a book printer to capture more business.

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the URL to colleagues who might also enjoy it, http://bookprint.blogspot.com.

2006 Book Summit

2006-06-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

For centuries, a book was a book was a book—ink on paper. Today, digitization and indexing of books has done more than shift printed material into bits and bytes. We are seeing the unbundling of content, creating new access and sales opportunities—and new concerns about author and publisher rights and copyrights.

The daylong 2006 Book Summit on September 27 in New York City will examine the impact that Amazon, eBay, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have on publishing from the perspective of authors, distributors, printers and printing services companies.

The second annual Book Summit promises to be more provocative, more controversial than last year's. I am, once again, honored to be the moderator of this historic event. Our distinguished panel of experts will address the impact of new entrants into the publishing space and offer insight into the direction of the industry.

We will host the event in the Small Press Center in Manhattan. Seats are available in the gallery for spectators interested in this year's topic. See the website, www.booksummit.com, for details.

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Indicators of Repeat Printing Business

2006-06-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Which books sell best? Book printers want to know because it means repeat business to them. Unfortunately, there’s really no way to know for sure. Who would have thought “What Men Know About Women” (a blank book) or “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” would sell as well as they did?

Evaluating a book potential for repeat business is challenging. It is more of an art form than a science. While there are no hard-and-fast rules, here are some statistics to remember.

A breakdown of book sales by genre looks like this according to the Romance Writers of America:

39.3% Romance
29.6% Mystery/Thriller
12.9% General Fiction
11.8% Other Fiction
6.4% Science Fiction

Women buy 72% of all books (An even higher percentage if you examine book sales of novels. Men buy non-fiction, as a rule).

It’s clear what sells—romance or mystery thrillers. A novel with a woman as the leading character helps sell books since women are the primary buyers.

The big publishing houses, such as Random House or Simon & Schuester, will have the big name authors like Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman or Michael Crichton. The big publishing houses print with the big printers. There may be little hope of landing an established author of this magnitude.

There is, however, a chance to catch a rising new author, such as Louise Gaylord (Anacacho and XS) or Steve Burt (A Christmas Dozen and Odd Lot). These authors print hundreds and thousands of their books (as opposed to the tens and hundreds of thousands sold by the established authors). This is good printing work, when you can get it.

Be on the lookout for authors who write in the popular categories above. Look especially for those authors who appeal to women—the book-buying public. When you find on, you’ll increase your chances for repeat business dramatically.

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Established Publisher Marketing Text

2006-06-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

This is the third posting of marketing text I created for my friend at Sir Speedy in Newtown, PA. Any printer can insert a name where it reads Sir Speedy.

Providing Profitable Alternatives to Publishers
Finding profit in publishing today is more difficult than ever. Vexing problems such as keeping back list titles in print, reaching niche markets and the impact of digital printing offer profit opportunities. Let Sir Speedy show you solutions designed to maximize profit.

Advances in printing technology have created the custom book printing revolution, and Sir Speedy leads the way in bringing on-demand technology to you.

With digital printing it’s never been easier to keep a book in print. Whether the demand is 100, 200 or 2,000 copies per year, Sir Speedy can provide cost-effective printing solutions.

Similarly, reaching niche markets—no matter how small—is easy using Sir Speedy’s digital print capabilities.

Sir Speedy never sacrifices quality. Each book is prepared with an eye to quality and detail, and includes a full-color, laminated cover, perfect binding and rich text, graphics and photographs.

Let us demonstrate the range of solutions we offer publishers. For help, call us, email us, send us your file, ask for a quote or stop by.

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Established Author Marketing Text

2006-06-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

This is the second posting of marketing text I created for my friend at Sir Speedy in Newtown, PA. Any printer can insert a name where it reads Sir Speedy.

Providing Options to Established Authors
As a published author, you know there is more money to be made than the meager advance most publishers pay. Let Sir Speedy show you how to make the most of your next book. Whether you want to make more money, retain artistic control or speed a book to market, we can help.

Advances in printing technology have created the custom book printing revolution, and Sir Speedy leads the way in bringing on-demand technology to you.

With our digital technology and flexible ordering options you can write a book and print just the copies you need, in quantities of 1, 100 or 1,000. Each book is prepared with an eye to quality and detail, and can include a full-color, laminated cover, perfect binding and rich text, graphics and photographs.

Our custom design services help you prepare your book cover to compete with the large publishers. Use our layout and design artists to create one-, two- or four-color covers that set your book apart from the competition.

Use our technology to deliver books to market quickly and economically. Take advantage of our exclusive Sir Speedy MyDocs® Online Ordering System, and your customers can place orders online for your book and have it delivered to their door.

When speed is of the essence to get your book to market, let Sir Speedy show you how we can produce your book quickly without sacrificing quality.

For help, call us, email us, send us your file, ask for a quote or stop by.

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New Author Marketing Text

2006-06-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

A friend in the printing business had a marketing piece for selling short-run, digital books. The text was provided to him by his franchisor. I told my friend the text tried to appeal to too many people. When you try to appeal to too many people, you end up appealing to none. He challenged me to come up with something better. I did. The next three posts are the result of that effort. Any printer can insert a name where it reads Sir Speedy.

Simplifying Choices for New Authors
The choices confronting a first-time author are staggering. Let Sir Speedy make your printing choices easier for you.

Advances in printing technology have created the custom book printing revolution, and Sir Speedy leads the way in bringing on-demand technology to you.

With our digital technology and flexible ordering options you can write a book and print just the copies you need, in quantities of 1, 100 or 1,000. Each book is prepared with an eye to quality and detail, and can include a full-color, laminated cover, perfect binding and rich text, graphics and photographs.

Our custom design services help you prepare your book cover to compete with the large publishers. Use our layout and design artists to create one-, two- or four-color covers that set your book apart from the competition.

Use our technology to deliver books to market quickly and economically. Take advantage of our exclusive Sir Speedy MyDocs® Online Ordering System, and your customers can place orders online for your book and have it delivered to their door.

For help, call us, email us, send us your file, ask for a quote or stop by.

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Industry Pundit Predicts Short-Run Book Printing in 1999

2006-06-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Charles Pesko, Jr. writes in “Print On Demand Business” magazine, “For on-demand print providers wishing to add book printing to their range of offerings, this is a great time to enter the market.” He goes on to say, “…today’s on-demand printing technologies also change the dynamics of the book printing industry. For printed books, book-on demand solutions, such as Lightning Print (sic), allow printing in quantities as small as one. …books never need to go out of print. The good news for printers is that market potential for on-demand book printing is huge. In many cases, this opportunity is limited only by the unwillingness of publishers and printers to change old workflow or traditional work patterns.”

What makes Mr. Pesko’s comments so interesting is that he wrote this in 1999!

Since then, book print runs have been getting progressively shorter. Fewer books are selling as many copies (see the April 14, 2006 post for 2004 Book Scan sales figures).

Despite this, there have been few changes in the book printing landscape in the United States. The same players dominate the market for book printing. There have been some changes to be sure. Phoenix Color, for instance, has returned to being a components manufacturer instead of a full-service book printer. Few national chains, however, have stepped up to capitalize the changing dynamic. Individually, certain franchise printers, such as Sir Speedy Whittier and Sir Speedy of Scottsdale, have embraced this change. Even these franchises, however, are limited to their geographic locality, for the most part, because books are heavy and expensive to ship. No chain has developed a way to overcome the tyranny of geography when it comes to printing books. Even the 700 lb. gorilla in the market, FedEXKinko’s, has not leveraged its leadership role to include short-run, digital book printing.

Now, Charlie Pesko’s market potential predications may be changing, again. At this year’s Book Expo of America, the buzz on the floor was about e-books. When the market leaders in publishing begin to embrace this technology, the dynamics of book publishing will change again.

Does this mean there is no longer a need for a printed book? Of course not. The printed book legitimizes information in a way an e-book cannot. The adage, “off-line is where the trusted information is” still applies. So printed books will always have a place in the publishing pantheon.

What it does mean, though, is that print runs for books will continue to shrink. E-books may gain in importance, but the e-book is still based on the actual digital files used in printing. Hence the book printers can capitalize on creating the e-books in addition to the p-books (printed books).

Seven years later, the market is once again moving towards the short-run, digital printers. Unlike in years past, the question remains, who will rise up to meet this challenge?

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E-Paper's Effect on Book Printing

2006-06-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

Reuters reports that some of that the world’s top newspaper publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newspaper that will allow users to download entire editions from the Web onto reflective digital screens said to be easier on the eyes than light-emitting laptop or cell phone displays. Flexible versions of these readers may be available as early as 2007. Production costs are expected to be low enough soon for publishers to consider giving away such devices with an annual subscription.

“This could be a real substitution for printed paper,” said Jochen Dieckow, head of the news media and research division of Ifra, a global newspaper association based in Germany.

E-newspapers would cut production and distribution costs that account for 75 percent of newspaper expenses.

A substitute for printed paper? What implication does this have for book printers? How soon will it be before this technology migrates to book publishing? See the April 29, 2006 positing about the Sony Reader. Sony’s device uses the same screen technology from E-Paper as described in the Reuters article.

The entire book publishing paradigm is changing. Newer technology will come along to challenge paper’s role as the preferred medium for a book. There was talk about the changing paradigm at Book Expo of America. After all, printed books have had a good run—500 years or so.

For the foreseeable future, though, printed books will have a place. Printed books lend credibility to the author. Take Chris Anderson, for example. He is the editor of “Wired Magazine.” He wrote a terrific article entitled The Long Tail for the magazine. The article was written three years ago. During that time was Chris Anderson interviewed on his thesis? No, not really. It wasn’t until he wrote a book, by the same name, that he was interviewed in magazines such as the “Economist” and appeared on the talk-show circuit. His article, his ideas have not changed. The only difference is now he has a book.

Book printers are well served not to forget this example. No matter what the technological changes, there is always a need for a printed book.

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Search Engines & the Human Brain

2006-05-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Search engines are transforming our culture because they harness the power of relationships, which is all (Web) links really are. There are about 100 billion Web pages, and each page holds, on average, 10 links. That’s a trillion electrified connections coursing through the Web. This tangle of relationships is precisely what gives the Web its immense force. (Data from Kevin Kelly's New York Times article, Scan This Book!)

One trillion links on the Web! That’s similar to the number of synapses in the brain. In fact, as more knowledge finds its way onto the Web, it begins to resemble the human brain more and more. Think of this. As the number of Web pages increases, will the Web become the repository of all human knowledge; a “universal library?” If so, it would be a monumental human achievement.

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Digitized Media Statistics

2006-05-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

Humans have “published” at least 32 million books, 750 million articles and essays, 25 million songs, 500 million images, 500,000 movies, 3 million videos, TV Shows and short films and 100 billion public Web pages. This material is currently contained in all the libraries and archives of the world. When fully digitized, all the media could be compressed (at current technology rates) onto 50 petabyte (1,000,000,000,000,000 byte) hard disks.

Corporations and libraries are scanning about a million books per year. It costs $30 to scan a book at Stanford but only $10 in China.

Statistics from Kevin Kelly's New York Times article, Scan This Book!

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Living the Long Tail

2006-05-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

“Lightning Source is living the Long Tail now,” according to J. Kirby Best, Lightning Source’s CEO. Print-on-Demand (POD) is expanding the market rather than cannibalizing it. Best estimates that 720,000 books out of some 1.1 million surveyed fit Lightning Source’s current manufacturing capabilities.

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Rewriting the Book

2006-04-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Sony demonstrated the new Sony Reader at the LA Times Festival of Books today. This stylish, 9-ounce e-book reader has an amazing 6” SVGA 800 x 600 display. The display is the “electronic paper” display from e-paper. The display is so sharp, it makes reading on the Sony Reader very similar to reading paper pages. With the touch of one button, the print size is adjusted to the reader’s comfort level. The entire Reader is 5 inches by 7 inches and half an inch thin; making it smaller than some paperbacks.

The Sony Reader can store 80 electronic books. An optional Memory Stick or SD Memory Card provides room for hundreds more books. The Reader has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that last for up to 7,500 page turns on a single charge.

Sony’s Reader will read e-books in the Sony proprietary format which can be downloaded from CONNECT Reader PC software. It also reads JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF images, Adobe PDF documents, BbeB Book, RTF and other text file formats. It also functions as an audio player for MP3 or AAC formats.

The cost of the new Reader will retail at $299 or $399 depending on the memory configuration. Sony Readers will be sold by Sony and in many Borders bookstores throughout the country beginning in the summer of 2006.

I read on the Sony Reader using beta software. The text was sharp. I read in sunlight, something I’ve never done before with an e-book reader. The beta software didn’t read some illustrations. This glitch will be fixed before Readers reach the stores. Overall, the performance of the Reader was remarkable. It will be interesting to learn if book lovers will pay the price for the new device.

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Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

2006-04-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

There is a fortune at the bottom of the publishing pyramid. Most book printers work with publishers in the hope of printing a book that sells 5,000 copies, or more. Those titles are a small fraction of the titles published each year. There is greater opportunity for book printers with books that sell fewer copies because there are more of them.

Fewer sales of more titles has been the trend for many years. Statistics from BookScan for 2004 validate that trend. Over one million titles sold 5,000 copies or less.

Who prints those books? And how many copies were printed on the first print run? Clearly there is an opportunity for a book printer willing to identify and market to the publishers producing books that sell fewer than 5,000 copies.

BOOKSCAN REPORTS BOOKSTORE SALES IN THE US FOR 2004

SALES PER TITLE: Of the 1.24 Million ISBN titles in print
10 titles sold. . . . . 1 million or more copies
22 titles sold . . . . 500,000 - 999,999 copies
324 titles sold . . . . 100,000 - 499,999 copies
767 titles sold . . . . .50,000 - 99,999 copies
23,000 titles sold . . .5,000 - 49,999 copies
67,000 titles sold . . .1,000 - 4,999 copies
202,300 titles sold . . 100 - 999 copies
948,000 titles sold . . 1 - 99 copies

Average sale per ISBN through bookstores: 15 copies
(Based on BookScan-Sales from 4,000 retailers, excluding supermarkets)

Bookscan does not get numbers from all bookstores and does not count sales made by the 82,000+ publishers in the U.S. to individuals and stores outside the book trade.

So, bookstores move the higher-selling books and far more books are sold outside the booktrade.

Statistics for this post are courtesy of Dan Poynter from his newsletter, "Publishing Poynters."

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The Importance of E-Books

2006-03-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

The importance of e-books cannot be overlooked. In their latest book, Five Regions of the Future, Joel A. Barker and Scott Erickson describe the e-book as a “universal technology”—one that will be used by many diverse groups.

In their vision, the e-book is an electronic device that displays text and pictures on a lightweight, illuminated thin screen.

E-books can carry and access enormous amounts of information easily. They replace paper books and save precious resources while providing access to information and entertainment. E-books make it easier for authors to be “published.” And e-books allow inexpensive and easy access to the wisdom of all civilizations.

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Additional Evidence for a Distributed Book Printing Network

2005-04-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

Book printers are recognizing the value in a distributed book printing network throughout the world. Edwards Brothers and Rowman & Littlefield (parent company of National Book Network) announced a strategic relationship that leverages the two firms already existing digital book printing network. In June 2005, Edwards Brothers UK, Ltd. expects to be printing and shipping books on demand for National Book Network International (NBNi) client publishers in the UK and Europe. A print-on-demand facility is being established inside the National Book Network International operation in Plymouth, England. This solution integrates print-on-demand seamlessly with NBNi’s order processing system so digitally printed titles are perpetually available.

James E. (Jed) Lyons, President of Rowman & Littlefield PG says, “Edwards Brothers is an expert at print-on-demand.” Steve Smith, Manager of Digital Operations and Pre-Press Services for Edwards Brothers is responsible for making the facility fully operational by June. He says, “We are confident that our offer and pricing will be very attractive to UK publishers. Our rates are competitive and our staff are trained print professionals.”

The Plymouth, England print-on-demand facility is the second printing joint venture between Edwards Brothers and National Book Network. In 2000, they jointly launched a satellite print-on-demand facility at NBN’s US distribution center in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania.

In addition to this announcement, one must factor in the news of Amazon’s acquisition of BookSurge and Ingram’s ownership of Lightning Source. These are key indicators of a change in the book printing and distribution market. Amazon, Ingram and National Book Network appear ready to battle in the book distribution arena. Each has its own book printing capabilities. Each is looking at both the US and international markets. What do these acquiring companies see in the international marketplace that others do not? Which companies will be next to join the battle? Which book distributor will next acquire a printer? Which book printers will aggressively seek a partnership or to acquire a distributor?

The implications of these mergers and acquisitions may not be understood for years to come, but one thing is evident. The line between book printing and distribution is disappearing both in the United States and internationally.

Providing Superior Customer Service

2005-04-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

No book printer ever sets out to do a bad job, but sometimes problems do occur. The mark of a good book printer is to have good problem resolution systems in place and recognizing the danger signs early. Set these procedures in place to help minimize problems and to overcome them when they do arise.

Begin with knowledgeable, well-trained customer service reps (CSR). Provide them with product knowledge, company knowledge and equipment knowledge. If the CSR is new, partner the new CSR with a more experienced one for a period of time to monitor calls and to listen how the more experienced CSR handles customer questions. Avoid putting a new CSR into a situation where he/she can make promises that your company cannot keep.

Provide all customers with written estimates of the job. Include a set of Terms & Conditions for the printing. In the Terms & Conditions, spell out key issues such as overs and unders, who owns the digital files, who owns the negs and plates (if there are any), how quality issues will be resolved and any company specific items you think are necessary. If you need a generic copy of Terms & Conditions, check the GATF/PIA web site, www.gain.org.

Create a specific document, commonly called a Change Order form, which records all changes the customer makes to the document or printing requirements after the quote has been accepted. Often a publisher may not know that even small changes may cause the price to change by a substantial amount.

Have a clear escalation path to resolve problems when they arise. If the CSR is unable to solve the problem, make sure that everyone on the escalation path has decision-making authority to correct the problem or complaint. Nothing is more disturbing to a publisher than explaining a problem to someone who cannot resolve it. Finally, have a standard plan of action to address printing quality issues. If a publisher refuses delivery on a job, consider how to rectify the situation without giving a refund, if at all possible. Reprints, discounts on future orders, free shipping, or complimentary storage are all common solutions offered by printers. Keep in mind, however, if a job is good enough to keep, it is good enough to pay for. A bad quality job circulating in the marketplace is more damaging to your reputation and business than any financial loss you might incur from reprinting the job.

No one is perfect and even the best printers occasionally have a “job from hell” where everything that can go wrong, does. The printers who have the best systems in place are the printers with the best problem recovery skills and the ones that keep their customers happy.

Selling Book Printing When There is an Incumbent Printer

2005-04-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

Selling book printing to an existing publisher is difficult. In every case, there is an incumbent printer. Since book printing is only ten percent of the publisher’s value chain, there is great resistance to change printers if the incumbent is performing adequately well. Sometimes a technology change provides a clear advantage over the incumbent. A new 48-inch, heat set press may provide a significant cost advantage over an incumbent who doesn’t have the same equipment. Sometimes you may catch a publisher when the incumbent printer has made a mistake or missed a deadline and the publisher is interested in making a change. Most times, however, inertia sets in for the publisher and the incumbent wins the jobs. What, then, is the best strategy to unseat an incumbent printer?

To unseat an incumbent printer begins with the basics. Does your current salesperson adequately represent your company? Is your salesperson properly groomed? Does your salesperson wear appropriate attire on sales calls? Does your salesperson have a pleasing personality? Does your salesperson understand the industry and speak the same language as the publisher? Does your salesperson understand the needs and challenges of the publisher? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you must work to improve your salesperson in that area. If the answer to all these questions is yes, then it’s time to look at advanced selling techniques.

To overcome a publisher’s inertia and to unseat an incumbent printer, you must find a compelling reason to change. The publisher is never going to tell you outright that his current printer is unsatisfactory. In fact, unless the printer is blatantly bad, the publisher will continue to work with him because he feels it is easier to work with a printer that is trained in what the publisher wants rather than find and train a new one. You will have to uncover “hidden” wants and needs of the publisher through a systematic line of questioning.

The first step is to build rapport by asking the publisher about his business. To whom does he sell? What genres are his books? Who is his current printer? Once some rapport is built, then you can ask the questions to get at the hidden needs.

The line of questioning has two steps. First, ask the publisher what he likes best about his current printer. This is a non-threatening question. It allows you to learn what the publisher likes and values in his current printer. These qualities are the same ones he will value in you after the switch. Make note of the qualities for future discussions, but don’t comment or try to sell yourself at this time. Second, ask the publisher this question, “if there was one thing you would change about your current printer, what would it be?” This question exposes the incumbent’s weaknesses and provides you the key to presenting your company as a superior choice. It is important that you ask the question in exactly the same way I have shown you. Others have asked me if they must ask the question in this way. The answer is yes. Any other way of asking the question creates a threatening statement and may turn the publisher against you.

The next step is to ask a question that confirms what the publisher has told you. Pose the question in this way. If the publisher could find a printer that overcomes the one thing the current printer doesn’t do well, and did the same things the current printer does well, then would the publisher switch? For instance, if the publisher says he likes his current printers turnaround time and pricing but dislikes the customer service he receives, then the question would be phrased this way. “If you could find a printer with solid customer service and the same turnaround time and price as your current printer, would you switch?”

Too often salespeople get drawn into the price trap—that is trying to unseat the incumbent based on price alone. Unless there is a significant price difference—a minimum of 20%—then inertia will keep the publisher with the current printer. If the salesperson is confronted with comments like, “just tell me your price for 500 books” or “all I’m interested in is price,” then it requires some verbal judo to flip the conversation back to the hidden needs. A salesperson might say, “I know you get a good price from your current printer, and you have a certain level of service for that price. If you could change one thing about your current printer, what would that be?” Now you are back to a probing question that may unlock a hidden need from that publisher that you can fulfill.

Unseating an incumbent book printer requires specific selling skills for your salesperson. Invest in training your salesperson to ask the fundamental questions I outlined above. If you do, your salesperson will convert more established publishers and you will be rewarded with more book printing sales.

Printer's Responsibility to Reduce Returns

2005-04-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

What responsibility does a book printer have to help publishers with book returns? Surprisingly enough, a great deal. Book printers have some control over minimizing returns to a publisher.

The idea of book returns is a practice that dates back to the Great Depression. At that time, bookstores could not sell books, so publishers put books into bookstores on consignment—only requiring payment when the books sold. If the books were damaged in shipping or did not sell after a period of time, the bookstore could return them to the publisher for a full refund. After the country emerged from the Great Depression, bookstores found an advantage by not changing the practice of returns, so it remains an advantage to the bookseller and an albatross to the publisher today.

If the book is not selling well, there is little a book printer can do to minimize the returns of that title. Marketing and promoting the book are the responsibilities of the publisher and the author.

If, on the other hand, the book is returned because of damage, then the book printer may play a bigger role in reducing returns. Most damage happens when the books are shipped. In today’s distribution model, a book may be shipped as many as four times before it arrives at the bookstore; once to the publisher, once to the distributor; once to the wholesaler and once to the bookstore. Proper packing of the books into the shipping cartons helps reduce the damage in transit.

Proper packing begins with using the correct shipping carton—one that is designed to ship books. What’s more, there are specific cartons for specific sized books. Select the carton that is appropriate for the size book to be shipped. There are cartons that are ideally suited for a 5.5 x 8.5 or 6 x 9 sized book that are inappropriate for an 8.5 x 11 sized book and vice versa. Furthermore, if the book seems likely to be damaged in shipping, then it may be wise to shrink-wrap the books in packages of one, two or five books. The number of books in a shrink-wrapped package depends, in part, on the requirements of the distributor or wholesaler receiving the books, too.

We produced one book, “Rise, the Tao of the Diva” with an embossed cover. It was a high value book and we knew that the embossed cover stood a strong chance to be damaged in shipping, so we shrink-wrapped the book into packages of five books. For identifying the potential shipping damage issue, thereby reducing returned books because of damage, we were rewarded by charging for the shrink-wrapping.

There are other sources of potential damage. The next most likely source of damage is poor binding—either perfect binding or case binding. I receive e-mails from publishers complaining of a large number of returns. They claim that bookstores or book reviewers comment on poor binding as being the cause of the returns.

A quick and easy quality control step to check the quality of the binding is to examine several books at random. Perform a stress test on the sample books by grabbing an interior page and jerking the book to see if the page rips out. This tests the strength of the bind. If the book is perfect bound, check the top and bottom at the bind for excess glue oozing out or an uneven glue line. Both symptoms are signs of poor quality binding. If the book is case bound, check the headbands. Also check the stitching, if the book is Smythe sewn to make sure it is not too visible when the book is opened. Check the gluing if the book is glued into the case binding.

Attend to these few quality control checks to help publishers minimize returns. Consult with the publisher, as early as possible, to discuss packaging and shipping requirements. Suggest shrink-wrapping the books, if necessary. In this way, you will make yourself more valuable to that publisher and capture more work.

Premium Book Example

2005-04-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

I discovered a unique use of a premium book in the February 7, 2005 edition of BusinessWeek magazine. There was an advertisement in the magazine for Computer Associates. The ad promoted logging onto the Computer Associates’ Web site to register to win a copy of a new, highly acclaimed book, “Wedding of the Waters, The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation,” published by W.W. Norton. BusinessWeek had given the book a favorable review the previous week, so regular readers may have read the review and would understand the value of the premium.

What struck me as interesting about this premium is that it had nothing to do with the sponsor. Computer Associates makes software. It is not an engineering firm, it doesn’t make products used on canals nor does it have any historical ties to the Erie Canal. The only connection is that the book is well written and was positively reviewed by BusinessWeek, the same magazine in which the advertisement appears. Computer Associates wants to be aligned with the book precisely because it is well written.

Giving a book as a gift says something about both the giver and the receiver. The receiver of the book is flattered that the giver thinks enough of him/her to give an enlightening gift. It also shows the giver put some thought into the gift to match the subject to the receiver’s interests.

So it is too with Computer Associates. They want to be seen as giving a premium of value and distinction with their premium gift. In addition, Computer Associates associated themselves with BusinessWeek by writing in the ad, “BusinessWeek brings you the world of business every week. CA brings you the latest innovations in management software.

The lesson for publishers is that any book may be used as a premium for a company, regardless of how loose the connection may be between the product and the book. “Wedding of the Waters” has little to do with Computer Associates, yet it was selected as a premium because it was well written and was positively reviewed in BusinessWeek. Book printers can help publishers to see these connections between the book and products that may benefit from using the book as a premium. Continually work with your publishers to think of imaginative ways to sell more books. If you do, you will be rewarded with more book printing for that publisher.

Innovative Review Options for Publishers

2005-04-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Part of the service a book printer may offer a publisher is offering a variety of methods to promote and market a book. The best way to promote a book is through book review. There are two new book review media that may be valuable to your customers. They are vidlit.com and blogcritics.org.

Vidlit.com uses short Flash video clips to summarize and promote books. It is a unique way to promote books to internet-savvy readers. Liz Dubelman created the site. It appears to be successful. One million people viewed the film for Ellie Weiner and Barbara Bavilman’s 2004 book, “Yiddish with Dick and Jane” (Little, Brown) in two weeks.

Blogcritics.org has a large group of readers who look for reviews and opinions of all different kinds of media. Book reviews are a large part of the site’s content. In recognition of the number of self-published books, Blogcritics.org is adding a section to highlight five books per month. Blogcritics offers a great opportunity for independent authors to get publicity for their books. Blogcritics gets upward of 10,000 visitors per day and these visitors are the kinds of people who buy the media that they read about on the site.
Slots on the page will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis and will cost $300 for the placement in the featured book box as well as the five honest reviews from our various critics.

If you have any questions about the offer, or ideas as to how to make the better for independent publishers please contact Craig Lyndall; 440-666-1087; Email: clyndall@filteringcraig.com.

Successful book printing is about knowing how to make oneself indispensable to the target audience. Guide authors/publishers to sites such as these to promote their books makes any printer more indispensable than one who doesn’t.

More on E-Books

2005-04-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

E-books are the latest addition to an author/publisher's product offerings. There are some devoted e-book readers in the general population. Dan Poynter, a leading industry consultant, thinks they are the wave of the future. While they may be the future, today an e-book helps an author/publisher extend his product offering for a book. Consider a packaged goods product marketing analogy. If one goes to the grocery store, marketers are trying to compete for shelf space by offering a variety of products within the same product line. Hence, Campbell's has its regular soup, dry soups, microwaveable soups, individual serving soups, economy sized soups, etc. Campbell's dominates the soup aisle by offering so many types of soup that the shelves look red and white for as far as the eye can see.

Books are no different (although traditional book publishers won't agree). Author/publishers compete for shelf space in bricks & mortar bookstores and for web space on Amazon. Having a hardcover, trade paperback, e-book, audio book, and large print book provides the customer with a variety of options to consume the information and extends the books "shelf space" in the bookstore or on Amazon.

E-books have three distinct formats: Adobe Acrobat PDF, Microsoft .lit and HTML formats (readable on Mobibook readers and others). Continuing with the product extension concept, an author/publisher may opt for all three e-book formats to appeal to the broadest range of e-book readers. There are distinct differences in the readership among the three leading types of e-books, though. PDF books (and their specialized cousins, Acrobat e-book format) are the most popular. Microsoft is in second place, although a considerable distance behind and HTML books are a distant third. This may change, however, as Amazon has recently purchased Mobibook. Author/publishers are scrambling to convert their books into HTML to be read on Mobibook readers because they think that Amazon's marketing muscle will make this format more significant to readers.

E-books are constructed in two distinct parts, the text pages and the cover. As with traditional books, the cover of an e-book helps to sell the content inside. Unlike traditional books, however, most e-books are selected by the title first and the cover art second because most web sites list the titles but not the book covers for the buying public to see.

Constructing an e-book is divided into two distinct processes, converting the text pages into e-book format and converting the cover art. The text page conversion ranges from easy to hard depending on the format of e-book selected. If a printer owns a full version of Adobe Acrobat (including the distiller software), If a printer owns Distiller, converting the text is as easy as distilling the Word or page layout file into PDF. If the printer doesn't own distiller, then Adobe has a web site where one can upload a file and Adobe will distill the file. This service used to be free for up to 10 files, but may now cost a minimal amount. Microsoft .lit file conversion requires specialized software that few people own. A printer can opt to purchase the software or go to a service bureau to create the .lit file. HTML compilers for text are also available, but they are hard to learn and use. A printer can opt to go to a service bureau to have them create the HTML file for you.

Cover art is created in the same way as the text file for all three formats. The challenge is marrying the cover art to the text file to create a complete e-book. It is easier with Adobe Acrobat than the other two formats. With all three formats the trick is to keep the file size of the e-book small enough to download over the Internet. Cover art, unlike text files, is very large (images are always larger than text files). Combining the cover art to the text files and then optimizing the overall e-book file size requires skill.

E-book pricing is bi-modal; it is either very low or very high. Publishers have experimented with different price points to discover what price point sells best. At the low end of the price spectrum, e-books from $4.95 to $9.95 sell well. The ideal price within that range is $5.95 based on several studies. At the other end of the spectrum are the publications that offer specialized information available nowhere else. These publishers price their e-books from $69.95 to $125 with the ideal price at $79.95. The higher priced e-books require significantly more Internet (and sometimes direct mail) marketing to drive potential buyers to buy. At those prices, however, they have more profit margin to invest in such marketing. E-books priced like traditional books languish. Most readers understand that part of the price of a traditional book pays for the distribution (up to 70% of the retail price, in many cases). With e-books, however, the readers know the distribution costs are negligible and the readers are unwilling to pay nearly the same price as a traditional book.

Opportunities at the LA Times Festival of Books

2005-04-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

This year’s LA Times Festival of Books was more vibrant and electric than the last two years’ event. There was more buzz and excitement about books than in the past. There was also more opportunity for book printers and several of them capitalized on the excitement by exhibiting there. Overall, there was more emphasis on helping authors publish than in any of the previous ten festivals.

The crowd appeared to exceed last year’s total of 150,000 for the two-day event. The sunny weather brought out book lovers from throughout Los Angeles. There were also more vendor booths than in years past. An additional section of exhibitors were stationed near the West Entrance to the Festival of Books. Many famous authors, including Jason Alexander, Maria Shriver, Sue Grafton and others, were speaking or signing books.

Of most interest were the book printers and self-publishers. BookSurge was there, fresh off its recent acquisition by Amazon. They offered publishing packages to would-be authors that included printed books as the final product. Their booth was constantly busy. A new company, Cherish Bound, was soliciting consultants to sell biography and autobiography books to would-be authors. Cherish Bound is affiliated with a printer in Utah. They have a template for writing and laying out the books. Their process and procedures separate them from other self-publishing groups represented at the show. Also present was Star Publish, a self-publishing consultancy in the more traditional methods. They offer publishing packages ranging in price from $1,000-$1,800 for up to four free copies of a book and an e-book. The books are sold on their web site or through traditional bookstore channels and a royalty of up to 100% of the net price are paid.

The most exciting opportunity at the show was AbeBooks.com. They offer a non-exclusive, distribution program for publishers to distribute their books through Amazon In the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany. The charge for distribution through AbeBooks is only 8%. The publisher pays the shipping costs themselves. Check out this program for your publishers at abebooks.com.

The show was an opportunity to visit, briefly, with publishers to determine their printing needs. I met with Jeffrey Goldman of Santa Monica press. He has eight new books scheduled for release between April and November 2005 and two books for release in February 2006. Other publishers have books coming out this year that need printing, too. Some publishers I spoke with wanted new catalogues, while others needed marketing materials. Overall, I walked away with three solid printing quotes and several possible ideas.

Participating in consumer book fairs can be interesting, informative and productive. Read my April 16, 2005 posting for more details on how to effectively work a consumer book fair.

Aggressive Amazon

2005-04-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Google is doing book marketing; Barnes & Noble is in publishing; Random House is in distribution; and Penguin is in retailing according to Publisher’s Weekly. So what is Amazon doing with its latest two ventures?

Last Monday, Amazon acquired BookSurge, a print-on-demand and on-line bookstore. The acquisition gives Amazon the ability to print books in quantities as small as one copy. It also gives Amazon access to distribution in countries where BookSurge has printing partners and Amazon has no presence. There terms of the deal were not disclosed. BookSurge’s modest reputation obscures the acquisition’s meaning.

Also last week, Publisher’s Weekly announced that over the past few months, Amazon has quietly made the rounds to agents in search of authors to write short pieces for Amazon to sell. Amazon will charge $0.49 per electronic download for short stories, journalism, essays and other works ranging in size from 2,000-10.000 words. One report even suggests that Amazon may commission alternative endings to popular novels. The analogy used is Apple Computer’s iTunes—where music lovers can download songs for a fee.

In the financial structure of the deal, Amazon would charge $0.49 per download and receive 60% of each transaction. Volume of downloads is expected to be high. Which means if Amazon attracts the number of authors it intends, it could realize revenues of approximately $750,000. Amazon believes it has the ability to attract a large number of target readers without the help of publishers.

What are the implications of these two moves? One outcome is that Amazon is clearly positioned to battle Ingram in book distribution and book printing. Ingram owns Lightning Source, a competing, digital, print-on-demand book printer. Ingram is also the largest distributor of books to the bookstores. To wage this battle, what Amazon lacks in reputation and history, it makes up in marketing. Unlike Ingram, Amazon can pinpoint demand without investing a cent in additional infrastructure—which means it can begin printing immediately at a higher margin than an order placed through Lightning.

The two companies have existing working relationships, however. Lightning said in a statement that it has a strong relationship with Amazon and it “fully expects it to continue.”

What does it mean when a book retailer becomes a publisher and a printer? These two ventures are unquestionably Amazon’s most direct overlap with publishers to date. Amazon can do something that few editorial or retailer businesses can—use large amounts of exclusive writing where books are bought. One editor states, “The idea of one store being the exclusive publisher is the nightmare scenario. It would be war.” Amazon could attract authors with its marketing muscle and its ability to program search results on its site. Some observers are skeptical of the payment method. All songs on iTunes have already created a market by being previously released. It is unclear if book chapters, especially those previously unpublished, can be sold a la carte.

Time will tell if Amazon’s moves will produce results. The BookSurge acquisition validates those book printers engaged in short-run, digital book printing. If Amazon is investing money into the market, there must be an opportunity there. The move to attract authors is a longer-term investment. Will it put Amazon directly in competition with Ingram? How will Ingram react? How will large and small publishers perceive these moves? Will these ventures result in fewer book distribution options or will it expand the market for books and other printed material? Will these acquisitions improve Amazon’s share price? For now, all one can do is wait and observe the changing landscape of the publishing world.

63,000 Publishers Counted in Recent Study

2005-04-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

A revised estimate of the number of book publishers in the United States is exciting news for book printers. According to the Book Industry Study Group, the number is higher than once believed. In the new study, “Under the Radar,” there are about 63,000 publishers with sales of less than $50 million. The report was prepared by InfoTrends/CAP Ventures, a market research and strategic consulting firm. This figure, 63,000, is 14.5% higher than the last reported figure of 55,000 publishers quoted in the book “The Rest of Us” conducted by the Publishers’ Marketing Association in 1999.

The “Under the Radar” study goes on to state that these publishers generate annual revenue of about $14.2 billion, much of it outside traditional book publishing and book selling. The majority of that revenue—about $11.5 billion—comes from publishers with sales between $1 million and $49.9 million.

Jeff Abraham, executive director of BISG, said that while some of that revenue is represented in current industry sales estimates—which put total revenue at between $23.7 billion and $28.5 billion—a significant portion is not. “We’ve always heard anecdotal stories about how much activity occurs outside of traditional book publishing and bookselling. This study tries to quantify how much,” Abraham said.

InfoTrends finds that about 34% of the sales of publishers in the study come from bookstores and book wholesalers (including only 3.3% from the chains). Book wholesalers are found to be the fastest growing channel. Non-book wholesalers, which serve accounts such as health stores and sporting goods stores, represent about 20% of sales. Catalogues contribute about 10% of revenue. In addition to wholesalers, the fastest growing segments were online retailers and direct-to-consumer sales.

Abraham knows that the “Under the Radar” findings challenge many industry assumptions. “For several years, we knew there was a segment of book industry activity that was not being covered by traditional research,” he said. “Under the Radar” asserts that the industry is both larger and less concentrated than previously believed.

“We’ve been seeing signs for a long time, especially with the rise of the internet,” said Kent Sturgis, president of the Publishers Marketing Association, which represents thousands of independent publishers. “It used to be New York publishers were gatekeepers of what got into print. Technology has democratized book publishing.”

Book printers should be excited by these findings. The market is larger than once thought which means there is more opportunity to print different kinds of books. The market is also more fractured than once thought. New York is no longer considered to be the publishing capital of the world. The Internet and digital technology allows publishers to live and work where they please. This means there is opportunity for book printers whereever they are located. Finally, the book publishers scattered throughout the US make more money than once thought which means they have money to spend on printing more books.

The publishers in this study are classified as small businesses. Printers who have experience working with small businesses will have an advantage over those who deal exclusively with the book trade. Furthermore, the Internet and other digital marketing tools have “democratized” book publishing which means those printers who have marketing solutions geared to digital marketing will be preferred to those who do not.

Book printers would be wise to understand these changing market conditions to market to the new breed of publisher.

Mega Book Marketing Event Review

2005-04-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Book Marketing Event was held April 15-17, 2005 in Los Angeles. This event brings together hundreds of authors and publishers who want to learn the secrets of book publishing success. Who is better equipped to give advice than Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the popular “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series of books? He has sold millions of books throughout the world.

At the Mega Book Marketing Event, guest speakers and vendors include agents, book promoters, book packagers, publicity agents and more. This year, Ellen Reid, a Santa Barbara-based book shepherd, attended the event and made a presentation.

“The event was positive and upbeat,” said Reid. “Authors were motivated. Mark Victor Hansen’s information keeps on giving even after the event is over.

“One of the key points Mark made is that it’s the author’s job to market the book. This is eye opening for some authors and publishers who think that getting a publisher automatically guarantees that the book will be marketed to the right readership.
“The book must look good, of course. That’s where a good book shepherd can impact an author of publisher. Packaging and positioning the book correctly positively impacts book sales.”

“The Mega Book Marketing Event is an emersion into the world of book publishing and marketing. It must be experienced in person,” said Reid. “The outside world doesn’t exist for the three days one attends the event. It is the best place to get an advanced degree in book marketing.”

A significant message throughout the Mega Book Marketing Event is that authors and publishers create books to “give back” to the community—either through the content of the book or through spending the book’s proceeds to improve the world.

Reid captured the spirit of the event by saying, “authors were motivated to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do as a result of attending Mark Victor Hansen’s event.”

There were no book printers represented at the Mega Book Marketing Event trade show—partly because the event is geared towards connecting an agent with a publisher. Still, in any group of authors, there are always some who will want to self-publish. The challenge to book printers is who will be the first to take a booth at Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Book Marketing Event next year? Who will capture those customers who are motivated and excited to publish their book?

13-digit ISBN Number Creates Printing Opportunities

2005-04-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

What event is one of the greatest opportunities for a traditional printer to get work? When a Zip Code or area code changes in a city. Why? Because it means that customers in the effected area will reprint business cards, letterhead, envelopes, Rolodex cards and invoices. A Zip Code or area code change means thousands of dollars to local printers.

What is the book printing world equivalent of a Zip Code or area code change? Any change in the ISBN numbering system for books. The International ISBN agency is making such a change between now and January 2007. All 10-digit ISBN numbers will be changed to a 13-digit ISBN number. This is the first change to ISBN numbers since they were first introduced in the 1970s.

Publishers will need to recalculate all their ISBNs and accommodate the new number format in their systems. This will include ISBNs for all titles in print, probably all or most out of print titles for which orders or other enquiries might be received, and for all outstanding unallocated ISBNs supplied by local agencies.

The International ISBN Agency says, “Since publishers will inevitably be holding stock for many years to come, they may feel that it would be sensible to move towards printing the 13-digit ISBN on their books as soon as possible…”

The opportunity for book printers is enormous. All existing books—even out-of-print books—are required to carry the new 13-digit ISBN number. That means these books will need to be reprinted. The result will be millions of dollars of printing.

One may ask, “can a publisher put a sticker on a book with the new ISBN number instead of reprinting?” The answer is yes, but the sticker will not be as professional looking or as durable as a reprinted cover or dust jacket. And printing the labels means more printing for some printer, even in the event a publisher goes the inexpensive route.

The International ISBN Agency has printed guidelines for the transition to 13-digit ISBN numbers. These guidelines are valuable to the publishers you serve. If you want a copy of the guidelines, please e-mail me at: wafj@pacbell.net and I will send them to you by e-mail.

e-Books In Education Markets

2005-04-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Dr. Craig D. Swenson presented his thesis, “How Professionals Learn Today: International Learning and the Irrelevance of Textbooks” at the eBooks in Education Conference on April 14, 2005, further fueling the speculation about eBooks replacing textbooks in the educational systems. Dr. Swenson is the Provost and Senior VP for Academic Affairs at the University of Phoenix—the nation’s largest private university with an enrollment of more than 240,000 students. It has more than 140 physical locations in 37 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and the Netherlands in addition to its Online Campus headquartered in Phoenix.

During his address, Dr. Swenson demonstrated how the University of Phoenix has replaced textbooks with digital materials and how it has fundamentally changed the way students learn. All students enrolled in the University of Phoenix can complete 100% of their educational and administrative activities online. Students can access an online collection of over 14,000 digital journals and 20 million full-text articles for their classes and research.

Other leading educators, publishers and technology vendors spoke on advances in the access and delivery of digital academic content. These presenters included executives from WebCT, Connections Academy, Virtual High School, Blackboard, OverDrive, Thomson Learning Labs, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Microsoft, Thomson/Gale and Simba Information.

The implications to educational publishers of this news are profound. Academic books command very high prices—often in excess of $100 per title. Furthermore, educational publishers revise the content frequently, in part to stay current with the subject and in part to insure that students cannot use older editions to substitute for the current one. In my April 6th blog, I opined that eBooks may put an end to the monopoly pricing of educational publishers. Dr. Swenson may have moved to the next step, bypassing educational publishers altogether. Another implication is that publishers may begin writing textbooks and supplemental textbooks directly for institutions such as University of Phoenix, thus opening up a new market for smaller publishers.

The downside for book printers is that none of these articles, research papers or books are printed by a printer. They may be downloaded and printed locally by the students, but that printing happens on a laser or inkjet printer in the dorm room. This isn’t a reason to despair, though. It simply means that printers must look for alternative, complementary products to sell. The students need formatted, easy-to-read material. They no longer need it in a printed format. This supports the case for eBooks. If printers can produce eBooks for publishers, they can still capture the typesetting and layout work required to prepare the book to become an eBook.

As more of these types of conferences happen around the country and more educators learn of the value of digital books, it becomes clear that book printers will need to be flexible in the future. Being able to meet the needs of a University of Phoenix and make a profit will motivate book printers to consider alternative products like eBooks, blogs and other media we have yet to think of.

Commissioned Books As An Add-on Sale

2005-04-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

There are many ways that a book printer can advise a publisher how to sell more books, which helps to sell more printing. One of the frequently overlooked techniques is to print a “commissioned” book.

A commissioned book is one that is written specifically for a sponsor, usually a company, that helps sell an idea or product. The organization commissioning the book pays for the writing, editing and printing of the book. Many times the commissioner also distributes the book.

Commissioned books may be a misnomer because the commissioned product may be a pamphlet, a condensed version of an existing book or a completely new book written book.

A commissioned book differs from a variable data book for a corporate sponsor because the material is written for, or modified to suit, the sponsor. A variable data book is a standard book, with no modifications, that carries a company’s logo.

I read this interesting news short in John Kremer’s bi-weekly newsletter that reminded me of the topic of commissioned books. The article said, “McDonald's is encouraging hip-hop artists to integrate the Big Mac sandwich into their new songs. Artists will earn $1 to $5 each time their song is played on the radio.” McDonald’s is commissioning music to reach its target audience in much the same way a company commissions a book to reach its target audience.

The opportunity for book printers is to examine the material currently being printed for publishers to discover potential sponsors to commission a book from that publisher’s current material. Urge the publisher to contact the potential sponsor with a sample of the current book. The ideal job function within the sponsor organization is the Vice President of Marketing or Marketing Manager. These people are responsible to find new ways to differentiate their products from the competition, and having a book written specifically for the company or product does that.

Have the publisher propose to customize the book for the sponsor (a variable-data book) or to rewrite the book into a pamphlet or abridged book. If none of those ideas appeal to the potential sponsor, have the publisher suggest writing a completely new book based on the material contained in the original book.
Commissioned books are one way to help your publishers sell more books, thus generating more sales for you. Book printing sales are as much about helping the publishers market as they are about selling the actual books. The more value you bring to your publishers outside of the act of printing the book, the more locked into your business that publisher becomes.

Maximizing Attendance at Consumer Book Fairs

2005-04-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

For printers seeking new business, attending consumer book fairs can often result in new leads. Working a consumer book fair is different than trade book shows such as the Book Expo of America. Consumer book fairs are designed for the publishers to sell books directly to consumers. At trade book shows, publishers sell books to the bookstore buyers. It is important to remember this distinction because it alters one’s objective and goals for attending the show.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is a consumer book fair. It will be held Saturday, April 23, 2005 from 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday, April 24, 2005 from 10 am to 5 pm. The Festival advertises itself as the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 150,000 book lovers each year. There will be nearly 300 exhibitor booths representing booksellers, publishers, literacy and cultural organizations. The LA Times Festival of Books is held each year on the UCLA campus. Admission is free because it is a consumer book fair. Parking is $7. See the map below for exhibitor booth placement.

eventmap
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

To effectively work a consumer book show, a book printer must remember that the publisher is there to sell books to customers, not to talk about book printing. Be respectful of the fact that you are interfering with the publisher’s main objective that day. Don’t interfere with any sales opportunities for the publisher.

One must be selective when approaching a publisher’s booth. If the booth is not busy, one can engage the publisher in conversation. Always allow the publisher to watch the crowd for prospects that may be approaching the booth by standing to one side. Speaking to the publisher makes the booth look busier and may attract customers who otherwise would not approach a quiet booth. Begin by asking the publisher about the books for sale, but tell him that you are interested as a vendor, not a customer. Ask how the books are selling. Ask what quantities the publisher prints. Get business cards of the main publisher or the print buyer, if it is a large publisher. Explain who you are and what you do. Offer a business card, but don’t be offended if the publisher doesn’t take one. The publisher is there to sell books, not find new vendors. Spend as much time with the publisher as he/she will allow and be prepared to move on to the next publisher when the conversation lulls.

If the publisher’s booth is busy, make a note. This publisher is selling books and may need a book printer soon. It may be necessary to return to the busy publisher’s booth when the crowds subside. If time doesn’t permit that, search the booth for the publisher’s business cards and take one. One can always contact the publisher at a future date to discuss printing. When the crowd does subside, one can use the same techniques to converse with a busy book publisher as described above for the not busy publisher.

Consumer book fairs were always a success for my book printing business. We developed at least two or three good leads at each LA Times Festival of Books. Consumer book fairs do take more patience when approaching the publishers’ booths than trade book fairs, but the results are worth the extra effort.

Bill Frank

2005-04-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

Bill Cropped
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

Helping Publishers Minimize Inventory Expense

2005-04-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

It’s Tax Day. Authors and publishers seldom consider the tax implications of their inventory of books. This oversight is a strong selling point for book printers to exploit when discussing printing quantities.

Printing too many books creates excessive inventory. While the printing costs can be expensed in the year they are incurred, the inventory is capitalized over several years during that time period the author/publisher must pay taxes on the inventory. If the books sell, there is cash to pay the taxes. If the books do not sell, however, then it costs the author/publisher money to hold the inventory of unsold books.

The smart printer knows this and capitalizes on the fact when selling to small or mid-sized publishers. The print salesperson knows that unsold inventory is bad for the author/publisher. Consultative print salespeople work with the publisher to select the optimum print quantity—one that is cost effective to print and to hold as inventory.

On the surface, this looks like a bad deal for the printer. Typically, this results in printing fewer books on the initial print run. If the printer stops and considers the facts, however, it works out to be a better deal. First, the act of consulting with the author/publisher on the quantity builds rapport and trust between the printer and the author/publisher. Second, two shorter print runs mean the author/publisher spends more money with the printer than one longer print run. Why? Because there are two set-up costs on two short print runs instead of one single set-up cost on a longer run. Third, if the author/publisher finds the market for the book on the first print run, the second run is longer and the two print runs typically are for more books than the initial print run would have been—which results in more money being spent for printing.

Remind the author/publishers with whom you work of the tax implications of printing too many books. Consult with them on how to optimize the initial print run so as not to pay too much in taxes on the inventory they create. By doing so, you will help the author/publisher and yourself at the same time.

More Information On Book Covers

2005-04-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday’s posting about book cover design clearly points out one thing—it is best to work with a good cover designer. See April 10th’s posting for a list of designers with whom I have worked successfully.

Once you understand the elements of good cover design, then it is important to understand what prints well on what types of presses. Each press has its different characteristics. As a book printer, it is up to you to communicate those characteristics to the designers with whom you work. A cover designer should know to limit using large solids on the cover. They are harder to print, especially on digital presses. If a large solid is required, try to break it up with background noise to make the color easier to print. Likewise, selectively use gradients when printing. They, too, are harder to print. If a gradient is required, make the steps of the gradient closer together. In other words, don’t go from a 0% color to a 100% color in the gradient. Instead, go from a 40% color to a 80% color.

Consider other ways in which you can be helpful to publishers. Trade books require an ISBN number—by definition that’s what makes them a trade book. Industrial books benefit by having an ISBN number because the ISBN gives the book more credibility to the buyer and preserves the possibility the book may be sold in a store some day. The publisher is responsible for obtaining the ISBN number, but you may find with first time authors and publishers, they don’t know where and how to get an ISBN number. ISBNs are sold by R.R. Bowker Company (www.bowker.com). They are sold in blocks of ten numbers. Purchasing information is listed on the web site. An important change is happening with ISBN numbers in January 2007. The required ISBN code will change from 10 digits to 13 digits. From January 1, 2007 forward, all ISBN numbers, EAN codes, etc. will require the 13-digit format. Publishers reprinting books should be reminded of this transition.

Coat the cover to improve its durability. There are three types of coatings available: aqueous, ultraviolet (UV) and film laminate—priced in this order from least expensive to most expensive. An aqueous coating is the least expensive choice. The coating is added at the time of printing. It adds to the books luster, but one downside is that an aqueous coating rubs off, especially in transit. Two books packed in a carton may smear ink on each other if protected by an aqueous coating alone. A UV coating provides protection from the sun as well as adding luster to the cover. Like aqueous coatings, the UV coating can rub off. Film laminate offers the highest protection against rubbing. It also provides some moisture resistance. Film laminates come in gloss, semi-gloss and matte finishes.

Book cover design is the prevue of the designer, but it is important for the book printer to know something about good design, too. Working closely with a professional designer and following these simple rules for non-fiction books will improve the book’s chances of selling well and returning for a second, or even third, printing.

Book Covers Sell Books

2005-04-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

The old adage, “you don’t judge a book by its cover” is wrong. We do judge books by their covers. 175,000 new books were published in 2004. How does a reader differentiate between all these choices? One way is by selecting a book with a cover that is pleasing.

There is a standard cover design for fiction and non-fiction books. This posting will explore the elements of a non-fiction book cover. The rules apply for both a hard cover and paperback non-fiction title.

The layout for printing a book cover is counter intuitive to many non-printers; the back cover is on the left, followed by the spine, followed by the front cover. A dust jacket for a hard cover book is laid out the same way with the back flap first, followed by the back cover, the spine, the front cover and the front flap.

Real estate on a book’s cover is valuable selling space. Book authors and publishers would do well to remember they are called “best selling” books for a reason.

The front cover must be eye-catching. It contains the book’s title and author by-line. Equally important is the subtitle to the book. The subtitle allows the author to more fully explain what the book is about. Examples of good titles with subtitles include: “Action! Nothing happens until something moves,” and “Beyond the Bookstore. How to sell more books profitably to non-bookstore markets.”

The test of an eye-catching book cover is to view it from across the room. If the book is visible and intriguing from across the room, it will display well in a bookstore. A similar test is to reduce the digital file of the book cover to three inches by three inches. If the cover is visible and intriguing at that size, it passes the same test as viewing it from across the room.

The book’s spine should have three elements: the books title, the author’s name and the publisher’s name or logo. Some consultants suggest printing the books title in a vertical stack so it’s legible when the book is displayed spine out in the bookstore. This is unconventional and a matter of personal choice.

The back cover is the most important part of the book cover design. This, too, sounds counter intuitive until one considers that the book’s back cover is what convinces readers to buy books. Studies have shown that a book buyer in a store follows this pattern when deciding on a purchase. They pick up the book based on its cover or its title on the spine. They look at the front cover. If that appeals to them, they turn the book over and spend time reading the back cover. Based on what they read on the back cover, they either put the book down or purchase it.

What differentiates a back cover that buyers like and one that they reject? There are several common elements to a back cover. At the top left-hand corner of the page is the category for the book. This category designation tells the book stocker (who is typically a minimum wage earner) where to place the book within the bookstore. Next is the back headline. This headline is different than the book’s title to make the best use of the limited cover space. For “The Self-Publishing Manual” by Dan Poynter, the back headline reads, “Why not publish yourself?” Following the headline is a brief description of the book. State what the book covers. Next, list the promises and benefits of your book; typically as bullet pointed items. Follow the promises with testimonials. Three testimonials is the ideal number. Try to have testimonials from a variety of people in a variety of industries. Give a brief author biography to validate why the author is qualified to write the book. And close with a statement designed to induce the buyer to purchase the book. The bottom of the book is filled with the ISBN number, bar code and price. These elements are combined into the EAN barcode.

There are several key items to remember when it comes to cover design. First, consider the testimonials. Potential buyers read the names of the people giving the testimonial. They look to see who wrote them before they buy. In today’s crowded book marketplace, will buy books from testimonials given by people with whom they identify. Select your testimonials wisely.

Second, the width of the spine is a critical measurement to provide the book designer. The spine width is calculated by taking the number of pages in the book, dividing that number by two (pages are printed on both sides) and multiplying by the width of a single sheet of paper (sometimes called the paper’s caliper). The spine size varies, therefore by the number of pagers and the paper stock selected. A 60 lb white, offset paper is thicker than a 50 lb white, offset paper, for instance. It isn’t always so easy to judge a paper’s thickness, however. In the Imperial measurement system, paper calipers are not logical. Consult your paper vendor’s price book for exact paper thicknesses.

Third, think four-color covers versus one- or two-color covers. With today’s equipment, four-color is nearly the same price as two-color. What’s more, to attract attention in the marketplace, four-color covers stand out better than one- or two-color covers.

Variable Data Book Printing (part two)

2005-04-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday’s posting looked at variable data books as a product to differentiate digital book printers from traditional ones. Today’s posting will explore the selling process for variable data books.

One of the challenges to selling variable data books is to convince the publisher there is an opportunity to sell the books. Most publishers are stuck in the old paradigm of long print runs of the same book to reduce the unit cost. Few realize that a variable data book has more appeal to the book buyer and is less expensive to distribute. Think of it this way. The versioned book for Shutters Hotel or for Albertsons/Savon is worth more to them because it has their logo on it. They are proud to distribute the book for the publisher. This is where the cost savings come into play. The variable data books are not sold through the traditional book trade, so there is no need to forfeit 70% of the list price to move it through the distribution chain. Albertsons/Savon or Shutters Hotel will distribute the book. The publisher can afford to sell it to them at a lower discount, typically 40%, to have them distribute the book—which means the publisher can spend more to have the book printed without eroding the profit margin. The client gets a customized product and the publisher makes more money.

A recent example of opening a publisher’s eyes to the opportunity occurred with the book “Million Dollar Dentistry.” The author mentions a specific brand name on a piece of dental equipment in the book. The author believes this is a quality piece of equipment that is underutilized by dentists and explains how they can make more money with it. I contacted the publisher to recommend they sell customized books to the equipment manufacturer. It is a win-win-win situation for all concerned. The equipment manufacturer gets a customized copy of the book, with their logo on the cover, that they can use as a premium to any dentist buying their equipment. The publisher sells more books and gets the books into the hands of the target audience, dentists. The book printer prints more books.

Printing variable data books is one area in which digital book printers prevail over traditional book printers. Yet, it is one of the least utilized techniques with publishers. Until book printers make publishers aware of the possibilities by sharpening their selling skills to include variable data printing, this will continue to be an area of great opportunity.

Variable Data Book Printing (part one)

2005-04-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

One of the great advantages digital book printers have over their ink & paper counterparts is the ability to print variable data books. Printing variable data books takes the limitation of digital presses to print long runs and turns it into an advantage—one for which the printer can charge more money. Digital presses can change images from one impression to the next while traditional presses are limited to printing the same image over and over again. In long print runs, the traditional press is superior (meaning less expensive to the publisher) because the set-up costs are spread over more copies of a book. At the same time, however, a traditional press cannot change images quickly because of the same set up costs which makes digital presses superior for variable data books.

There are several degrees of complexity for variable data books. Refer to the chart below.

CAPV
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

The simplest level of complexity is to change one word or image within the book. This may include changing a logo or image on the cover of a book or customizing the interior of a set of books with a personalized message or selected name inserted within the text. Think of the analogy to a mail-merge letter. The body of the letter remains the same, but the name of the recipient changes from copy to copy.

The second degree of sophistication is versioning. Versions of the book are created based on target criteria. Book components change from version to version of the book. For instance, the cover for one version may be completely different for one version than it is for another.

The third degree of sophistication is personalization. Books have content for a specific individual. Each book has a unique combination of text and graphics.

The final degree of sophistication is database publishing, also known as variable data or customized book printing. This is a complex form of printing that creates a flexible layout based on input from a database.

I have printed books in each category, but I will say that versioning and mail merge printing is the most common. One book I printed for mail merge application was entitled “The Older Cat.” The print order was for 500 copies. The book had 20 contributors who supplied stories to the book. We were to print 480 copies without any customization, but add the contributor’s name to the cover of the final 20. I was present when the publisher gave the books to the contributors at the Book Expo of America. At first nobody noticed the personalization, but their eyes lit up when they saw their name on the cover. It was a gratifying sight to see.

I printed several version books. Two that come to mind are “A Christmas Dozen” and “Balanced Spirituality.” “A Christmas Dozen” was a best seller for the author. One Christmas, Shutters Hotel in Santa Monica ordered 200 copies of the book with their logo on the front cover to give to guests as a premium for staying with them over the holidays. We printed the 200 copies within a longer print run of 750 copies of the book. The publisher of “Balanced Spirituality” landed a contract with Albertson’s/Savon stores in Southern California. She requested that the cover of each book have either the Albertson’s or Savon logo on the back along with an inserted page in the front with a welcome message from Albertson’s/Savon’s president. We printed 500 of these books.

Personalized books are among the hardest to print. I printed over 1000 personalized books at Kinko’s for their annual “picnic.” Each member of the Operations and Sales team got a binder with their name on the front, a customized schedule of events based on their role within the company and a personalized set of meeting handouts.

We printed very few database driven books or publications. The closest we got was to print health care plan directories of doctors that varied by state and by type of plan.

Variable data books were very profitable for us. We were able to charge a 30% premium over our normal book price to print mail merge or versioned books. The change in cost to print the variable data books was minimal to us. The printing presses and pre-press computers did most of the work. There was increased quality control expense, as you can imagine, by inspecting each book in the print run. And if a mistake was made, it was expensive to reprint the incorrect book.

Variable data books were a product that I promoted heavily. They allowed me to differentiate myself from other book printers. In future posts, I will explore the challenges and opportunities in selling variable data books.

Graphic Designers As Strategic Partners

2005-04-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

There comes a time for every printer when an author or small publisher asks for a recommendation for a good cover designer. One of the value-added services a book printer can offer is to have an extensive list of suppliers to recommend on such occasions. For my business, I always wanted to be certain that the vendors I recommended understood their craft and how to integrated it with our digital printing services. For no trade was this more important than for cover designers. The designers needed to prepare their files to be printed on our digital equipment. This meant understanding the capabilities and the limitations of what our equipment could print. It also meant preparing the files in such a way that they printed correctly every time we printed them.

It was not as easy as it might seem to find designers that understood our requirements. The designers would be stuck in the old paradigm of negatives and plates for printing covers. Furthermore, some designers did not understand the gamut limitations of printing color on digital printing equipment. Those designers that did understand our process and delivered clean files were the ones we tended to refer to customers asking for referrals. I have listed those designers below.

Tami Dever
TLC Graphics
Austin, TX
512-292-8798 tel.
tamara@tlcgraphics.com
www.TLCGraphics.com

Dottie Albertine
Albertine Graphic Design
Santa Monica, CA
310-450-0018
http://www.dotdesign.net

Ernie Weckbaugh
Casa Graphics
Burbank, CA
818-842-4278
casag@wgn.net

Robert Howard
Robert Howard Graphic Design
Fort Collins, CO
970-225-0083
rhoward@frii.com

Robert Aulicino
Aulicino Designs
Prescott, AZ
928-708-9445
aulicino@cableone.net
www.aulicinodesign.com

Chris Tobias
Outwear for Books
Grand Rapids, MI
248-634-3699
chris@tobiasdesign.com
www.tobiasdesign.com

Pam Terry
Opus 1 Designs
Los Angeles, CA
323-935-6666
pam@opus1design.com
www.opus1design.com

Patricia Bacall
Bacall & Associates
Los Angeles, CA
310 477-4330
pbacall@bacallandassociates.com

There are many other competent book cover designers. This list is a partial sampling based on designers I have personally worked with. For additional recommendations on designers, contact me at wafj@pacbell.net.

Book Printing Industry Recap 2004

2005-04-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

2004 was a mediocre year for book printers—though not all printers fared badly. The sales and performance measures of the various printers show the divisions that are developing in the book printing trade. It is clear that the digital, short-run printers are the ones that are succeeding.

In trade book printing, for instance, a lot of printing has been driven by a small number of big books, while backlist printing is down. This hurt the large book printers. The four-color children’s business and, to some extent, the low-end and high-end Bible business continue to be affected by the ongoing exodus to Asia. With time to market being the first priority on many jobs, however, Asia is not always the solution for four-color work. See the March 11 posting for the opportunity in four-color children’s book printing.

Much of the printing in 2004 came at the cost of reduced margins. While pricing pressures have been significant in the past, 2004 margin pressure was tighter as little sales growth in publishing plus overcapacity in the manufacturing sector made a very tough market.

The various book printing companies posted varied results for 2004. Arvato, Bertlesman’s book printing division, had a good year in the Offset Paperback Manufacturing and Berryville Graphics divisions, according to Randy Xenakis, executive vice-president of sales and marketing. Banta Book Group generated approximately $400 million in sales, with segments split almost evenly between educational, trade and catalog printing. A smaller segment, about 10%-12% comes from the tech business, according to Bob Kreider, president of the book group. For the most part, though, sales for the traditional, large book printers were flat to declining.

What is noteworthy, however, is digital printing Edwards Brothers president, John Edwards, said the Digital Book Center is the company’s fastest growing area. It gets a lot of attention both for its present business models and its future promise. Currently, the Digital Book Center is running three models for ultra-short-run printing: print to order; print to a minimum quantity; and print to order and ship directly to the customer. Mr. Edwards said nothing about their traditional book printing business, however.

Lightning Source president, Kirby Best, declared 2004 “spectacular.” Lightning Source has printed more than 14 million books since its launch, with an average print run of one to eight copies. Lightning’s record for a single day’s production is 41,000 books that was achieved in 2004. Typically, however, the average daily book production is up to 25,000. Lightning Source offers three different business models to its customers. In the distribution model, all orders are routed to Lightning, which prints and ships directly to the customer. Lightning then sends the publishers a check. In the drop-ship model, Lightning prints and ships according to the publisher’s instructions. The third is a short-run model, in which Lightning prints and ships the books to the publisher’s warehouse.

What does 2004 say about the book printing industry? Print runs are down which hurts large book printers. Margins are tighter which also hurts the large printers who have invested heavily in expensive press and bindery equipment. Work is fleeing to Asia in some categories of book printing. This kills those US printers competing in those categories such as children’s books and Bibles. Finally, digital printing is on the rise. Edwards Brothers, a large, “traditional” book printer has a thriving digital printing division. And Lightning Source continues to grow and prosper.

The market is shifting towards short-run, digitally printed books. The “traditional” book printers cannot or will not move quickly enough to capture the market. Upstarts, such as Edwards Brothers’ Digital Book Center and Lightning Source, are capturing some of the market, but there is more market to left to capture. Printers that move quickly enough will capture that market share. Those that do not will consolidate or disappear.

Printers Respect Book Publishers As Small Businesses

2005-04-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

Publishers are small business. According to the Publishers’ Marketing Association, there are 55,000 publishers; five large publishers, 300 medium sized publishers and the rest are small. All of the large publishing houses are part of larger media conglomerates such as Bertlesmann, Viacom, Disney or News Corporation. Even the largest publishers are small compared to the other media within the media conglomerates. The entire book publishing industry is a $23 billion dollar business. Do you think that Rupert Murdock, CEO of News Corporation, or Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, lay awake at night worrying about how their book businesses are performing? No. They are more worried about their movie or TV businesses. In fact, Sumner Redstone, CEO of Viacom, is selling off the book business to concentrate on the other media.

The fact that all book publishing is small business is an important dynamic to remember when working with book publishers. The needs of book publishers are the same as the needs of any other small business. Those printers already serving small and medium sized businesses have an advantage over those that do not.

The two main concerns for book publishers are distribution and marketing, regardless of the size of the publisher. These are the same issues faced by any small business. The printers dealing with the small businesses are aware of these needs and find ways to help their small business customers overcome these challenges. It’s easy, therefore, to establish rapport with the publishers because these printers already have solutions to offer.

Keep this advantage in mind. When competing against a larger book printer, the smaller book printer must emphasize the benefit of working with them because they already understand, and have overcome, the publisher’s challenges for other customers. This experience levels the playing field between small publishers and larger ones such as Banta, Edwards Brothers, Central Plains, Cushing-Malloy and Fidlar-Doubleday.

Godfrey Harris' Comments on the Changing Nature of Publishing

2005-04-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

I was my pleasure to hear Godfrey Harris, Executive Director of the International Publishers Alliance, speak on the changing nature of the publishing industry at the Book Publicists of Southern California meeting tonight. Mr. Harris is well respected worldwide for his knowledge about the book publishing industry. Mr. Harris made a number of good points, including the Harris Axioms for Small and Independent Publishers.

He began the speech by reminding everyone that publishing is a “commercial exercise.” The point of publishing, from its inception, was to make money. “Big publishing today has little to do with talent, or quality, or social benefit. It’s about making money.” This opens up a wealth of opportunities for small and independent publishers interested in fulfilling needs within the book trade.

The biggest publishers today are part of media conglomerates such as Bertlesmann, AG., Viacom and News Corporation. Interestingly, Viacom announced a restructuring to split its new media assets from its old media assets. Do you know where Simon & Schuster belongs—old media or new media? Neither. Viacom put it up for sale. CBS-TV, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Paramount, UPN, Showtime and Infinity Broadcasting are all more important to Sumner Redstone, Viacom’s CEO, than Simon & Schuster. Which brings up another interesting point. Within the large conglomerates, “big publishing” is a small part of the overall revenue of the corporation. In fact, even big publishing is small business in the scope of all available media.

Mr. Harris notes that book readership is down since 1987. It dropped from 57% of potential readers read at least one book in 1987 to 47% today. This is due to the staggering number of media alternatives such as TV, video games, DVDs, movies, concerts, the Internet, newspapers and magazines.

Readership Chart
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

Mr. Harris states that publishers are to blame for not making their medium more “reader friendly.” For instance, any printer knows that color sells. Items printed in color receive 60% more favorably response than black & white. Yet why do publishers persist in printing only black & white? Low cost color printing options are now available to help change this.

All of this discussion leads to Harris’ Axioms. Axiom One: Every book deserves to be written; but only a few deserve to be published. There was nervous laughter from the crowd when Mr. Harris said this. Many in the audience were wondering to themselves if their book deserved to be published. I agree with this axiom with one minor corollary: every book deserves to be published if it can be published profitably. As printers, we can help publishers find ways to make their books profitable by using marketing techniques we use with our other, non-publishing customers.

Axiom Two: Sell what the market wants, not what you want to sell to the market. Know your market. Know what your market will buy. Think about the readability of the book (page layout, typography, paragraph length, color) before worrying about the words in the book. Think marketing before substance. Think selling before editing. As printers, we can influence the salability of the book, if the publisher will allow us. It comes down to the rapport with the publisher.

Axiom Three: Publish to make a difference, not to win someone’s acceptance.

Mr. Harris’ speech had wisdom for everyone: writers, publishers, publicists and printers. The audience enthusiastically applauded him. If you have the opportunity to hear him speak, I recommend you do so.

E-Books As An Add-on Sale

2005-04-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

One of the easiest add-on sales a book printer can make today is creating an e-book file for a customer. In my business, we specialized in Adobe Acrobat e-book formats. We charged the customer an additional $125-$150 per e-book. The costs to produce an e-book were negligible.

Most books’ text pages are created digitally—being delivered to the printer in a word-processing or a page layout format. The cover art is also created digitally. Our graphic artists took the digital text pages, distilled them using Adobe Acrobat’s Distiller program. They did the same for the cover art and then combined the two into a digital PDF file that could be sold as an e-book.

The benefit to the publisher is providing an e-book as a second product they can sell on-line through their own web page, one of the many e-book sites or Amazon. For very little money, the publisher gets another stream of income from the book.

There is debate whether or not e-books will succeed as a form of book. On the one hand, e-books are portable, lightweight and can be read on a computer or a dedicated, hand-held device. An ideal application for e-books is student textbooks. With school systems cutting back on lockers for students’ books, each child is forced to carry every book he/she owns in a backpack. One e-book reader could hold all the student’s textbooks and eliminate the need for lockers or backpacks. It is perhaps more important for college students whose books can cost more than $100 per class. E-books may be a way to lower the overall cost of college books and make them more accessible to all.

On the other hand, most people are not comfortable reading a book on a computer or a hand-held device. Eye fatigue plays a big part in limiting e-books’ adoption. Until screen technology on digital devices improves, the acceptance of e-books will be slow.

There are many forms of e-books that add to the dilemma. Adobe Acrobat PDF format is the dominant format, but Microsoft has a competing format, .lit files. There are also HTML-based formats for e-books. A clever printer might learn how to produce all forms of e-books, but would the time invested be worthwhile? Microsoft file based e-books are the second best selling form of e-book, but if you look on Amazon you will see that Adobe Acrobat format outsells Microsoft almost three-to-one. HTML-based format books are even farther behind Microsoft e-books. Most printers are familiar with Acrobat PDF files because they work with them daily. To maximize profit and reduce the learning curve required to master creating e-books, therefore, it is best to stick to Adobe Acrobat format.

Producing e-books in the Adobe Acrobat format is a win-win situation for the book printer and the publisher. Each gains an additional product to sell. The profit margin high for both the printer and the publisher, thus making e-books one of the easiest add-on sales a book printer has available.

Book Shepherds Are Key to Success

2005-04-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

There is an important category of service providers in the book industry that benefits all book printers to know. They are called “book shepherds.” Book Shepherds help fledgling authors and publishers to take their books from manuscript to printed product. Dan Poynter, the guru of self-publishing, first used the term book shepherd in the late-1990s.

While each book shepherd has a specialty, all help transform a writer’s or first-time publisher’s manuscript into a finished product. Most offer such services as editing, typesetting, product positioning within the book marketplace, layout and design and, in some cases, selecting distribution channels. The book shepherd also helps select the book printer for each job.

A book shepherd manages several book projects at once. The larger the book shepherd, the more projects in process at any given time. This means numerous printing opportunities to a book printer over time. Furthermore, if the book sells well, it means reprint opportunities from the publisher even after the publisher or author has left the book shepherd’s care.

There are many book shepherds throughout the United States. The ones I have worked with, primarily in California, are listed below. Finding other book shepherds is not as easy as going to the Yellow Pages and looking under Book Shepherds. It may take some research to find the ones closest to you. The place to research book shepherds is on the vendor pages of book related web sites such as Dan Poynter’s www.parapub.com, John Kremer’s www.bookmarket.com and the Small Publishers Association of North America’s site www.spannet.org.

Ellen Reid
Ellen Reid’s Book Shepherding
510 Castillo Street, Suites 301 and 304
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805-965-3352 tel.
Ellen@bookshep.com

Patty and Ernie Weckbaugh
Casa Graphics
1718 Rogers Place #1A
Burbank, CA 91504
818-842-4278 tel.
casag@wgn.net

Penny Paine and Gail Kearns
To Press and Beyond
825 East Pedregosa Street, Suite #2
Santa Barbara, California 93103
Tel: 805-898-2263
Toll Free: 866-528-9901
Fax: 805-898-9460

Carolyn Porter & Alan Gadney
One to One Book Productions
7944 Capistrano Avenue
West Hills, CA 91304
818/340-6620 tel.
onebookpro@aol.com

Mary Embree
1375 Poli Street, Suite 14
Ventura, CA 93001
805-643-6279 tel.
maryembree@sbcglobal.net

Amazon Acquisition of BookSurge Impacts Book Printing

2005-04-04T08:11:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com acquired BookSurge, LLC today. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. For the details of the story, please see http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20050404072909990019.

BookSurge is a distributed book printer with affiliates throughout the world. They print short-run, digital books for publishers. BookSurge competes directly with companies like Xlibris and Lightening Source.

The acquisition gives Amazon book printing capabilities to compliment its global book distribution network. Amazon now competes directly with Ingram who invested in Lightning Source. Ingram is the United States’ largest wholesaler of books to bookstores. The two behemoths will fight head-to-head to attract publishers, print and distribute books.

The implications of the acquisition and the subsequent competition are profound. Both companies are validating short-run, digital book printing as a legitimate form of publishing. Furthermore, both companies are leveraging their distribution channels to pump more digitally produced books into bookstores and libraries. The race is now on to develop a true, worldwide network of distributed book printers to meet an anticipated need.

Those companies already participating in digital book printing should feel vindicated. They were the pioneers who recognized the need ahead of the large companies. At the same time, these same companies should be concerned that the financial and marketing might of Ingram and Amazon will be directed at developing this market.

There still remains a great opportunity for any book printer to capitalize on this newly found interest in digital book printing. Smart book printers will take advantage of the marketing muscle these companies have and leverage it with their customers and prospects. Smart book printers will show how technology can help publishers meet the demands of niche markets. They will point out that corporate giants are investing heavily to develop a market in which they are already established. These opportunistic companies will use the marketing materials that both giants produce to support their position in the marketplace. Individual printing businesses should be able to “ride on the coattails” of the large companies to success.

A bigger question remains unanswered. What other companies will enter this market? Who will be the first to develop a worldwide, book printing network? What will the book printing leaders such as Banta, RR Donnelley, and Bertlesmann do? Equally importantly, what will the large chain and franchise printers such as Kinko’s, Sir Speedy, PIP and Kwik Kopy do?

The large book printing companies will likely do nothing. They are too heavily invested in “big iron,” large heat-set, web presses. They will not forsake their current technology to pursue a distributed book printing network based on digital technology. The opportunity exists for these large companies to acquire a network of independent, digital book printers. This process will take time, however, to research, negotiate and assimilate the potential companies. In the beginning, these cobbled networks will lack the consistency and unity required of a distributed network.

That leaves the chains and franchises to accept the challenge. Already there are signs that selected printers within franchise chains, such as PIP and Sir Speedy, are entering the digital book printing market as individual players. In many cases, these parent companies have a global presence. They also possess the infrastructure necessary to unify a distributed book printing network. These chains and franchises also have experience working together; teamwork that the larger printers will lack. Their common brand gives them some consistency and unity. It remains to be seen if they have the leadership to embrace the opportunity to play with the likes of Amazon and Lightning Source.

Today’s announcement demonstrates Amazon’s commitment to this market. Ingram has already invested in Lightning Source and is committed. Both companies see the potential of a distributed book printing network to meet a market need. Who else will recognize the need? What other types of companies will commit to the challenge? Or will the market be left to ingenious independent book printing companies who fill the void? No matter what, the future certainly be interesting.

The Case for Self-Publishing

2005-04-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

I correspond with Lindsay Kellock, a book shepherd in Canada, about the book business. She says that some of her readers are asking her to focus on solving the conundrum of the publishing-marketing-distribution of books.

I said I have to agree. The entire publishing model is based on 20th century thinking and is outmoded. Most notable is the idea of book returns; a practice that started in the Great Depression and has not be changed since then. What other industry allows a buyer to return a product 90- or more days later if they miscalculated the demand? None comes to mind.

The royalty payments modern authors receive are outdated, too. A 5%-7% royalty is a pittance compared to the self-publishing returns. Furthermore, most books don't even earn back their advance against royalties. It's only the John Grishams and Bill Clintons of the world that earn enough money to justify the publisher’s investment. This is why publishers are reluctant to take on "new" authors unless they think the author will be a mega-hit.

I am a big proponent of self-publishing. If the author has a solid idea to whom the book will appeal, then he/she can target that audience better than a publisher selling through bookstores. And every sale will be more profitable.

The challenge is for the author to assume the "risk" a publisher assumes for marketing and distributing the book. It takes money to market and distribute books. One cannot tie up precious capital in printing 3,000-5,000 copies. Short-run, digital printing permits an author to print 500 copies and use the money they save on marketing. Yes, the cost per book for 500 copies is higher, but the overall cash outlay is less. For example, is it better to spend $3 per book at 500 copies ($1,500) than 1.50 per book at 3,000 copies ($4,500). The extra $3,000 can be used for marketing and distribution. If the book sells well, there is cash to reprint (perhaps at a higher quantity, too).

Selling books must happen outside the bookstores if an author is to be successful. The Internet has made direct selling more affordable to self-publishers. That's only the start, however. There are many markets available to a publisher. Please see my illustration of the Book Compass that helps publishers give direction to the markets into which they wish to sell.

Book Compass
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

For a phenomenal examination of markets outside the bookstores, see Brian Jud's book "Beyond the Bookstore."

The Golden Age for Book Printing

2005-04-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

By a margin of 35% to 21%, most adults choose reading over television according to a Harris Interactive telephone survey of 1,014 US adults. In 2004, 175,000 new titles were published according to RR Bowker. The total number of books in print is nearly 3,000,000. That is a staggering number of choices for adults to read.

There are now more college graduates than at any other time in history; which means there are more people interested in reading than at any other time. It also means there are more people capable of authoring a book than at any other time in history—a fact confirmed by the growing number of new titles each year.

All these circumstances taken together make this the golden age for book printing. Never have there been more titles to print and reprint than today.

With this tremendous choice available to readers, however, there is a paradox—fewer and fewer copies of a single title are sold. Publishers are aware of this paradox and have to make two important decisions: 1) how many books to print and 2) how to reach the target audience for the book.

Book printers can help publishers with these decisions. By using short-run, digital printing, publishers can economically produce shorter runs of books. Printing 500 books today may make as much sense as printing 5,000 books did several years ago. While the unit cost of each book is higher, the total investment in printing is less. Furthermore, if the book sells well, the publisher has the option to print another run of digital, short-run books or move to a traditional book printer.

Reaching the target audience is another area in which the book printer can help. Savvy book printers offer to print, package and send review copies to selected print media for book reviews. In additional to review copies, the book printer can print and distribute a direct selling campaign similar to ones they may be producing for non-book printing customers.

For a fascinating discussion of the new dynamics of reading, please read “So Many Books, Reading in an Age of Abundance” by Gabriel Zaid. This book is an example of a well-made, short-run, digital book in addition to being an interesting read.

More Promotional Ideas for Publishers

2005-04-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

When I read of this promotional item from Scholastic, Inc., US publisher of the Harry Potter series of books, it made me think how book printers can leverage the idea for their other customers.

Book Sense ran the following article:
Special Harry Potter Gift Card Created for Book Sense Stores
Beginning next week, booksellers participating in the Book Sense Gift Card program will be able to order a special limited edition Harry Potter Book Sense gift card and coordinating presenter, which have been created in cooperation with Scholastic, Inc., the U.S. publisher of J.K. Rowling's record-breaking Harry Potter series. The gift card will feature art from the eagerly awaited Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which has an on-sale date of Saturday, July 16.

What Scholastic has chosen to do is print “book reservation cards” that fit inside of envelopes to pre-sell customers on the forthcoming title. Scholastic’s printer will print the cards and envelopes. Scholastic will be responsible for distributing them to participating bookstores.

Savvy book printers will take this idea and sell it to their current book printing customers. The concept is simple. While a book is being edited and typeset, suggest to the publisher to print some “reservation cards” and envelopes based on the cover art of the book. The reservation cards are then sent to bookstores, distributors and individual readers who may want to buy the book when it is printed. Furthermore, the book printer can offer to mail the reservation cards for the publisher if the publisher provides a list. In that way, the book printer has created two additional printing opportunities for this title.

The lesson to be learned is not to be afraid to “borrow” a good idea from one source to use with your book publishing customers. The idea doesn’t have to be original to be effective for the printer and the publisher.

Printing Promotional Books From the Public Domain

2005-03-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

When I owned my book printing company, we gave away blank books as promotional items. Each book had a 4-color cover with our contact information, logo, etc. The interior pages were blank so the book could be used as a notebook or journal. This idea was fine, but I think it can be improved upon.

If I had it to do over again, I would reprint titles in the public domain, customize them with my logo and contact information and distribute them to my clients. Naturally, I would choose titles that I thought would benefit my clients and prospects. If they read the books, it would make them think of me. Even if they didn’t read the books, each book reinforces the fact that I print books.

The titles I would choose are business titles since most of my book-buying customers were business people. There are many good business titles in the public domain. Among my favorites are Acres of Diamonds by Russell Herman Conwell and As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. These titles, and more, are available from Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org. The texts can be downloaded for free since these titles are in the public domain and produced without paying a royalty.
The titles would require the book printer to format, typeset, customize and print the books. These steps cost money. The finished book, however, would be a one-of-a-kind promotional item that any sales person would be pleased to distribute.

The idea needn’t stop with promotional items for one’s own book printing business, either. The same book can be customized and offered to non-book printing customers for their own promotional use. Thus, a free asset from the public domain can generate revenue for book printers willing to invest the time to sell the concept.

Some book printers use samples of their customers’ books as promotional items. This practice is fine, but you must obtain permission from the author/publisher to use their books as samples. Titles in the public domain don’t require any permission to use.

When thinking about promotional items for your book printing business, don’t overlook the obvious—reprinted titles from the public domain. They are easy to obtain, produce and distribute.

Opportunities Are Everywhere

2005-03-30T16:23:00.000-08:00

I visited a book printer today who reinforced my belief that there are many book printing opportunities right under our noses every day. The key is to ask enough questions and think clearly enough to see them all.

The book printer I visited was Bill Kirsch, PIP Printing in Burbank, CA. He currently prints several books for different customers and is considering expanding his book printing business. We had a pleasant visit during which he told me of several of the books he currently prints. We discussed his capabilities and opportunities for growth. By the end of the conversation, we had identified several printing opportunities based on the customers he already was serving.

To give you some examples of how I expanded his thinking into more printing products, let’s examine two of the titles he is printing.

The first is a spirituality book for a local publisher. The book is nicely designed, but the cover lacks the EAN barcode required to sell through the traditional book trade. Without the EAN barcode, the bookstore scanners cannot read the ISBN number or price. The first idea was to suggest adding an EAN barcode to the book. Adding the barcode will give the book more credibility to readers (readers expect the book to be sold through bookstores and the barcode is an outward sign of a “good” book). Furthermore, an EAN barcode will allow the publisher to sell the book through the bookstores, without going back to print, if she decides to in the future. Does adding an EAN barcode result in a large sale? Probably not. An EAN barcode costs around $25. What Bill gains, however, is respect from the publisher for thinking of ways to improve her book. What is that worth? And it gives him the opportunity to reprint the cover, too.

In further conversation, I learned that this was the third book this publisher has printed with Bill. If a publisher has three titles, the opportunity exists to create and print a catalog for that publisher. A catalog for a publisher of this size may be as simple as an 11 x 17 4-color sheet, folded to 8.5 x 11. The back panel is an order form and the first three panels tell about the publisher’s history along with a brief description of the three titles. A catalog like this is no different than product sheets or small newsletters that Bill prints everyday in his business. To this publisher, however, it is a new product and she will think better of Bill for recommending it.

Another book printing project we discussed was for a local high school. Bill prints the high school’s football program for each game. He has earned the confidence and respect of the school officials to print this highly visible program. What other products can he leverage from this? Schools are always looking for ways to make more money. Fundraisers are a staple every year. One product we discussed was to approach the school about printing a cookbook of recipes from the mothers of the boys playing football. Each mother would submit a recipe printed from a computer. Bill would collect the recipes, typeset them, lay them out as a book, print the book and deliver them to the school. The school would then market and distribute the books to the students and parents. If Bill sells comb or spiral bound book for $2 or $3, the school can sell the finished book for $8 or $10—making a $6 to $7 profit on each book.

This project is a win-win-win for everyone involved. The school has a novel product for a fundraiser that earns significant profit on each sale, the parents feel a part of the project by contributing to the recipe book and Bill sells more printing than he currently sells to this group.

The outcome of this visit is a lesson for all book printers. Look for ways to sell more books for your publishers. The opportunities are numerous. All it takes is asking questions and being open to new possibilities.

A Distributed Book Printing Network

2005-03-29T20:12:00.000-08:00

For years, the idea of a distributed book printing company has appealed to me. Ever since I did the preliminary research for Kinko’s on the book printing market, I knew that an opportunity existed for one company to jump in with book printing plants throughout the country and capture significant market share. Why? For the simple reason books are heavy. It costs money to ship them; sometimes nearly as much to ship them as to print them. Printing the books closer to where they will be distributed reduces shipping costs for publishers.

For any company embracing this opportunity several challenges must be overcome. First, how many printing plants are required? The actual number depends on whether the printer is targeting trade or industrial book publishers. For instance, if the printer targets trade book publishers, there are five Ingram warehouses, four Baker & Taylor warehouses and four Amazon warehouses located throughout the country. The printer would want to be close to these warehouses to minimize shipping expense.

In the past, printers have centralized their production in one facility because of the heavy capital expenditure of duplicating equipment in multiple locations. Centralization also eased the management, quality control and customer service issues. With today’s digital printing equipment, the capital needed to duplicate printing facilities in multiple locations is a fraction of what it once cost. For instance, a Xerox Docutech may be $500,000 but a traditional web press might cost $5 million.

Second, the quality of printing must be consistent from plant to plant. With a distributed network of printers, it is harder to control the quality on each shift in each plant. Once again, digital technology comes to the rescue. Creating the digital original in a standardized format, such as Adobe Acrobat’s PDF format, and running it on standardized digital output devices, improves quality control. Standardizing the digital original allows the quality control to be performed on the digital file before sending it to the output devices. While by no means perfect, a well-made digital file increases the chances the file will printing consistently on any output device.

Third, pricing the printed product must be fast, easy and consistent at each plant. Using standardized pricing and management software overcomes this shortcoming. Concentrating all the pricing and estimating and customer service functions in one location greatly aids consistency, too. Software makes creating an estimate faster and more accurate than creating one by hand. Fast turnaround on estimating is a requirement in the marketplace today. Furthermore, the pricing must be competitive with “traditional” book printers. And, while each printer’s cost structure varies, combining digital printing techniques with state-of-the-art pricing and estimating reduces the differences between traditional and digital printers in quantities up to 3,000 copies of a book.

Finally, fast turnaround of the printed book is paramount to the success of a distributed printing network. Scheduling work becomes one of the big constraints for any distributed book printer. Those printing plants closest to the largest warehouse, such as Ingram’s main warehouse in TN, will receive more work than plants nearer the remote warehouses and distributors. Fortunately, digital printing equipment is scalable and additional capacity can be added relatively quickly compared to adding additional presses.

The market is waiting for some company to offer a distributed book printing solution. Large chains, such as Kinko’s, have the potential to capitalize on the opportunity quickest. Franchise printers, such as Sir Speedy, PIP, Kwik Kopy and others, can capitalize on the opportunity too, but it is difficult to organize and coordinate independent franchisees to act as a coordinated group. The traditional book printers are too heavily invested in legacy printing presses and procedures to start completely new businesses. So, which company will step up to the challenge? Only time will tell.

BLADs

2005-03-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

I was in the Hudson Bookstore at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and saw something unusual on the counter. It was something that I had seen at the Book Expo of America but never in a retail store. The cover read: “Free Preview Excerpt” for two of Phillip Margolin’s novels, "Lost Lake" (on sale March 1, 2005) and "Gone, But Not Forgotten" (1993).

In the trade, this is known as a BLAD (Book Layout and Design). They are available at the Book Expo of America for bookstore buyers to sample a few chapters of a novel before buying. There is just enough storyline to pique the reader’s interest, but not give away the plot. The BLAD has the exact cover art and interior page layout that the final book will have.

This particular BLAD is very interesting. It is four by five and a half inches in dimension, printed on newspaper-grade stock. It has a four-color cover with a glossy film laminate. The BLAD is 96 pages. All these dimensions make the BLAD easy for the printer to run.

What makes this BLAD clever is the way in which the publisher, HarperCollins, differentiated the two novels in the same BLAD. One novel is printed right-side up and the other novel is printed upside down. The reader can read the first 48 pages of "Lost Lake" and then flip the book over and read 48 pages of "Gone, But Not Forgotten."

We printed only one BLAD for a customer. It was entitled The Healthy Hedonist by Janet Bridgers. We printed it for her immediately before the Book Expo of America in 2001. We also printed several books with the right-side up and upside down method. Mostly we printed these books for bi-lingual books where one story was in English the other in Spanish.

When I saw this BLAD from HarperCollins, I immediately called Ellen Reid at Little Moose Press. She has an author, Louise Gaylord, who has two fiction titles that are the first two in a series of mystery novels. The first novel is entitled "Anacacho" and the second is entitled "XS." I suggested to Ellen that she print a BLAD with “Preview Excerpts” of both novels. This may be a key component of reaching bookstore buyers.

The opportunity is available to any book publisher that wants to promote one or more titles. Sometimes all that is needed to generate more printing for the book printer is to suggest ideas like printing BLADs, particularly as we approach Book Expo of America each year.

For a copy of Phillip Margolin’s BLAD, contact HarperCollins or visit a bookstore near you. HarperCollins is located at 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

The Value of PMA University

2005-03-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

Each year, the Publishers' Marketing Association holds a university to train book publishers and their staff. This year’s theme is "Inventive Publishers Reinventing Publishing." Each course taught at the PMA University will examine the critical need for publishers to examine their publishing model and creatively reinvent their company and their products on a regular basis.

This year PMA University is the largest educational event for book publishers in the United States and, perhaps, the world. There are more than 70 courses during the three-day event which will be held May 31 through June 2, 2005. PMA University will attract more than 600 attendees from through the US, Canada and the world.

In addition to the courses, there are two major attractions: the Benjamin Franklin Awards Gala and the Trade Show. The Benjamin Franklin Awards honor the best in book publishing for the previous year. There are first, second and third place winners in each category. Being nominated or winning a Benjamin Franklin Award propels book sales of that title for the publisher. The Trade Show is an exhibition of different trades catering to book publishers. The PMA encourages the publishers to visit the Trade Show which means that each exhibitor may be visited by as many as 600 attendees.

This year there is a special Mid-Size Publishers Event on June 2, 2005. It is designed to be a forum for top management professionals within the book publishing community to discuss opportunities, challenges, achievements and successes for their businesses. A prerequisite for publishers is 50 or more titles in print and/or a minimum of $2 million in annual sales.

There are several reasons why PMA University is important to any book printer. First, it brings together the ideal target audience for a book printer—the small to medium sized publishers looking for innovative solutions to improve their business. Among these publishers are several who will be changing book printers within the year. Second, there is no better gathering to understand the issues facing book publishers. Understanding the issues book publishers face opens up potential solutions you can offer. For instance, in 2001 I participated in a panel discussion on variable data printing at PMA University because I learned the year before that it was an interest to some publishers. Third, the Trade Show is an exceptional place to exhibit your printing company. Fourth, the Benjamin Franklin Awards showcase the best books publishers produced the previous year. I always examine the winners to better understand printing quality, new techniques and what my competitors are producing. Fifth, the Mid-Size Publishers Event is an opportunity to mingle with the brightest prospects among the 600 people attending PMA University. Sixth, the educational courses provide insight into next year’s trends in the publishing industry. And seventh, working with publishers is a long-term relationship. Attending and participating in events like the PMA University demonstrates a printer’s commitment to the market.

If you are not a member of the Publishers' Marketing Association, then consider becoming one to augment your business. If you are a member, then make plans to attend the PMA University for as long as you are in this market. The time and money you invest with PMA will yield dividends for your business.

Book Expo of America

2005-03-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

Book Expo of America is the “greatest show on earth” if you are involved in the book business. As book printers, it is the most important trade show in the United States. Booksellers, retailers, librarians, educators, rights professionals, international publishing executives, publishers and people interested in books will descend on New York City June 2-5, 2005. Jacob Javitts Center will host over 2000 exhibitors covering over 300,000 square feet of floor space. If you have never been to a Book Expo of America, you owe it to yourself to attend one.

Book Expo of America was established for publishers to offer their products for the fall season to the bookstore buyers. In recent years, the buying and selling of International Rights to books has become equally important to the publishers.

Book Expo offers five key attractions. First are the exhibit halls and pavilions. All major U.S. publishers have a presence along with publishers of all sizes from the U.S. and around the world. The publishers will exhibit a wide variety of book, non-book and gift items such as bookmarks, reading lights, etc. as well as technology products.

Second, there are conferences and educational programs offered to address topics of interest to all segments of the book industry. Many of the sessions are free to anyone registered for the event.

Third, there is the International Rights Center. Rights business takes center stage in the Rights Center. Agents, scouts, publishers, packagers and acquisition editors will be looking to buy or sell rights.

Fourth, there is an autographing program that features over 400 authors. The autographing program is a highlight of Book Expo of America. These authors sign books in special autographing areas as well as in exhibitor booths. The halls are filled with celebrity authors and dignitaries for the autographing sessions.

Fifth, there are special events and networking opportunities including author breakfasts, luncheons, receptions, special lounges and more.

To make the most of Book Expo of America requires a plan. The size and scope of the event can be overwhelming. I recommend focusing on the areas that will generate the most value for a book printer. Be respectful of why the publishers are at the BEA, however. They are there to sell books to booksellers. Any intrusion by a printer is a distraction for them.

I always spend time in the Small Publishers’ section. These publishers offered the most potential for obtaining new book printing. This section of Book Expo of America is typically separated from the main exhibits. I meet and greet publishers that fit my criteria for a good customer. See my earlier blog for what makes a good book printing customer.

Next, I tour the aisles for other book printers. Many international book printers exhibit at BEA. I scope out the competition and take brochures and information about their businesses to study back at my office.

I always visit the International publishers area. The publishers in this area are divided into sections by the countries of origin. I search for titles that may be a good fit for my domestic publishers and suggest a rights sale.

Finally, no BEA is complete without visiting the large publishers. I tour them to see what new books will be available in the fall. I also pick up the BLADs and Review Copies of books for my personal reading. Finally, I look to see where the large publishers are focusing their marketing efforts. Occasionally, seeing the trends of the large publishers gives me ideas of ways my smaller publishers can piggyback on their marketing efforts.

Overall, no book printer can fully understand the book publishing market without attending at least one Book Expo of America.

Segmenting Trade Versus Industrial Book Printing

2005-03-23T19:37:00.000-08:00

The book market is not homogeneous and a printer cannot serve the needs of all types of publishers. There were over 175,000 books published in 2003. These books were published by over 55,000 publishers ranging in size from one title to hundreds of titles. Yet, the average print quantity for a book over the entire lifespan of the book is only 7,500 copies. What determines the different types of publishers and their revenue potential to a book printer?

There are many different types of publishers: trade book, children’s book, scientific, technical and medical book, cookbook, travel book, foreign book, royalty, subsidy, vanity and self-publishers. With this many categories, selecting a segment is difficult. The choice needn’t be that hard, however.

First, books fall into one of two larger categories: trade books and industrial books. A trade book is sold through a traditional book distribution channel such as bookstores or retail stores. One defining characteristic of a trade book is that it has an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). A trade book typically has an EAN barcode so it can be scanned at the checkout counter. An EAN barcode combines the books ISBN number and its price bar code into one. Selling through traditional book distribution channels is difficult and competitive. Trade book publishers may be open to additional marketing pieces printed by the book publisher that will help promote the book.

An industrial book, by contrast, is not sold through traditional book distribution channels. It is generally targeted for a niche market, not the general population. It may, or may not, have an EAN barcode. Many book publishers are including an EAN barcode, however, because these barcodes give the book legitimacy in the reader’s eyes or the publisher may elect to sell the book through the book distribution channel in the future. For the most part, industrial book publishers have established channels to distribute their books and need very little assistance from the book printer for marketing ideas.

Examples of trade books include hard and soft cover fiction and non-fiction, children’s books, cookbooks, foreign language books, travel books, etc.

Industrial books include publications in the following areas: medical/healthcare, insurance, automotive, educational (including training but excluding schools), financial and directories.

In my book printing company, the average invoice for a trade book was $1,127. The average invoice for an industrial book was $1,765. We printed industrial books in the medical/healthcare, insurance, automotive and educational categories. For example, we printed healthcare directories of doctors for Blue Cross and automotive parts manuals for Nissan and Suzuki. Our industrial book printing was the base on which we built our business. Industrial books were predictable, repetitive and consistent printing for us.

Trade book printing was more varied and more inconsistent. Trade book publishers required more assistance and support throughout the printing process. In many cases, the trade book publishers printed once and never returned because their books never sold. On those occasions when they did sell, however, the trade book printing was a profitable as the industrial book printing. We had one book, “A Christmas Dozen,” that sold 7,500 in its first year—a success story for the publisher.

Don’t be fooled by the average invoices, however. Trade book printing offers more opportunity to print ancillary items for the publisher to support the sale of the book including items like review copies, bookmarks, postcards and the other items mentioned in the posting entitled "Printing Marketing Items for Book Publishers." Industrial book publishers have a more defined idea of the way in which they will market their books and may not need any assistance (or additional printing) from you.

Preparing to Print Books (part two)

2005-03-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

Preparing to print books is a serious task. It takes the right equipment, systems and people to print books successfully. In the previous blog, we discussed equipment and people. We will discuss the important systems that must be in place before entering the book printing market.

The first is a solid pricing and estimating system—preferably one that is automated. There are many packages available on the market including: PrintSmith, Printer’s Plan, Logic, Haagen and many “home-made” programs. Regardless of which package is selected, it must be able to track customers, their orders, track customers’ buying history and present a professional looking estimate and invoice. Equally important, the estimating package must present the final price in total dollars and the price per book. Several of the packages must be reconfigured to include the price-per-book. Publishers evaluate printers on a price-per-book basis. Make it easy on the publisher and include the price-per-book clearly in the body of the estimate.

The pricing and estimating system must also produce a clear, easy-to-understand job ticket. In addition, there should also be a comprehensive Notes Section to the job ticket to help clarify important points. The job ticket should have a Change Order feature to allow the printer to note changes and charge appropriately for them.

Every book printer should have a Quality Control (QC) system in place. The QC system should be flexible enough to catch mistakes early in the printing process. It should also be adaptive enough to account for each customer’s unique production requirements. In addition to a QC system, a book printer should have a customer feedback system. This system can be manual or computer-based, but it should allow the customer to track the progress of a job throughout production and to make changes (communicated through the Change Order forms in the Pricing and Estimating program) easily. Finally, in the event of a problem, a book printer should have a Problem Recovery system. It has been my experience that most printers have good Problem Recovery systems when a customer complains. Statistics show, however, that only 12% of the customers with a problem complain. The others simply don’t do business with the printer again.

A profitable book printer will have a good shipping system. Such a system adds to the book printer’s profitability. See the March 15, 2005 blog for a complete discussion on shipping and profitability.

Every book printer knows that printing is a small part of a publisher’s value chain. To add value above the printing, most good book printers keep a current supplier list for their publisher customers. Included on the supplier list would be typesetters, book packagers, book shepherds, cover design artists, editors, international rights specialists, distributors and wholesalers. If the printer has the publisher’s confidence, the publisher will rely on the printer for recommendations. The suppliers want to be on the list that printers recommend for the business that is referred their way.

Finally, each book printer should have a sales system to systematically contact and follow up with current publishers and prospects. There are many software programs to help this system including ACT!, Now Contacts, Outlook and new, web based applications. Regardless of the software used in the process, a printer must constantly be communicating with existing customers and prospecting new ones.

These are the necessary systems a book printer should have in place before entering into the market. Many printers have several of these systems already in place but, to be successful, one must have all the systems in place. If a printer is unwilling or unable to commit to having all these systems, then consider another niche to grow the business. As Vince Lombardi said, “The will to win isn’t as important as the will to prepare to win.” Be prepared with all the necessary systems if you expect to win.

Preparing to Print Books (part one)

2005-03-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, said, “The will to win isn’t as important as the will to prepare to win.” This is especially true for printers considering entering the book printing market. If you do not prepare properly before you enter the market, book printing could be highly unprofitable, even disastrous, for your business.

Preparation is required in three key areas: equipment, systems and people. No one area is more important than the other two, and all three must be ready before entering into book printing. What’s more, the key areas need to be addressed in the order presented: equipment, systems and people. Most printers are equipment freaks. They buy the necessary equipment and think they are ready to print books. This is similar to “Field of Dreams” thinking—buy it and they (the customers) will come. By neglecting the other two areas, systems and people, the equipment-minded printer may disappoint his book publishing customers.

Preparation Chart
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

The right equipment is the first step to establishing a successful book printing operation. Beginning in pre-press, one must have the latest pre-press computers and Raster Image Processors (RIPs). The new digital printing equipment, both black & white and color, makes printing short-run, digital books possible. In-house perfect binding and coating equipment are necessary. Most publishers today prefer a film laminate coating to an aqueous or UV coating, so a film laminator is preferred. As book printing grows within a business, one of the next upgrades is to move from a single-pocket perfect binder to a multiple-pocket perfect binder. In my business, we used a Müeller-Martini Amigo, 4-pocket, perfect binder. Finally, a packing system, such as a tunnel shrink wrapping machine, is necessary.

There are so many different systems to consider before beginning book printing, that it requires a separate discussion to adequately address them all. Please see the March 22, 2005 entry for the details.

People considerations begin with a commitment from the leadership team to book printing. Once that is established, qualified, trained and knowledgeable Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are a requirement. It is my experience that publishers like dealing with dedicated CSRs for the book trade instead of CSRs that deal with stationary one minute and books the next. Competent pre-press employees are key to a book printer’s success. I don’t necessarily mean talented graphic artists, but rather pre-press operators who can process digital files quickly and can solve problems when they occur. Finally, a position key to a book printer’s success is the bindery operator. This individual must have knowledge to operate the equipment and to solve problems and to make minor adjustments to the cover or text pages to make the book look professional when it’s completed.

Cost Curve Comparisons

2005-03-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Old Book Model of publishing is antiquated and vulnerable to a new, more attractive model to take its place. What will that new model be? I do not have a crystal ball to say for certain what it will be. All I know is that printing 3,000-5,000 copies of an untested book and trying to sell them through the existing distribution chain is less and less attractive.

Today, there are many short-run, digital printing solutions available to publishers. The opportunity exists to print a smaller quantity, 500-1,500 copies, and market them. The total expenditure to print fewer books leaves more money available to market the books. Then, if the book sells well, the publisher can return to the printer for another printing.

The prevailing wisdom in the book-publishing world has been to print between 3,000-5,000 copies at the first printing to keep the unit cost of each book as low as possible. Publishers know how much money they must give to the distribution channel to get the books into bookstores (70% of the list price). Keeping the unit cost low was one way to maximize profit. What happens when the books didn't sell, though? Most often, the books are sold in remainder stores or destroyed–a waste of the publisher's money.

In the old model, the exorbitant set-up costs for the printing press and bindery made printing smaller quantities expensive. If the set-up costs are spread over 3,000-5,000 copies, however, they are much lower and the price-per-book is more attractive.

Digital printing equipment and new bindery equipment make producing smaller quantities of books possible. The new equipment requires less set-up time and expense, so the set-up costs can be spread over a smaller number of books. The cost curve for digital printing flattens out quickly, however, and traditional presses and binders become more cost effective at about 2,000-2,500 books. See the diagram below to compare the cost curves of three printing methods: traditional, Print on Demand (POD) and digital (labeled Print Quantity Needed or PQN). The left axis of the diagram is cost. The bottom axis of the diagram is number of books.

Printing Cost Curves
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

The large curve in the diagram represents the traditional printing cost curve. It starts out very high because of the large set-up costs but drops quickly as the number of books increases. The flat curve is the Print on Demand (POD) curve. The cost-per-book with a POD printer remains the same regardless of the number of books a publisher buys. Xlibris and Lightning Source are two of the top POD printers. The smaller curve is the digital printing (Print Quantity Needed, PQN) curve. The set-up costs for digital printing are less than traditional printers so the cost-per-book is less from a digital printer for smaller quantities of books. The digital printing curve flattens out around 2,000-2.500 books and, at that point, traditional printing becomes more cost effective.

For many publishers the digital printing model is ideal. The shocking truth about book publishing is that most books print only 7,500 copies over the entire life of the book. That means for every John Grisham or Stephen King who sells millions of books, there are many publishers that only sell hundreds. Digital printing is designed for such publishers.

The future model of Book Publishing is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that digital book printing will be part of that future. Book printers who embrace the digital technology early will benefit from the new Book Model whenever it occurs.

The Economics of Trade Book Publishing

2005-03-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

To understand the opportunity in book printing, one must understand how the trade book publishing industry makes money. How much money each member of the book publishing value chain makes will help determine whether or not it is economically feasible to enter this market.

The trade book publishing model is 20th century thinking. It is based on bookstores distributing the books. Bookstores rely on distributors to supply the books. Distributors are relatively new intermediaries. They became important to the distribution chain in the past 25 years because bookstores prefer ordering from and paying one single source for many publishers’ titles rather than numerous publishers.

The entire value chain of trade book publishing looks like the illustration below. I entitle it “The Old Book Model” because it represents old thinking. Newer forms of distribution, such as the Internet, may supplant this model in the future.

Old Book Model
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

The author of a book earns only 5%-7% of the list price of a book. Most of this money is paid in the form of an advance against royalties. Typical advances for lesser known authors amounts to $5,00-$7,500. Most books sales do not cover the advance that publishers pay to authors, according to Publishers Weekly.

The publisher earns 13% of the list price of a book. The publisher assumes all the risk of paying royalties, typesetting, printing, marketing and promoting the book.

Book printers earn about 10% of the book’s list price in The Old Book Model. Their role is to print the final product and deliver it to the distribution channels.

The distribution channel for trade books is where The Old Book Model becomes complicated. There are two types of companies from which a bookstore can buy books: wholesalers and distributors. Wholesalers, such as Ingram for bookstores and Baker and Taylor for libraries, simply ship books to bookstores when the books are ordered. They do not have an outside sales force promoting books to bookstores. Distributors, such as Publishers’ Group West or Koen Brothers, have sales forces that actively sell to bookstore buyers. The bookstore buyers then have the option of buying the books from the distributor or from the wholesaler. If the bookstore buyer elects to buy from the wholesaler, then the distributor sells to the wholesaler who then sells to the bookstore.

Most wholesalers today will not buy books from a publisher that has less than 10 titles. This forces smaller publishers to use a distributor to sell books to bookstores. Distributors take a large piece of the action—typically buying the books for 30% of the list price. They take this 70% discount because they must sell to either the bookstore at a 40% discount or to a wholesaler for a 55% discount.

To use an example of a trade paperback book selling for $19.95 (which I will round up to $20 to make the math easier), the author earns up to $1.40 per book. The publisher earns $2.60 per book. The printer earns $2.00 per book. The distributor earns $3.00 per book. The wholesaler earns $3.00 per book. The retailer earns the remaining $8.00.

The lesson for book printers, therefore, is that they are only 10% of the value chain for a trade book. This impacts they way in which publishers view book printers, as a necessary evil, and a small part of their overall picture. More importantly, each book printer must decide whether or not they can make a profit being only 10% of the value of the book. If yes, then this can be an exciting and profitable market. If not, then consider industrial books as an alternative market or get out of book printing altogether.

Book Printers Should Be Curious

2005-03-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

Good book printers are curious. They have to be. They know that printing a book is a small part of what concerns a publisher. Furthermore, they understand that many publishers dislike working with printers, but view it as a necessary evil. So the successful book printers are the ones that are curious about all the ways they can help a publisher be successful.

Book printing represents only 10% of the value in the publisher’s value chain. Most of the other 90% is taken up in marketing, distribution and profit. The curious book printer asks questions to understand how to help the publisher with marketing and distribution that, in turn, improve profit. Book printers know that by speaking the publisher’s language, they will gain more credibility, respect and become a valued partner rather than a “necessary evil.”

Marketing and distributing a book is no different than any other product. The publisher needs to make potential readers aware of the book and find ways to get it into their hands.

The curious book printers ask questions about how the book is to be marketed and distributed. They ask who will be the distributor or wholesaler. They ask if the books will be sent to multiple locations or one central location. They ask if the publisher has multiple titles. If so, does that publisher have a catalog? If so, does the catalog need updating and, if not, does the publisher need a catalog? They ask what marketing events are going to support the book: book signings, a book tour, direct mail, advertising, and so on. What items will the publisher need to support those events? Posters? Flyers? Bookmarks? Each answer leads to additional products a printer might sell the publisher. For a more complete list of marketing products, see the blog entry: “Printing Marketing Items for Book Publishers.”

At first, the publisher may be cautious, even suspicious, of a book printer asking so many questions. Many publishers do not know all the ways in which a printer can help them sell their books. The good printers know to back off the questions. They work on building more rapport before continuing on.

Still, the curious book printer continues to think of ways to help the publisher sell the book. One recent example from a book printer in California exemplifies this type of thinking. The printer was printing 600 books for a metaphysical book publisher. The publisher had distribution, but hadn’t thought about how the salespeople were going to demonstrate the book to potential buyers. Book salespeople do not carry all the books they sell with them. The books are too heavy. Instead, they carry samples of the book’s cover (as a flat sheet) to show to buyers. This book printer asked the publisher how the book salespeople were going to sell the book and got an order for an additional 250 covers after explaining the situation.

To be successful as a book printer, one has to be curious, ask questions, become interested in the publisher’s business and earn the trust of the printer. Only by doing these things will a book printer protect against his publishing clients leaving for another printer solely based on the lowest price.

The Value of Review Copies

2005-03-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

Do you know what the least expensive form of marketing and advertising is for a book publisher? According to Dan Poynter, self-publishing guru, it’s review copies. It makes sense, when you think about it. To send a review copy to a key publication costs the price of a book, some marketing materials, a cover letter, an envelope and postage. The effect on sales from one good review is immense.

To get the maximum effect, a publisher must “cast a wide net” by sending as many review copies to as many different publications as possible. The problem is that too often a publisher doesn’t see all the possibilities. Most authors and publishers know which publications reach their desired audience. For every topic there is a specialty magazine or newspaper targeting that group of readers. There are also the general interest publications such as Time, Newsweek, Businessweek, the local newspaper, etc. that are well-known to publishers. The value you provide is helping authors and publishers recognize the cross-over possibilities that certain other publications may have for their book.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned the book Computer Baby Steps written for senior citizens learning the computer. The publisher, Leonard, identified the general and computer media as a key target for reviews. We sent out review copies to Time, Newsweek, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and other general circulation publications. We also sent review copies to ComputerWorld, PC World and other computer periodicals. The Chicago Tribune wrote a review of his book which translated into 25 book sales to local bookstores.

We failed to help Leonard identify cross-over media that might also be interested in reviewing his book, though. In retrospect, some other key publications for reviews may have been AARP Magazine, computer retailing magazines, general retailing magazines, nursing home management magazines, hospital management magazines and senior center management magazines. Any publication that is targeted to senior citizens, to retailers that sell to senior citizens or to people and organizations that assist seniors are potential reviewers. For instance, senior citizen center managers may be interested in Leonard’s book as a resource to help elders learn the computer at their centers. A good review in a senior citizen center management magazine increases the awareness of the book to potential buyers.

Sending review copies was a win/win situation for my business. Sending more review copies initially meant selling more books on the first print run. We also made money packaging and mailing the review copies to the various publications. (We charged an additional $7 above the book printing costs to send review copies) The author/publisher won by receiving reviews. And, if the reviewers wrote good reviews for the book, it meant more book sales for the publisher which meant more book printing for us.

Help your publishers find reviewers for their books. You do them a service and it will lead to more book printing sales for you.

Quality Control

2005-03-16T22:45:00.000-08:00

Quality control in book printing is a big subject. There is no way I can cover all the aspects of it in a short article like this. There are as many different quality control methods as there are book printers. Regardless of what quality control process you use, don’t forget that it takes key people to assume responsibility to make it happen. In my business, I found the two most important people for catching quality mistakes were the lead graphic artist and the perfect binder operator.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the quality of the finished book is vital to the publisher. When we were first working with a publisher, we had to overcome the perception of poor quality because we were new to book printing. After working with us on a few projects, however, this perception disappeared.

One may think, as I did, that quality control is the responsibility of the Production Manager. While the Production Manager ultimately must be accountable, quality is really everyone’s responsibility.

In my business, quality control relied on the lead graphic artist to get the project started correctly. Our graphic artists were not “artists” in the truest sense. They were production artists. That is, they made sure the computerized book files were arranged to run optimally on our printing and bindery equipment. Our lead graphic artist was our first quality control check point in the process. He made sure the files worked first time, every time.

One of his biggest challenges the graphic artists faced was verifying the spine size on the books. Often times the publisher’s cover designer created a spine that did not fit the book, despite our best efforts to give correct measurements during the design process. Our lead artist checked for proper spine wrapping. He also checked for bleeds and proper centering of the book title and publisher’s logo on the spine.

The graphic artists were also responsible for producing the proof copies of the book. They created the text pages and sample covers. They trimmed and scored the covers to fit the book block. The only thing they did not do was coating the cover and gluing it to the book block. Our publishers liked the loose pages because it made proofing the book easier.

The other critical person in quality control was the perfect binder operator. In my business, this person was a woman. She was responsible for coating the book covers and for binding them. She was able to identify issues with the cover fitting the book blocks after the run had been printed. She took it upon herself to inspect the quality of the book blocks and the printed covers before they came to her. If there was a problem, she caught it early in the bindery process. She saved many embarrassing situations with publishers because she caught problems before the customer did.

Sometimes the lead graphic artist and the bindery person would work together on a book before we began printing. They teamed up to ensure that the book was set up correctly, would run properly and finish smoothly. For me, this teamwork was an indicator that the quality control system worked because all departments were cooperating to produce the best product possible.

Spend time developing a fluid quality control system in your business. Train key people to be responsible and let them be the check points for quality. It improves profitability by reducing rework to a minimum.

Shipping Impacts Profit. Pay Attention

2005-03-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

The biggest surprise I had when I began book printing had nothing to do with printing. It was an obvious fact that I overlooked but it impacts profitability as much as any printing process.

Books are heavy.

I completely overlooked this fact. The weight of the books impacts shipping, storage and fulfillment. When setting up the business, I did not pay enough attention to the details of shipping and storing books. As a result, I scrambled to “beef up” the shipping department to improve profitability.

My background was in printing centers that served the local community. Fulfillment consisted of local pick up and delivery. When I began printing books, however, I had customers from all over the United States. Most of the customers were from California where the plant was located, however. This was a function of two dynamics. First, California has more publishers than any other state. By the last count in a book published by the Publishers’ Marketing Association entitled, The Rest of Us, there are 55,000 publishers in the United States—12,000 of which are located in California. Second, books are heavy and shipping costs are high. When competing with book printers in other parts of the country, factoring in the shipping costs from California often made my books more expensive.

At first, the shipping department consisted of a loading dock and a delivery vehicle. Shortly after opening, we added Fed EX and UPS delivery. We also added common carriers to ship long distances. And, finally, we added an overnight shipping company to delivery proofs and finished products within the state. Each shipping company had its own paperwork and, often times, its own computer system. After we added all the shipping options, the shipping desk resembled Mission Control at Cape Canaveral rather than a shipping department.

To compound matters, not only did we have a variety of shipping options, but we had a variety of delivery options depending on where the publisher wanted the books delivered. The easiest situation is when the publisher wanted the books shipped to one central location such as their warehouse. Often it wasn’t that simple. If the publisher wanted the books shipped to a wholesaler such as Ingram or Baker & Taylor, we had to know the delivery code for each of the warehouses around the country. Furthermore, we had to know how to prepare the shipping documents and shipping labels. If the publisher wanted the books shipped to a distributor, they often times split the delivery between a wholesaler and their own warehouse. We had to know the delivery codes for each. If the publisher was shipping to a fulfillment house, such as Book Clearing House, we not only had to know the delivery codes, but we also had to telephone to notify them of delivery 24 hours in advance of the shipment arriving.

Each of these nuances added to the cost of doing business. Mistakes in shipping were absorbed by our company and negatively impacted profitability.

There were lessons we learned the hard way, too. We had one title that was an erotica novel by a female publisher. We were sending the printed books to a distributor and we made the mistake of printing the exact title on the shipping label. When the books arrived at the distributor, the shipment was short one carton. We know we sent all the cartons. The shipping company shows they delivered all the cartons. As best as we can tell, someone at the distributor read the label and decided these books may be of interest and intercepted one carton. After that, we learned to abbreviate the title so no one receiving the books would decide to keep them for themselves.

So, if you are considering entering into book printing, or if you are already in book printing and are looking for ways to improve profitability, pay attention to the shipping department.

Analyzing a Publisher's Potential

2005-03-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

Evaluating a publisher’s potential for future printing business is one of the hardest things to do. I learned early in my career not to make judgments about future potential because I never got it right. The authors or publishers that I thought would become successful disappeared and never returned to reprint their books while the ones I thought wouldn’t make it kept returning for reprints. The best strategy, I found, is to treat all author/publishers equally. The trick to success is to learn as much as you can about their marketing and find ways to help them reach their audience.

There are rules of thumb that help determine if the author/publisher will have sufficient demand for the book. Gordon Burgett, author of the book Publishing for Niche Markets, suggests that the minimum reading population for a book should be 200,000 readers. So, in my conversations with author/publishers I ask, “Who will read your book?” When I hear “Everyone will want to read my book,” I sense an unsophisticated author/publisher and I know I have an opportunity to influence the choice of printed marketing tools they select.

Another way to measure potential demand for a title is to determine what quantities are similar titles selling. If the author/publisher hasn’t already done so, send them to several bookstores (including Amazon.com) to search for similar titles. Give them a spreadsheet to capture data on the various competing titles. Ask them to capture: the title, the author, the publisher, the ISBN number, the trim size, the page count, whether it is hard cover or paperback, whether it has a 1-, 2- or 4-color cover or dust jacket, the price of the book and the publication date. If you want a sample data capture form, contact me.

This completed form serves many purposes, the first of which is to determine the numbers of competitive books sold. I will discuss other uses for this form in future articles. Books are sold in a variety of distribution channels. Bookstores and Amazon are the easiest to track and make to use to estimate. To estimate how a book is selling through the bookstore channel, use the ISBN number to track its sales through Ingram. Ingram is the largest wholesaler of books to the bookstore trade. Call their automated telephone system at 615-213-6803 and follow the prompts. If the ISBN number you are inputting includes the letter X, press star instead of X. If the book is from a major publisher that sells directly to bookstores, then Ingram represents about 20% of total book sales. If the publisher is small without its own sales force, then Ingram may represent as much as 40% of a title’s sales. Since most bestsellers come from larger publishing houses, multiple Ingram’s sales figures by five to get a rough estimate of book sales.

Amazon sales are easier to estimate, the sales ranking is placed on the web page for each book. Enter the ISBN number into the search dialog box and it will take you to the web page for that title. Scroll down until you see the sales ranking. Interpreting the sales ranking is easier when using this chart:

Amazon Ranking Chart
Originally uploaded by Bill Frank.

This chart goes with the March 14, 2005 post.

Another rule of thumb is the number of titles the author/publisher already has in print. There is no hard-and-fast rule, but my experience indicates that if the author/publisher has three or more titles in print, there is a higher probability of repeat business. Three titles is also the “tipping point” where the author/publisher stops being a hobbyist and becomes a businessperson.

2004 Children's Books Top Picks (part two)

2005-03-13T17:38:00.000-08:00

Children's books

A world of wonder
Dec 9th 2004
From The Economist print edition

The pick of the crop

Six- to ten-year-olds

Two new editions of classic books head the list for children at the younger end of this age range. Naomi Lewis has produced an excellent new selection from the “Tales of Hans Christian Andersen” (Candlewick Press, $22.99 and Walker Books, £14.99). All the favourites are here, from “Thumbelina” to “The Little Mermaid” and “The Emperor's New Clothes”, along with lesser known stories, such as “The Flying Trunk”. Joel Stewart's illustrations bring out the many moods in Andersen's stories—their darkness, their vertigo-inducing strangeness, their wild flights of humour.

From the same publishers comes Martin Jenkins's sensitive abridgement of Jonathan Swift's “Gulliver” (Walker Books, £14.99; to be published in America by Candlewick Press in March). The illustrations of Chris Riddell, formerly with The Economist, show his characteristic flights of fancy.

Admirers of Philip Pullman for his “Dark Materials” trilogy will be pleased to discover that he is no less adept at writing fantasy for younger children. “The Scarecrow and His Servant” (Doubleday, £10.99; to be published in America by Knopf next August) has familiar elements of plot and characterisation, from the perky and comical scarecrow himself to the serendipitous journey he takes in the company of a small, hungry boy called Jack. Yet the familiar is transformed by the engaging and unpredictable way in which the story unfolds. Sheer delight.

“Magical Children” (Dolphin Paperbacks, £7.99) brings together three short novels by Sally Gardner about children who have magical gifts—the strongest girl in the world, a boy who can fly and another who just happens to be invisible. Ms Gardner's strength lies in her ability to combine the extraordinary with the utterly unexceptional.

“Christopher Mouse: The Tale of a Small Traveller” (Bloomsbury, $15.95 and £9.99) is a wonderful first novel by William Wise for readers with growing confidence. It is about the adventures of a mouse who moves from family to family and—after much travel and heartache—finds a happy home. The delight of this book is in the deft humour of the first-person storytelling.

Two novels not to be missed at the upper end of the age range are Linda Newbery's “At the Firefly Gate” (Orion, £7.99) and Shannon Hale's “Enna Burning” (Bloomsbury, $17.95 and £12.99). The first is about an unconfident urban boy, newly displaced to rural Suffolk, who makes strangely magical links across the generations. The second is an historical fantasy which circles around the mysteries of fire.

Eleven and above

Children's fiction for this age group has long been dominated by fantasy published in series. This season two authors with an excellent record have new titles to their name. Herbie Brennan adds to his “Faerie Wars” series with a new book, “The Purple Emperor” (Bloomsbury, $17.95 and £12.99). In it, a son has the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of a father who has returned from the grave. Mr Brennan's manner is both brisk and amusing.

Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell have again collaborated on the latest novel—the seventh—in the “Edge Chronicles” series. “Freeglader” (Doubleday, £12.99) is set in foot-slogging, mist-choked Tolkien/Pratchett country. A young knight-librarian, Rook Barkwater, inches his way through peril, meeting ferocious birds, treacherous blowholes and bogs, and much else to keep him on his mettle.

Ursula Le Guin is a distinguished author of fantasies for older children. Her new novel, “Gifts” (Harcourt, $17 and Orion, £10.99), feels rooted in the folk tales of some distant, mythic tribe. The intricate plot is plainly yet absorbingly written.

Frank Cottrell Boyce has written a delightful and quirky thriller, set in Ireland just before the introduction of the euro. “Millions” (HarperCollins, $15.99 and Macmillan, £5.99) is quite unlike anything else recently written for this age group. The narrator, Anthony Cunningham of Year Six, has a direct and beguiling voice: funny, odd and compulsively readable. This is a story about money—how it arrives out of the blue, and how it needs to be to spent, fast.

More poignant and inward-looking is “Private Peaceful” (Scholastic, $16.95 and Collins, £5.99), a novel by Michael Morpurgo, Britain's children's laureate. A young private, trapped in the trenches during the first world war, reflects upon his peaceful rural childhood. The closer danger creeps, the more he faces backwards into the past to retrieve some sense of inner tranquillity.

2004 Children's Books Top Picks (part one)

2005-03-12T17:37:00.000-08:00

Children's books

A world of wonder
Dec 9th 2004
From The Economist print edition

The pick of the crop

BOOKSHOPS are piled higher than ever with lavishly illustrated children's books tricked out to look like instant classics. What to buy? The Economist offers its own selection of new titles for children of all ages.

Five years old and under

Whether to be read alone or to be read aloud, a good picture book for young children strikes a balance between words, which must not be too plentiful, and images, which must not shout too loudly. “ How Many Miles to Bethlehem? ” (Scholastic, $16.95 and Orion, £9.99), is a deft re-telling of the story of the Nativity by an English poet, Kevin Crossley-Holland, with Peter Malone as illustrator. The words are spare and well chosen (every actor in the drama, from the ass to the angel, has a page to present his point of view), while the rich pictures are almost Giotto-like in atmosphere and choice of detail.

Also ringing the changes on a seasonal theme is “ Santa's Littlest Helper ” (Bloomsbury, $15.95 and £9.99), a collaboration between Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson as illustrator. One of Santa's undervalued assistants stumbles upon a startling fact: animals, unlike children, don't usually get presents.

Alexis Deacon is one of the finest of a younger generation of English illustrators for children. In his third work, “ Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale ” (Hutchinson, £10.99; to be published in America by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in March), Mr Deacon collaborates with an American writer, Barbara Jean Hicks, to produce a gentle morality tale about the nature of strangeness. His horned monsters, alarming to look at but gentle in character, seem distantly related to Maurice Sendak's wild things.

The best animal picture book of the season is “ Lord of the Forest ” (Frances Lincoln, $16.95 and £10.99) by Caroline Pitcher and Jackie Morris. Ms Morris's illustrations are lavish and painterly, and the story—who exactly is the king of the jungle?—holds the reader in suspense until the very last page.

The funniest new picture book is Posy Simmonds's “ Baker Cat ” (Jonathan Cape, £10.99), the tale of a baker's cat who manages to outwit his owner, a thoroughly punitive and miserable fellow, by forging a cunning alliance with the very mice he is supposed to be keeping out of the bakery. Children will adore the fussy detail and the hilarious dialogue.

New in Britain, “ The King of Capri ” (Bloomsbury, $16.95 and £4.99) is a tale by Jeanette Winterson, who is better known for her novels for grown-ups; it is illustrated with panache by Jane Ray. The wind blows away the clothes of a greedy king, but they land on the roof of a tender-hearted woman. The story has all the ease and surprise of an old folk tale.

Children's Book Printing Opportunity

2005-03-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

Printing children’s books may be the biggest opportunity for short-run book printers today. Few options exist today in the United States for publishers to print short-run, color children’s books.

Most children’s books are printed overseas. Cost savings overseas are impressive for four-color printing. Primarily the books are printed in Hong Kong, Mainland China or Korea. Most children’s books are also printed in quantities of 3,000 or more to justify printing them offshore. Once printed, the publisher also has to contend with importing them back into the United States.

The only book I published personally was a children’s book entitled Princess Sarah. I published it in 1984 when there were few book printing options. I had hoped to print the book as a “board book;” a color hard cover book with color text pages. My challenge was I only wanted a limited number of copies. The price was prohibitive. I ended up printing black & white books with a velo bind at a quick printer. I was a neophyte and didn’t know that the bookstores would not accept a velo bind spine on a book. Had the printer consulted with me on why I was printing the book, perhaps we would have decided on a different type of bind.

Fortunately for me, I sold (or gave away) all my books. There are horror stories, however, of publishers that go out of business because of the high costs of printing abroad. One such case is a friend of mine, Adam Abraham of Phaelos Publishing. He printed 5,000 children’s books in Korea. He imported them into the United States. The entire project cost him over $20,000. Adam had a hard time selling the book through the bookstore channels and he didn’t develop alternative channels of distribution. Adam struggled for two years selling his title. In the end, his business failed and he declared bankruptcy.

Digital color printing options change the necessity of printing overseas. It no longer makes sense to print 3,000-5,000 copies of an untested book. Print fewer books and find a market for the title. It is economical to print 500 color children’s books on a color copier or digital press. The challenge is the hard cover. There are short-run options for that, too. Check out Exactbind West for one such hard cover binder (also known as a “case” binder).

The format of most children’s books is what makes them appealing to book printers. Typically children’s books are 32- or 64-page signatures on a coated stock with a printed paper, hard cover. Each book has end sheets and head and foot bands. Each book must be durable enough to stand up to a child’s constant use. The pricing on children’s books is usually less than $15.95 for a 32-page signature book.

I had the opportunity to print two children’s books. One was Dragon ABCs by Joan Selwyn and the other was other was The Children’s Question Book by Esther Pearlman. Dragon ABCs was 32-pages, full color printing on glossy stock. We printed 100 copies of the book each print run at a cost of $21.88 per book. The Children’s Question Book was a 64-page book, 2-color text pages and a 4-color cover. We printed 50 copies of the book at $16.88 per copy.

The cost of each printed book exceeds the commonly accepted price for children’s books and that was fine. The books were sample books. Each author was exploring distribution channels and marketing techniques to reach their audience. In larger quantities, these titles may have even been economical to print for sale and distribution using digital techniques.

There are many more opportunities to print children’s books in the marketplace today. It is one of the most underserved target audiences by US printers in book printing today. Consider using 4-color, digital printing technology to recapture some of this market share. You will find it is profitable work.

Printing Marketing Items for Book Publishers

2005-03-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Using the example How to Make the Most of College, The Essential Guide for College Students, what marketing products can you sell this publisher? Certain items immediately come to mind such as:

Review copies. These books are sent to various publications for review and praise that can be used in other marketing efforts. I had one example of successful review copy marketing for a book entitled Computer Baby Steps. It was a book written for senior citizens on how to use computers. The publisher printed the book with me. He did not consider review copies. I suggested that we send out 150 review copies to various publications, including the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune wrote a review of the book that immediately resulted in 25 book sales to various bookstores in Chicago..

Publishers, particularly smaller ones, overlook the value of review copies in their marketing. Review copies are the cheapest form of advertising a publisher can do, according to Dan Poynter in The Self-Publishing Manual.

The other part of the story about Computer Baby Steps is that my printing company fulfilled the review copies in addition to printing them. The books cost $2,615 to print. We fulfilled them for $7 per book. For the price, we printed a cover letter, folded and inserted it with a book, along with a marketing piece and an acknowledgement postcard, into a book envelope and mailed the package media mail rate. That $7 per book resulted in $1,325 in revenue against less than $500 in cost.

Letterhead, envelopes and business cards. Each publisher may want separate letterhead and envelopes for the new title. At the very least, the publisher will need business cards. My printing company had success printing business cards with the picture of the book’s cover on the front and the contact information on the back.

Direct mail advertising pieces. Since this book was being marketed directly to students and their parents, direct mail was used. Printing and mailing the marketing pieces is another revenue opportunity.

Postcards. Some publishers like to print postcards to mail to potential buyers. This is particularly effective if the publisher is selling to the bookstore trade. A postcard to independent bookstores and specialty stores is more cost effective and provides more impact than sending a sales letter. The postcard typically has the book cover on the front, some marketing verbiage on the left side of the postcard and space for the address on the right side. We printed 4 x 6 postcards on the same stock as the cover. We typically gang printed the postcards.

Bookmarks. The publisher is marketing to readers so a good promotional tool is a bookmark. The most effective bookmarks were 2 inches wide by 8 inches long. The picture of the book cover plus the publishers’ contact information is on the front of the bookmark. Nothing is printed on the back. We gang printed the bookmarks when we printed the covers. We also laminated them at the same time we as the book covers.

Posters. We also recommended the publisher print posters of the book cover for book signings, trade shows and lectures. We printed the posters on our large format printer. We sometimes laminated the posters and put Velcro strips on the back so the posters can be affixed to air walls in hotel meeting rooms.

Buttons. Maybe it’s my Kinko’s background coming out, but we also recommended the publisher produce buttons to wear at trade shows and media events. The button is the cover of the book. Typically, we had these produced at a nearby Kinko’s.

Booklets or pamphlets. A less obvious printed piece that could be produced for How to Make the Most of College, The Essential Guide for College Students is a booklet or a pamphlet. There are reasons to print a reduced version of the book in pamphlet or booklet form. A booklet or pamphlet gives the publisher another product to sell from the same material already in the book. Some specialty retailers may not have the space to sell a book. The publisher may want to use the booklet or pamphlet as a “teaser” to entice the reader to buy the book. Or the booklet or pamphlet could be distributed to college placement offices in high schools for counselors to use with students that may also lead to additional sales.

Basic Book Design Considerations

2005-03-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

Using yesterday’s example, what lessons can be drawn from printing the book How to Make the Most of College, The Essential Guide for College Students?

First, the length of print run may have been ideal for a low unit cost, but the total, out-of-pocket cost of printing was too high. Maury never sold out her first print run. The books were either remaindered or given away as gifts. I still have two and gave one to my daughter when she left for university.

A shorter initial print run would have allowed the publisher to test the market’s acceptance of the book. It would also have allowed her to test her distribution channels and her direct marketing efforts. A shorter run would also have allowed her to obtain positive reviewer comments and add them to subsequent printers. The reviewer comments may have helped sell more books.

But even more fundamental than all this is that a shorter print run, while costing more per book, would have cost much less overall providing the publisher more money to spend on marketing the book. As short run book printers, this is where the opportunity lies. You can make money in two ways: printing the short-run books and printing marketing materials with the money saved from the longer print run.

Second, whenever possible invest in a good book cover designer for the cover and the interior pages. A book needs to be noticed regardless of how it is distributed. A good cover makes a difference—thus debunking the myth that a buyer doesn’t judge a book by its cover. The money a publisher saves on a shorter print run of books can be invested in the design and layout, which is a form of marketing.

Here are two simple, but effective rules of thumb for cover design. One, take the cover design across the room (at least 20 feet away) and see if you can read the title and judge if the design is appealing. If it is, then the design is good and will sell well through the distribution channels. If not, consider redesigning the cover. Two, reduce the digital cover art to the size of 1 x 1 inch. If the title is legible and the design is appealing at that size, it will also appeal to the distribution channels.

Third, always assume that the book will become a solid seller and may move from your print shop to a more traditional, long-run book printer. Advise the publisher to make the number of text pages for the book divisible by 16. Sixteen pages is the typical size of a traditional book printer’s plate. If the number of pages is divisible by 16, then the book will transition easily to a traditional book printer. Add extra, blank pages, notes, order forms or other material to increase the page count. This decision is the type issue to discuss with your customers. Maury’s book is 112 pages, which is divisible by 16. The number of traditional book printing plates needed to produce this book is seven.

Fourth, include an EAN barcode even if the book will not be sold through the trade book distribution channels. The barcode makes the book appear more credible and gives the publisher the option to sell through bookstores, should the opportunity arises. Adding the EAN is another service you can sell a publisher.

It should be apparent to you that selling book printing is a very collaborative sale. This is particularly true for small publishers and first-time publishers. Offering advice on how to construct the book may lead to additional opportunities to sell more services.

The Age of Enlightenment

2005-03-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

Today is Maury Hanigan’s birthday. Maury is a friend and the first small publisher I ever knew. She published her first book in 1986 entitled How to Make the Most of College, The Essential Guide for College Students. Maury’s publishing company is National Placement Press.

Maury successfully used the book as an entrée to get more business. The book was, in essence, a 6 x 9 business card for her. She sold the book to high school seniors and their parents. In many ways, Maury epitomizes the small publisher customer today, printing a niche book that is marketed directly to consumers.

Dark Ages versus the Age of Enlightenment
At the time the book was published, Maury asked me what I thought of the book. I was already in printing, but not book printing. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been more help to her.

If there had been more options available, if printing equipment was more sophisticated, if layout and design software had been more advanced, then the finished product may have sold differently. As it was, she made the best use of the resources available.

The book is 112 pages (including six blank pages), 6 x 9 trim size, perfect bound. The cover is two-color with no graphics, only text. The back cover has good marketing text and a short bio of the author. The interior pages are black & white text using a 12-point, Times Roman font. The text pages were set using a word processing program. There is an ISBN number but no EAN bar code. Maury had visions of selling the book through the bookstore channel and achieved some local success doing so.

Back then, my advice was simplistic, “Yeah, it looks good.” If I had it to do over again, I would have made a few different suggestions. The cover needs to sell the book. Don’t skimp on the cover designer. A book needs to stand out on the shelf of a bookstore. Use a four-color cover. It costs more, but it also is proven to sell more books. Include an EAN barcode on the back of the book. Maury had written good marketing copy for the back cover, but I would suggest losing the author bio and putting it on one of the blank interior pages. Replace the author bio with testimonials or additional marketing verbiage. The number of interior pages was a good selection, but use an interior page designer for setting the text. Or, at a minimum, use a different font for the text.

The first print run of the book was 3,000 copies. Why? Because she was told to keep the unit cost down, she would have to print a larger quantity. Printing technology did not offer a cost-effective way to print short runs. Nineteen years later, she still has copies of the book that she never sold.

Today’s technology allows shorter print runs at cost-effective prices. Pre-press and post-press offer more options, too. We are truly living in the Age of Enlightenment when it comes to short-run book printing.

There are numerous publishers like Maury. In fact, the Publishers’ Marketing Association published a study that counted 55,000 publishers in the United States. There are the Big Five publishers in New York City, another 300 mid-sized publishers over 54,000 small publishers. A surprising statistic is that there are over 12,000 publishers in California, making it the state with the largest number of publishers. That debunks the myth that New York is the publishing capital of the US.

Your opportunity is to locate publishers who will benefit from the new book printing options available in the Age of Enlightenment in which we live. Help them to see the benefits of printing fewer books and spending more on marketing. And grow your business through consultative selling.

Best time to be a book printer

2005-03-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

The time has never been better to be a book printer. This may seem like an odd statement since book printers like RR Donnelley, Central Plains and McNaughton & Gunn are feeling the pressure of shorter print runs from their traditional customers. Or the fact that Phoenix Color has left book printing and farms out its printing to RR Donnelley. So why, then, am I so optimistic?

I have been studying the short-run book printing market since 1999 when I was at Kinko’s. At the time, Kinko’s was looking for new product lines. My analysis showed that there was a burgeoning market for a printer to produce short run books for small and medium sized publishers. Furthermore, the large printers were slow to react to new digital technologies because of the heavy investment they had made in traditional book printing presses. At the time, Kinko’s passed on the idea and elected to purchase a dot-com company that, several years later, turned into a dot-bomb.

When I left Kinko’s, I pursued my vision and became a partner in a small, digital book printing company. We had customers ranging from Bertlessmann, the world’s largest publisher, to self-publishers breaking into the market with their first book. I saw, firsthand, the opportunity and the challenges of working in the short-run, digital book printing market. And, had it not been for a disagreement with a partners over the direction of the business, I would still be there today because the opportunity has grown.

More books were printed last year than in any year in human history. Yet readership is down and bookstore sales are moribund. What’s happening to all the books that are being printed? Some are being remaindered on sale tables in bookstores while others are reaching their audience directly through the marketing efforts of their authors. And this is where the opportunity lies.

As printers, you have an unparalleled opportunity to partner with publishers to find innovative ways to reach their readers directly. you have been helping your business customers with their marketing efforts for years. Now you can take that accumulated knowledge and apply it to publishers and the book printing market. In fact, you get a double boost to sales: printing the books and printing the marketing collateral that sells the books.

For many printers, printing books generates higher sales than other, more traditional, printing products. Some printers are seduced by these sales alone and overlook the opportunity to sell add-on products or marketing products to these same customers—hence my reason for starting this blog.

I will suggest ideas to help book printers better serve this market. I will discuss add-on products, marketing products and ways in which a book printer can help authors and publishers grow. I will also discuss tips and techniques to make book printing easier and more profitable. But this is not intended to be a monolog. I value input from those participating in the blog. We all benefit if each one of us contributes.