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Book Publishing, Inplants & Digital Printing - 1
November 12, 2007
Last week our intrepid road warrior was in Chicago and Seattle. In Chicago I made a presentation to book publishers and in Seattle I worked with an inplant interested in upgrading equipment. In the windy city I learned something interesting about book publishing and in the misty city something interesting about the used equipment market for QuickMaster DI presses.
On Monday I was presenting to a small group of publishers that focus on religious books. It's interesting to discuss book printing and publishing because the demand for digital and self published books are growing, while the demand in some other markets and for traditional printing strategies are shrinking. As a result many people are interested in learning more about the underlying technologies as well as the successful business models.
At a very high level, the self publishing technologies are web to print and digital printing. The business models are different depending on the markets and applications. Traditional publishing uses publishers, offset printing, and both the traditional brick and mortar stores (Boarders, Barnes and Nobles) and the internet (Amazon) as the distribution strategy. In the self publishing model, printing is from digital presses, users may or may not use publishers, and the internet becomes the distribution strategy.
In the self publishing market books are run in much shorter run lengths and in some cases you can order one at a time. And they can be manufactured using a just in time printing philosophy, using a web to print front end and digital printing presses which reduces the storage costs and the costs associated with returns in the traditional distribution channel.
The self publishing market can include traditional book applications which are typically black and white book blocks and a color cover as well as newer picture books which done in all color. Next time we will talk about run lengths and growing and shrinking markets for book publishing.
Posted by Howie Fenton on November 12, 2007 | Comments (0)
