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In recent years the ultra short-run book market has exploded. It has quickly become one of the hottest topics and growth generators in the printing industry. As the market develops, digital printing capabilities are increasingly necessary to meet the needs of self-publishers, publishing houses, colleges, universities, in-plants, and commercial printers, and are a value-added service for success in the book publishing market. The industry continues to transition from exclusively traditional offset production methods to digital/offset hybrid, or fully digital printing environments.
Implementing digital printing allows print providers to meet the quality expectations and cost targets of book publishers. According to industry expert Frank Romano, digitally printed books will account for one-third of all books printed within the next five years, so great opportunities abound to create compelling books that are virtually indistinguishable from those printed offset.
Driving Around the Barriers
What are the barriers preventing print providers from taking advantage of this market? The answer is very few. In fact, I work with numerous printers already producing a variety of book applications and growing their bottom line. At one time the image quality of digitally printed materials was a concern; however advancements in digital printing equipment, color management solutions, and digitally optimized substrates have given print providers the ability to produce offset-quality work on digital systems.
The cost of digital printing was also a concern for publishers, who tend to evaluate costs on a per-unit basis, as opposed to looking at total cost of ownership (TCO). Evaluating TCO—transaction, production, and storage costs—often reveals that producing books digitally on-demand is more profitable than the traditional offset process.
For example, if a publisher prints on offset a large quantity of books for three dollars each, and sells them for $10 each, the company sees the profit as $7 per unit. The publisher has to store these books in a warehouse until they are, hopefully, all sold, a cost that is often overlooked when comparing offset versus digital printing. When demand drops below a certain point, it becomes unprofitable to produce the book, and it is taken out of print. If the book costs $6 to produce digitally on-demand, and is sold for $10, the publisher profits $4 instead of $7, however the company eliminates obsolescence and hard-copy inventory, reducing its TCO. The book can also be easily updated if needed and kept in print so it will continue to be a revenue stream for years to come.
Road To Success
There are many popular book applications being printed digitally—in color and black-and-white—from trade and education books, to photo and fine art books, to children's books, cookbooks, and product manuals. With the limitless application options available through digital printing, it is understanding who the customer is and who they serve that is pivotal to designing the best solution. To be successful in the digital books business, print providers should:
- Build a customer base for digital books prior to installing digital equipment. Start by looking within the current customer base to see what offset book printing can be transitioned to digital, and identify customers that could benefit from digital book services.
- Have digital expertise in-house, and the know-how to work with and drive digital files.
- Acquire the binding experience necessary for book finishing, as well as the file management experience for book development.
- Install highly automated workflows to improve productivity and uptime.
- Investigate ways print equipment vendors can help build expertise.
- Invest in Web-based fulfillment capabilities to reduce overhead and transaction costs, while providing anytime order placement for customers.
- Develop a manufacturing facility that operates 24 hours a day, if serving the trade books market.
As the printing industry gets even more competitive, the organizations that will be most successful are those that forge relationships in the digital book publishing market. According to Interquest, the books-on-demand market is expected to grow from approximately 20 billion book pages in 2006 to approximately 38 billion book pages by 2009. The opportunity is there, and by leveraging digital printing technology print providers can carve out their piece.
John Conley is the vice president of publishing at Xerox Corp., where he is responsible for developing and implementing the strategies for growing the digital print business with book publishers and printers worldwide. Mr. Conley went to work for Xerox in October 2004 after spending 27 years with RR Donnelley in its Book Printing Business.
author: By John Conley