Print on Demand

In the wake of the controversial PoD program of Amazon in the US, their UK arm has now also announced a print-on-demand service:

Amazon said it would be able to print books in both full colour and black and white and said the books would be "virtually indistinguishable" from traditionally printed titles. Christopher North, vice president of media at Amazon.co.uk, said: "Working with publishers, we hope to bring hundreds of thousands of books to Amazon.co.uk’s customers that might never have otherwise been available. POD not only enables publishers to keep more titles in-stock at Amazon, but it also makes possible innovative new approaches to publishing." For a limited time, Amazon.co.uk said it would provide free setup for publishers with POD-ready PDF files.

The print-on-demand ballet continues...

In 'traditional' publishing, book publishers normally take great care to avoid printing material which may make them liable for damages - the thinking is, I guess, that if they edit the thing, they should have a fair idea of the content and whether it is kosher. However, the rise of so-called 'Print on Demand Publishers'/vanity printers - who simply take a manuscript and print/distribute it for a cost - generally don't have a clue what is in 'their' books.

However, a recent case provided a test for their culpability - a defamation action was lodged over a book that was printed and distributed by BookSurge. And as MediaShift has recently reported, the decision was in favour of Booksurge, which has interesting ramifications for all parties involved in such cases in future:

The question prior to Sandler v. Calcagni was whether the law would saddle these kinds of services with potential liability that would force them to vet their authors’ works in the same manner as traditional publishers. If print-on-demand services were found not to be liable, they would have less incentive to weed out books that could give rise to legal action, almost certainly allowing more content to make its way into the stream of public discourse — for good or ill, as this case arguably demonstrates.  read more »

Bowker has reported a "staggering rise" in the number of print-on-demand titles:

"The most startling development last year is the reporting of 'On Demand' [p.o.d.] titles, leading to a stunning five-fold increase of new titles in the unclassified category, which mostly consists of reprints of public domain titles and other short-run books," said Kelly Gallagher, general manager of business intelligence for Bowker. "It will be interesting to monitor this category in 2008 in order to get a sense of whether this is a sustainable trend or a one-year spike."

Glad to have contributed my bit to the PoD surge!

Bookselling giant Amazon has thrown the self-publishing world into turmoil by imposing its significant influence, announcing a new, hardline policy for publishers: if you want a print-on-demand book to be stocked on Amazon.com, you need to leave your current printer and sign up with the Amazon-owned printer Booksurge. In other words, all those publishers who currently have a large catalogue of books being printed by other sources - such as Lightning Source Inc. - must break ties with their current printer, and reformat (as necessary) and resubmit their entire back catalogue to Booksurge (no small feat).  read more »

Bookselling giant Amazon has thrown the self-publishing world into turmoil by imposing its significant influence, announcing a new, hardline policy for publishers: if you want a print-on-demand book to be stocked on Amazon.com, you need to leave your current printer and sign up with the Amazon-owned printer Booksurge. In other words, all those publishers who currently have a large catalogue of books being printed by other sources - such as Lightning Source Inc. - must break ties with their current printer, and reformat (as necessary) and resubmit their entire back catalogue to Booksurge (no small feat).  read more »

The publicity blitz for the Espresso Book Machine (EBM) continues, with news now that London will get one (there are currently four in the U.S., and one at the new Library of Alexandria in Egypt). The Times Online story has a pretty good discussion of the merits and possible problems relating to the EBM. It also has a cool link to video of the EBM, for those who would like to see it in action.

The Bookseller has news and comment about Amazon.com's move into the publishing business via their new CreateSpace print-on-demand project:

Comment online has suggested that the move could knock publishers and other literary third parties out of the equation. [Timo] Hannay wrote on his Nature blog: "Amazon becomes the ultimate clearing house for books of all kinds (and much else besides), with none of the traditional middlemen getting a look in. Genius. If you're an agent, publisher, wholesaler, or retailer of books and you haven't just soiled your undies, then you don't understand what's going on."

The production price per unit is still significantly higher than if you use Lightning Source (around double, though depending on page count), but this certainly looks like a step toward Amazon becoming an 'all-in-one' book business. And no doubt many self-publishers will still find the terms attractive, not least due to the 30% take from Amazon (vs the standard book industry 50 - 65%) , the lack of setup fee/ISBN requirement, and more obviously the ease of selling and postage through Amazon's system. In fact, if anybody is going to 'soil their undies', I'd imagine it would be Lulu.com - CreateSpace appears to offer the benefits of Lulu at lower price and with better market access.

Print on Demand king-pins Lightning Source have added a video presentation to their website (Windows Media or Quicktime), which takes you right into their manufacturing and distribution operation. An excellent way to enhance your knowledge of PoD and Lightning Source - sure beats the few photos they used to have up on the website.

We've heard a bit about the 'Espresso Book Machine' previously...now comes news from The Bookseller that the first machine has been installed at the New York Public Library:

The first Espresso Book Machine (EBM), which prints and delivers books on demand within minutes, was revealed at the New York Public Library yesterday (21st June). The EBM is a product of On Demand Books, the company founded by publishing executive Jason Epstein and business partner Dane Neller, who predict that it will revolutionise publishing.

Visitors to the library can print off free copies of public domain works such as Moby Dick, and - in a nice touch - appropriately themed copyrighted titles such as Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail. Wonder what the ink/paper and cover quality is like on these things?

Update: Bloomberg has a much more detailed story about the Espresso Book Machine.

Print on Demand provider BookSurge has announced agreements with major publishers. The company, which is a subsidiary of Amazon.com said the publishers will use Booksurge's...

...Print on Demand service to make their current, backlist, out-of-print and large print books available to millions of customers on Amazon.com and through other distribution channels. Participating publishers now include HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Springer, Gale, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, SAGE Publications, Kensington, Hal Leonard, LexisNexis, and the International Step by Step Association

It will be interesting to see how the Amazon-Booksurge relationship develops, and whether it has any impact on other providers such as Lightning Source.

Lulu.com has entered into a multi-year agreement with stock photo monolith Getty images. The agreement will allow Lulu authors to access Getty's photos for a minimal price, to use in their print-on-demand books. Prices will be $1 for a cover image, and 30 cents for photos on inside pages.

In 2004 I was writing a series of articles about Dan Brown's next book when a great thought hit me: why not do a little extra work and publish my work as a book. The big question was, how? The standard model of publishing didn't exactly suit my situation. If I attempted to 'sell' the book to a major publisher, even if successful it would likely take 12 months to 2 years to get the book on shelves (the standard turn-around). Brown's book would have likely been out by then (although, in this particular case, his book has been delayed). If I did an off-set run out of my own money, I would likely need around $5000 to print 1000 copies, a substantial risk for an author to take. Furthermore, I faced distribution difficulties as I live in Australia.

One final idea was worth checking though - the developing industry of Print-on-Demand. After plenty of online searching, I came across a Print-on-Demand company called Lightning Source, which offered the perfect solution for me. Below I'll outline why Lightning Source (LS) suited me so well, and why it will probably suit most other authors as well.  read more »

The Guardian has an interesting article about the rise of Print on Demand (PoD) publishing and online marketing via MySpace and blogs:

...costs are negligible: a small amount for cover designs and the time investment necessary to edit the books; and because it's print on demand, there are no setup costs associated with each print run, the writers receive a healthy royalty for each book sold and profits can be ploughed back into design and marketing.

This latest article is one of a growing number of stories about Print on Demand which have been turning up in the mainstream press.

In starting out as a publisher, it normally takes quite a while to establish a catalogue. First, you have to find an author worth publishing (or write the books yourself), and even once a book is commissioned, the process of writing, rewriting, editing and production can take some time. However, small publishers should be aware that there is another way of building your catalogue, and making some profit in the process - through books which have passed into the public domain.

Many very interesting books are now out of their copyright period and have therefore passed into the public domain. If you have access to a target audience interested in a certain topic, it is definitely worthwhile browsing through the public domain books related to that topic, as there may be a hidden gem just waiting to see the light of the day (again). For example, if you ran a popular internet forum devoted to esoteric and occult subjects, there are many key texts from the past few centuries which are in the public domain. Certainly, a large number of readers might appreciate a beautifully designed version of one of the classics.  read more »