The New Publishing Paradigm - Print on Demand
Current print on demand publishing has much promise, but only if it stops operating like a traditional business.
Print on demand opens up niche markets because it makes initial outlays for printing affordable.
For example, Provided an author has her manuscript print-ready, a print-on-demand company may charge less than $300 to get it into their system.
This works well for authors that have a platform to promote their books (such as celebrity status) or for books that are a must-have with unique information, but still such books are not available for impulse buying at a bookstore or a general retailer.
Of course with the advent of electronic publishing, print books will shift to a support role; in other words, readers might buy the copy electronically at first and then decide that a print copy would be nice to have.
But imagine the buyer who enters a bookstore and does not find the book he is looking for.
He asks the bookstore staff about the book and gets the standard reply: "we don't have it in stock, but we can order it for you.
It can be here in a few days.
" This almost never results in a sale.
But now imagine what would happen if the reply was: "we don't have it in stock but we can have it here in one hour or maybe even 30 minutes.
" Now we're talking.
Coffee and cake and an hour at a bookstore is not such a bad proposition after all.
And for both large retailers and the bookstore they can now reduce their inventory to a minimum, open up shelf-space to more books and order several times a day to replace inventories that have been depleted.
Such a thing seems too good to hope for, but it should be possible with print-on-demand technology.
What it requires is for its price go down enough so it can be located close to bookstores, or maybe even inside a bookstore.
I believe this is the new frontier of print-on-demand.
As bookstores struggle to compete with electronic purchasing models that not only bypass them but are also instant - such as buying on Kindle - they will have to find a new way to provide value.
Building print-on-demand facilities close to their stores is one such method.
Oddly enough, it might be that banding together with competing brick and mortar retailers to fund such print-on-demand facilities might make sense.
Imagine for example, if Borders, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Target pooled their resources to build such facilities.
This presents a massive new opportunity for print-on-demand manufacturers, and provided they work to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of such systems they will attract thousands of new clients that need print-on-demand technology.
It is even possible that some of their clients will be larger corporations that desire to print in-house books for their clients.
In summary, print-on-demand needs to move beyond print to become deliver-on-demand, and by deliver I mean deliver-fast.
This model is already working for auto parts.
Why should it not be applied to books?
Print on demand opens up niche markets because it makes initial outlays for printing affordable.
For example, Provided an author has her manuscript print-ready, a print-on-demand company may charge less than $300 to get it into their system.
This works well for authors that have a platform to promote their books (such as celebrity status) or for books that are a must-have with unique information, but still such books are not available for impulse buying at a bookstore or a general retailer.
Of course with the advent of electronic publishing, print books will shift to a support role; in other words, readers might buy the copy electronically at first and then decide that a print copy would be nice to have.
But imagine the buyer who enters a bookstore and does not find the book he is looking for.
He asks the bookstore staff about the book and gets the standard reply: "we don't have it in stock, but we can order it for you.
It can be here in a few days.
" This almost never results in a sale.
But now imagine what would happen if the reply was: "we don't have it in stock but we can have it here in one hour or maybe even 30 minutes.
" Now we're talking.
Coffee and cake and an hour at a bookstore is not such a bad proposition after all.
And for both large retailers and the bookstore they can now reduce their inventory to a minimum, open up shelf-space to more books and order several times a day to replace inventories that have been depleted.
Such a thing seems too good to hope for, but it should be possible with print-on-demand technology.
What it requires is for its price go down enough so it can be located close to bookstores, or maybe even inside a bookstore.
I believe this is the new frontier of print-on-demand.
As bookstores struggle to compete with electronic purchasing models that not only bypass them but are also instant - such as buying on Kindle - they will have to find a new way to provide value.
Building print-on-demand facilities close to their stores is one such method.
Oddly enough, it might be that banding together with competing brick and mortar retailers to fund such print-on-demand facilities might make sense.
Imagine for example, if Borders, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Target pooled their resources to build such facilities.
This presents a massive new opportunity for print-on-demand manufacturers, and provided they work to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of such systems they will attract thousands of new clients that need print-on-demand technology.
It is even possible that some of their clients will be larger corporations that desire to print in-house books for their clients.
In summary, print-on-demand needs to move beyond print to become deliver-on-demand, and by deliver I mean deliver-fast.
This model is already working for auto parts.
Why should it not be applied to books?