Posts tagged ‘print-on-demand’
On Demand: No, Really, It’s the Future
This just in: Traditional publishing declined by 3 percent and On-Demand publishing grew 132 percent. Guess who is in the lead now …
Okay, so that sounds a little bit arrogant, but it’s refreshing to see the prediction that has driven many of us forward is correct. The structure of the traditional publishing business model is rickety and teetering. They have built their reputations and empires on being unbelievably exclusive.
Self-Publishing is remarkably inclusive.
Self Publishing is not the only group to access the Print-On-Demand technology, but it is what makes self-publishing and distribution possible. There is no need to print and pump out title after title in massive marketing waves.
Many of you who have published your books with the POD model have found this process to be accessible and reliable enough to build your business plan around. Professional speakers can maintain their own catalog of titles and have shipments waiting for them at their hotels as they travel and drive their business forward. Teachers can create their own materials to accompany (or even in some cases replace) the mainstream texts that support their curricula. Churches can document their growth and their history and expand their base through affordable means. Companies can create professional training materials that are branded for their needs and their needs alone.
Congratulations to the success of all involved, and congratulations to the traditional companies who decide to leverage this approach in the future!
POD Rising: Is Print on Demand the Future of Publishing or the Latest Fad?
As Sara Nelson pointed out in her Publishers Weekly Blog The Summer of POD, neither traditional publishers, nor independent presses are above approaching POD companies such as Lightning Source or Amazon’s BookSurge when there’s high demand for a title.
Simply put, publishers can approach POD printers when their inventory runs short. Instead of waiting for a massive print-run, POD printers can store a digital file of the book, which can be printed as each copy is sold. Which means, should you purchase a copy of a POD book online, the printer only needs to print your individual copy only, shipping your order the same day.
Theoretically, this not only saves traditional publishers money on physical warehouse storage space, but also ensures anyone who wants a copy, actually receives a copy in merely a few days time. In a word, POD printing allows indie presses to curtail the risk so often associated with standard printing, like:
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Going out of print because you’ve run out of copies
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Running short on titles during hot market trends
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Warehousing unsold copies of out-dated books
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Potentially wasting resources such as paper and labor
And it doesn’t seem as though POD is losing momentum. In fact, POD companies seem stronger and healthier than ever before. As self-publishing becomes a more viable and respected option for even established authors, and traditional presses begin to come around to the advantages of the print-on-demand process, the future of books has never been brighter.
Now, the smallest press can partner with The Perseus Books Group Constellation or even Author Solutions Publishing Serives Group, where publishers can basically request an affordable POD option for some of their titles and rush orders. “Out-of-print” is quickly becoming a thing of the past, and print-on-demand is definitely gaining acceptance.
The Point: Saving time, money and energy is the ultimate goal of POD, and though traditional publishers may be hesitant to the change, bother readers and authors should expect a print revolution that can benefit everyone!
The Evolution of the Book: E-Ink Technology Activating Content & Cover Images
Inserting typeset letters into a printing press only a few decades ago, who would have dreamed that the simple book would have evolved into devices like Amazon.com’s Kindle and now, with the coming publication of Esquire’s magazine cover equipped with E Ink technology, pages with active content and images that come to life?
If you’ve been reading about the future of print in the past few weeks, you’ve certainly come across the buzz around this new book technology. Can you imagine – tomorrow the images that grace the covers of our books will change, flash and even animate?
So this September, look out for the new issue of Esquire. Because the technology is still quite expensive, only 100,000 of the total 720,000 print run will be assembled by hand before hitting newsstands. Who knows where the E Ink covers will end up? Ironically, this blogger can’t help feeling a little like Charlie from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, searching for the golden ticket.
But should you notice any shifting images jumping out at you from a magazine in the coming months, you might want to snatch a copy before all of them wind up with collectors or housed in the Smithsonian.
Advocating the importance of “electronic print” for more than 11 years, E Ink has recently become popularized by producing the display technology for Amazon.com’s Kindle. Today, with the tiniest of batteries woven into the fabric of a book or magazine, their staff can create pages and covers that rotate, update and even change completely.
Each year, a new technological advance leads to a better engineered book and product package for authors. And I thought the development of print-on-demand technology that saved on paper, virtual inventories that saved space and book trailers that animated scenes from books on the Interest were exciting enough.
But there’s no end! There’s more coming!
We’re entering a whole new era of communication and technology, which will change the very trajectory of the book itself. Picture a newspaper that’s a simple plastic sheet constantly refreshed with new information. Imagine books downloaded instantaneous to your advanced Kindle machine in a wireless Internet café.
Hopefully, in the next few years, as the technology becomes affordable and widespread, more and more authors and editors with experiment with E Ink’s technology and the evolution of the book. And who knows? A few years from now, you may even see Wordclay offering E-Covers in our Services Store.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Insider’s Tips: How to Get Your Book Stocked in an Independent Bookstore
For most of my adult working-life, long before becoming a book designer, I’ve worked at independent bookstores. Most recently, for about nine years, I worked at The Book Corner — a Bloomington, Ind. institution for more than 60 years (in one form or another). Though we didn’t sell the same volume of books as the larger corporate stores, we had a pretty faithful customer-base and the best magazine selection in the whole city. Some of what I learned at The Book Corner might be helpful for self-published or print-on-demand authors.
We had our share of local authors coming into the store, trying to get us to put their books on our shelves. Margaret, the owner and manager of the store, had pretty clear-cut criteria for what would allow her to carry a local author’s self-published book.
First, the book had to be available from Ingram Book Company. More than likely, we weren’t going to order the book directly from the publisher because we’d have to pay (more…)
A Publishing Company Planting Trees? It Ain’t Easy Being Green
Justin here, and today I’m announcing that our partnership with Trees for the Future has resulted in more than 500 trees planted in Moja Garena, Ethiopia, an area devastated by deforestation.
As you might recall, we pledged to plant a tree for every Wordclay book published in April, and two trees for books published on Earth Day, April 22. Fortunately, we published quite a few authors last month, and we were to make good on our word.
In honor of this achievement, Wordclay and our authors (notified via e-mail) received a snazzy certificate, but the real satisfaction comes from the locations and the people these trees help. The certificate is posted here, but you can view a copy on the Wordclay Bookstore Spotlight.
Just watch Trees for the Future documentary video with founder, Dave Deppner, if you’re curious about the settings your publication indirectly helped by our donation.
Truth be told, it’s difficult to conceive of an environmentally friendly publishing company without imagining a futuristic coffeehouse, where are the students are reading from their handheld digital books, paper now obsolete. You can definitely see movement toward these paperless technologies with print-on-demand virtual inventories and Amazon’s new wireless reading device Kindle, but we can hardly deny the substantial paper consumption by publishing and printing companies alike.
Wordclay understands its paper consumption and carbon emission shortcomings, but we also want to ensure the future of our planet’s health as well as the future of book publishing. (more…)
Earth Day Upgrades: Wordclay Tree Planting Promotion Makes Deforestation Difference
Question: What business does a publishing company like Wordclay have planting trees?
Quoting Wordbot:
For one thing, planting trees moves the thermodynamic heart inside this bucket of bolts.
In case you’re not familiar with Wordclay’s Environmental Promotion, we’re making every effort to become a greener company. Essentially, if you or anyone publishes a book with Wordclay in April, we’ll have Trees For the Future plant a tree in your name in a country devastated by logging and deforestation. Better yet, if you publish on Earth Day (April 22nd), Wordclay will have two trees planted in your honor.
Relatively new to the earth, I myself stayed indoors my first weeks on the planet. Being a robot, you worry about the short circuits and rust even the most minor of downpours can cause. I’m embarrassed to admit that my metallic knees clanked together at the very mention of a stroll down the block.
But as I read the Wordclay books and discovered a whole world of life on which I was completely missing out, nature started to make me curious, and it wasn’t long before I was inching my way to the tree nearest the Wordclay building entrance.
Once I arrived, however, placed my magnetic hand on the bark and zoomed in on a bird chirping in the branches, this nature thing started to make sense, and Wordclay’s promotion finally clicked for me.
Just check out this video by our benefactor of the Wordclay “Publish a Book, Plant a Tree” campaign. Personally, I think Dave Deppner presents flawless arguments and calculations. For a human, that is.
Maybe we’re a print-on-demand publishing company (more…)
Kevin Weiss, Author Solutions CEO, States Position on Current Amazon/BookSurge Situation
Over the last several weeks there have been numerous articles, blog posts and letters written about Amazon.com’s intent to route all print-on-demand titles sold through Amazon.com through its self-publishing subsidiary – BookSurge. It has created quite a stir with the media, with many of our competitors, and even with some authors. While we suspect that the debate will not end anytime soon, we wanted to clearly state our position for our current and future authors.
Our authors are at the heart of everything we do at Wordclay. Through you we achieved our industry leading position, and by continuing to understand and meet your needs we will remain the leader. You can rest assured that we will continue to deliver high quality solutions at affordable prices. To that end, we are making significant investments in both our internal production systems and all of our customer- facing systems. By the end of the summer, we will deliver the most advanced systems in the industry. Those new systems will create flexibility for us internally, but more importantly they will afford you the opportunity to make the best choices that fit your needs throughout the publishing process and beyond. We do not believe that it is ever in your interest to limit choice.
Here at Wordclay, you will receive the same level of quality support and service that you have come to expect from us. If there are any changes that we think will have an impact on you – either positive or negative – we will let you know directly. We are committed to keeping the self-publishing industry strong, 
ensuring that authors have choice, and helping all of you get your voice in print at a reasonable price. We will aggressively fight anything that is done to limit choice, increase cost, or weaken the industry that together we’ve worked so hard to build.
The Series Publication Sequel: How Print-On-Demand Can Benefit Literary Magazines and Trade Periodicals
For those of you who haven’t yet read the comments on the Periodical and ISSN blogs, Valya is thinking of starting a journal, and she’s wondering if Wordclay, a free print-on-demand publisher, is the right choice.
Who can blame her? The idea of a print-on-demand periodical is a relatively new concept, even though I’m not sure exactly why. To me at least, it just makes sense to order as many copies of a journal as you need, so you aren’t out hundreds of dollars on unused copies that end up collecting dust in your cramped office.
Still, Valya has questions, and I aim to answer them.
Valya: “You say, ‘You can always pay a small price for the Stock Cover Art and submit artwork with directions for our professional designers.’ What if I want to design my own cover with my own photography? Is there an acceptable format that I can send to you to have printed?
Justin: You can design the complete cover if you are capable of doing so. You can also contract your own designer to lay it out for you. The exact specs for each of our formats are in the FAQs toolbox. The best formats to use when sending the cover would be a layered .psd file or .tiff file, and if possible a PDF of the full cover as well.
But unless you’re an experienced designer, I don’t recommend laying the cover out yourself. The whole concept behind Wordclay is DIY publishing through being affordable.
Not only will you devote tons of time to laying out a cover, or perhaps tons of money hiring a designer (and you’ll still have to pay Wordclay a custom quoted fee to use the cover you provide anyway), but often times the smallest formatting error can throw the whole design off for the printers.
For example, you may miss a trim line or you may not leave enough room for the imprint or barcode – what then? Your cover looks only half as good as it could have – that’s what.
That said, the two best options (in my opinion), are either (more…)
A Wordclay Solution: How Print-On-Demand Can Benefit Literary Magazines and Trade Periodicals
Truth is literary magazine and trade periodicals suffer constantly. When the editors aren’t trying to squeeze every penny out of their meager printing budget, then they’re dealing with flighty designers, artists, volunteer readers combing through hundreds of submissions, event coordinators, venue staff for readings, journals returned to sender – if you can name a single part of the production or printing process, then it’s undoubtedly an editorial stress as well.
Trust me, as a previous editor-in-chief myself, I understand completely. Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t pull all my hair out and develop an ulcer in the meantime.
But as I started working for Wordclay, the journal benefits of Print-On-Demand technology and companies like Wordclay – companies who are trying to automate the publishing process – occurred to me.
Let’s cut to the chase then.
Running a literary magazine, like anything, takes money, usually at least a couple thousand per issue. Unfortunately, funding for many magazines and periodicals primarily comes from outside sources such as university reserves, local or state grants as well as independent donations. Frankly, subscription sales can barely keep most periodicals afloat, which means editors have to rely heavily on the renewal of their annual donations and grants. And editors print, all with the constant threat that their outside funding might not come the next year around and then the magazine will, literally, go under.
So how exactly can POD technology and Wordclay help prevent quality magazines from biting the dust before their time?
First, obviously, Wordclay is free. An editor could use our free story and poetry templates from the Genre Lounge and design a galley all by themselves, designer free. Then, if you’re not concerned with cover art, you could opt for a free cover. Or you can always pay a small price for the Stock Cover Art and submit artwork with directions for our professional designers. Comparatively, it will save you time and money using Wordclay even with Stock Cover Art, then contracting a busy designer who might not care about the look of your emerging journal.
(Note: Read about the controversial shipping cost later in this blog) (more…)
Wordclay Self-Publishing Feedback: Step Right Up & Take Your Best Shot
Greetings, Earthlings,
Wordbot here, and today Wordclay has authorized this publishing robot to open the floor up to our fellow bloggers.
Think about it – now’s your chance to tell Wordclay your opinion of our Web site and publishing philosophy without inhibiting or censoring yourself. The gloves are off, and we want to improve based on what you, emerging writers and authors, want!
Questions To Consider:
There’s no limit to the feedback you can provide. Simply be honest and reasonable, and our professionals will make every effort to adapt. Our ultimate goal for publishing is to make the process as hassle-free as humanly possible for contemporary authors looking for an affordable publishing solution, both now and well into the future.
Obviously, submitting your viewpoint is integral to our future in the publishing marketplace, and your opinions will definitely help us create (and sustain) a Wordclay environment where authors (and robots) can publish a book on their own terms, their own timelines, with their own royalty rates. So post your comment below and “help us help you.”
Or, if you’re shy, you can always e-mail your comments to customersupport@wordclay.com with “attn: Wordclay Blog” in the subject line.
Wordbot upload completed. Transmission ended.
June 24, 2008 at 12:02 pm wordbot 2 comments