Magically Making Books

Ingram is the biggest book distribution company there is. Jeremy Greenfield, for Digital Book World, recently took a tour of Nashville plants that Ingram uses for print on demand distribution, i.e. distribution of books directly to retailers, libraries, schools and other partners. Interesting what he wrote: "I’ve never been on the floor of a real manufacturing or major shipping facility and I was completely wowed. The level of complexity and sophistication in the operations is mind-boggling. The size and scale of what’s being done there blew me away. And it was almost magical to see books being made, packed and shipped from this one place to points around the country, to know that the few books I touched in the process would soon be read and maybe loved by someone I’ll never meet." I assume the books that are being "magically" made are softcover books. Hardcover books, with special sewing and foil stamps, need to be made in a less automated way. So, what product do you think will be commoditized in the future and what product do you think will have true value?

Printing digital first

What many people may have missed in the announcement that HarperCollins continues to add to its digital first offerings is that, as Paid Content reports: "In many cases, the books are eventually released in print; HarperCollins says that to date, more than 60 percent of Impulse titles have a print format, with thousands of printed copies sold for each of those books.” The report goes on to clarify that "in many cases this means print-on-demand books that don’t make it into bookstores". So HarperCollins has now added mystery books to its digital first offerings under the imiprint "Impulse," according to the report. Previously HarperCollins had released teen, romance, and sci-fi/fantasy novels.

Gifting yourself

Let me clarify. The newest book publishing model -- shortened version -- is ebook to hardback, as in "Fifty Shades of Grey". Yes, "Fifty Shades of Grey" also has all the steps in between: ebook to print on demand book, print on demand book to mass print softcover, mass print softcover (Vintage Books) to mass print hardcover (Random House). But if you shorten that evolution, you've got ebook to hardcover, digital to analog. NOT the usual: Analog to digital. How different (reversed) from the past can you be? First of all launching a major international book (which has sold 65 million copies) as an ebook on an obscure Australian website is pretty unexpected. And then after 18 months of downloading, deciding to print the book and sell that iteration, is surprising. Yes, ebook-to-hardback is way more radical than ebook to print on demand book, which when "Fifty Shades of Grey" was first launched in 2011 was radical enough. How many other authors in this world would like to go from ebook to hardback? Or, more importantly, how many readers in this world would like to go from ebook to hardback? In my opinion, more and more. It's like gifting yourself the memory of a prized experience. It's the newest (and safest, and most likely to succeed) book publishing model.

Reversing the traditional

The newest book publishing model -- starting out as print on demand (POD), then going to mass print -- has now officially turned the conventional publishing model on its head. PaidContent announced today that "50 Shades of Grey", which started out as a print on demand book just a few years ago, will be published as a hardcover this Valentine's Day. PaidContent reported: "The bestselling 50 Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James, which has sold over 65 million copies worldwide, is set to rake in even more cash: Random House’s Doubleday plans to release the books in hardcover for the first time in the U.S. on January 29, in time for Valentine’s Day. (The books are already available as hardcovers in the U.K.)." Go to the link: http://paidcontent.org/2013/01/10/with-release-in-hardcover-50-shades-completely-flips-traditional-publishing-cycle/?et_mid=598202&rid=68173885 So if you look at this albeit unusual book it's publishing history has reversed the historical book publishing process. Until a few years ago, most books would only be printed in large print runs of 10,000 or more. Then as print on demand became viable, some books would go from hardcover (large print run, say over 10,000) to print on demand (short print run, one at a time upon purchase). "50 Shades of Grey" started out as print on demand (short print run, one at a time upon purchase) and now has migrated to hardcover (large print run, say over 10,000. Storm the Bastille.