Edwards Brothers

On the heels of a fabulous BookTech East 2001, take pause to reflect on the new opportunities afforded by budding technologies It seems somewhat redundant to say these are exciting times for the book publishing industry, when clearly this is not a new phenomenon. Technologies supporting the digital publishing process are virtually spewing from R&D labs like molten lava. There's a lot of hot stuff out there from which to pick and choose. And to raise the industry's temperature even higher, the business is abuzz with tales of publishers taking bold leaps of faith with new media business models. New stuff Just a few

In many ways, a marketplace is like a population of living organisms. With pressure, it evolves, and behavior changes. We've seen advances in communication technologies combine with a dynamic economy to alter consumer expectations. Services like on-demand, just-in-time and digital printing evolved to fill the niche provided by consumers' new-found need for speed. Players in the book space have been slow to adopt Internet print procurement solutions, but e-commerce companies are hopeful that the climate will change. E-procurement, in short, involves securing print services over the Internet via auction or other Web-enabled methodology. Companies like 58k.com focus almost exclusively on online auctioning. Others,

By Cheryl A. Adams To stay competitive in today's fast-paced business environment, book manufacturers are turning to the latest in digital printing/binding technology. Using such strategies, they can print on-demand books, soft- or hard-cover, quickly and cost effectively, without creating excess inventory. "When rapid delivery is expected with each order — especially in the non-inventory, e-commerce environment — automatic processes become critical," says Jim Augustine, vice president of national sales, Xyan.com, King of Prussia, Pa. Indeed, in today's digital short-run book market, automatic turnaround often isn't a problem. Not even for quantities of one and case-bound books. In as little as one minute, a

1. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company is the leading North American book printer. The company's book operations provide a full range of integrated service solutions to help book publishers deliver communications to their customers. With seven book operations across the nation, R.R. Donnelley provides services such as * hardcover and softcover book manufacturing using web-offset, sheetfed-offset and digital printing technology; * conventional and digital prepress operations, including composition and page makeup; * custom publishing and print on demand; * packaging design and assembly; and * online services, in which customers' digital information is converted into Web-ready formats. 2. Quebecor World is the largest commercial

by Tatyana Sinioukov What is truly negotiable in terms of print contracts? Almost anything, according to Barbara Hagen, senior product specialist, C.J. Krehbiel, Cincinnati, OH, who spoke on the subject at the BookTech West session titled "The Clever Negotiator: Everyone Wins" session. Book publishers, she continued, just have to know how to better negotiate with vendors about a job. Hagen gave her audience a few pointers on perfecting their bargaining skills * Pick the right vendor for the right project. Make sure your vendors can provide all necessary services in house, Hagen suggested. If your cover is four-color, or, say, requires lamination, the vendor should be able

By Rose Blessing The top brass at printing companies insist that their top priority is finding ways to meet publishers' demands for faster turnaround times, an August feature in this magazine reported. Now, a look at how print buyers view this trend Diane Grossman Assistant Production Manager Publishing Services Academic Press Now and then Diane Grossman asks for a miracle from her printers--and gets it. Yet overall she has not noticed faster industry job turnaround times since joining Academic Press nearly two years ago, she says. On the whole, turnaround times have never been a problem area, possibly because she's able to give her