While the rapid transition to e-books is undeniable, it is not moving at the same rate for all segments of the publishing market. A different dynamic is underway in the educational segments of K-12, higher education, professional, and scholarly titles.
Publishers need to change their thinking from cost per unit produced to cost per unit consumed. Doing so gives them a better perspective on the true costs of book production and shows up the weaknesses in their supply chain.
We know that books printed digitally have tended to be, like the old stitch about newspapers, black and white and read all over. For most of digital printing's existence, producing professional four-color books just wasn't possible; you had to use
If you've been following the printing world—and if you're reading this column we've got a hunch that you have—you know that advances in digital printing have transformed the technology from the world of the small-run to a viable print-on-demand option