Rebecca Churilla

Those vinyl books that make bath time so much fun for kids present a much different challenge to Nadine Britt. She is the production director at Penguin Putnam (www.penguinputnam.com) and oversees the Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan mass merchandise children's imprints. With 11 children's imprints and 15 adult imprints, Penguin Putnam is a division of the Penguin Group, the second-largest English-language trade book publisher in the world. Formed in 1996 as a result of the merger between Penguin Books USA and The Putnam Berkeley Group, the Penguin Group has primary operations in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and

"Finding Independents," is a new column that focuses on the issues affecting smaller and independent publishers. In the inaugural article, humorist Laurie Notaro discusses the success she found with iUniverse.com and its print-on-demand (POD) offerings. Rebecca Churilla: How did the idea for the Idiot Girls Adventure Club come to you? Would you have been able to publish the book had it not been for the capabilities offered by POD? Laurie Notaro: I wrote Idiot Girls seven years ago. It's a collection of first-person narratives, all true stories, that I wrote for my weekly humor column at Arizona State University's student newspaper, State Press.

Imagine going to the book store in search of a classic literary work, antiques guide or cookbook. To keep costs down, the search is narrowed to paperback titles only. Now, imagine the available selection is limited to poorly-produced detective stories. In today's bookselling climate, this scenario may seem unbelievable, but 60 years ago it was the norm. Back then, the paperback book market consisted mainly of cheaply made fiction books that sold for approximately a quarter. Not until Hayward Cirker, co-founder of Dover Publications (www.doverpublications.com), decided to remedy this disservice to readers, did the market undergo a transformation. "Cirker had

Print-on-demand (POD), like so many new technologies that have threatened to shake up the status quo of the publishing industry, has garnered its fair share of attention from both enthusiasts and naysayers. But philosophical debates and questions about its potential aside, there appears to be little doubt about the benefits of POD. Continuing, technological advances will most likely erase any nagging doubts about quality and profitability. One thing is clear, the market for POD is growing. In 2000, U.S. companies spent $3.1 billion for black-and-white POD systems and related services and supplies, according to CAP Ventures (www.capv.com). The research firm projects the market

Last year, nearly 3,700 book publishing professionals from across North America convened in New York City for BookTech, the only event focused on the latest technologies and techniques in the book and e-book publishing industry. The total attendance surpassed the previous year by 21 percent, and was demonstrated by a packed exhibit hall, crowded keynote address, and standing room only conference rooms. The event featured industry experts from leading companies such as Microsoft, Adobe Systems, ContentGuard, The Lehigh Press, The Mazor Corp., Simon & Schuster and World Book, among others. Leading publishers spoke of hot topics like ASP's, e-book formatting, marketing and distribution,

The PRINT shows have long been a site for Timsons to showcase its presses. In 1991, the company showed the T32 horizontal web book press. Six years later, at PRINT 97, Timsons introduced the T48A arch press. So, when discussing how to present the new Zero Makeready Press (ZMR) at PRINT 01, the company decided it wanted to do something special. As Timsons has long supported literacy projects, a member of the sales team suggested they partner with Literacy Chicago. From there, the idea to publish the work of local school children was born. Paul Riportella, customer project manager, says, "We were really