12 Profitable Book-Production Tips for Publishers and Printers
Lightning Source
Founded in 1997, Lightning Source (www.LightningSource.com)—an Ingram Industries-owned printing plant in LaVergne, Tenn.—is known for its book-at-a-time, toner-based digital-printing prowess. To date, it has delivered more than 45 million books, now producing them at the rate of about 1.2 million/month on 19 black-and-white lines and 12 four-color lines. It also handles conventional offset printing. With more than 500,000 titles in its digital library ready to drive its presses, it has shipped as many as 44,000 different titles in a peak day.
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.