Tapping the Supply Chain Opportunity
By evaluating all the links in your supply chain, new strategies can emerge. Craig noted, “The key point is to give customers what they want in their particular industries—be unique. This seems like standard advice, but it is not always practiced in the pursuit of growth.”
This is especially apt for printers as providers to publishers who are becoming more aware that the act of publishing a book is an act of content management, and that there is benefit to placing the “legal” XML and PDF file for the title in the hands of one outsource vendor that will handle the supply chain management of the title in its different formats and revisions.
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.