Gene Therapy
Purchasing Strategies: Just in Time
Which brings me to paper-purchasing strategies. To begin with, the most sensible policy for small- to mid-range publishers is to have your printer furnish the paper, unless you can realize absolute net savings by purchasing for the run. Storing your inventory on the printers’ floor can eat up any savings and more by limiting your choice of printers, and by accumulating a useless supply of odd lots as titles move into the ‘long tail’ or out of print. Your own purchasing, management and record-keeping time needs to be factored in. And, lastly, you have to ask yourself whether tying up cash in inventory is the best use of working capital.
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.