Digital Printing

Join HarperCollins and Book Business as they discuss: pros and cons of transformation projects, best practices, and lessons learned.

To keep up with the content explosion and consumer demand, publishers need to change their last-century business models. They must be nimble enough to address these trends, instead of tied to a warehouse of inventory generated by outdated, inaccurate forecasting and manufacturing methods.

A panel of experts will discuss emerging technologies for book production and more.

We now face a lack of constraints in publishing. Once upon a time, printing provided a natural constraint, as editors met to see what merited the space they had available. Now, with no obvious boundaries, we have new possibilities emerging in response — mega-journals, cascading titles, data supplements, and more papers in existing journals, many of these published online-only.

It seems the love affair between hard-copy books and the reading public wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Hence, the tendency to curl up next to the fireplace with a good e-reader is becoming more and more commonplace. Digital books have certainly made their mark on the trade publishing side. According to BookStats 2013, which is co-produced by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group, e-books-driven by adult fiction and children's/young adult-have grown 45 percent since 2011 and now constitute 20 percent of the trade market.

All across the planet, particularly in more computerized nations, bookstores are facing increasing challenges, from the dual competition of e-books and Amazon, or both simultaneously.

Amazon beats local bookstores on price, and beats them on digital sales completely. Most people think local bookstores don't stand a chance. Plenty have done well enough, but there's a way out of this mess anyway. We can fix bookstores so they survive for decades to come.

On December 6, 2013, the Board of Directors for both the Book Manufacturers' Institute (BMI), and Hardcover Binders International/Library Binding Institute (HBI/LBI) approved a "Memorandum Of Understanding", the final agreement confirming the merger of the two associations. Effective January 1, 2014, HBI/LBI will be merged into BMI. HBI/LBI will continue to exist as the Library Binding Council within BMI.

Everybody knows what a book looks like. Even as e-books become more popular, the basic idea is the same as it's been for centuries: a rectangular block. And Chang-rae Lee's On Such a Full Sea is no exception-on the inside, at least. On the outside, however, the novel is something entirely new.

The book will be available Jan. 7 in limited edition with what the publisher, Riverhead Books, is calling the first-ever 3D-printed slipcover, the result of a collaboration with the 3D-printing mavens at Makerbot.

Sometimes living in Maine has unexpected advantages beyond lobster, seaside air, and friendly people, as I discovered yesterday when learning one of the newest beta sites for the Espresso Print-on-Demand system was being unveiled at a South Portland Books-a-Million store. Publerati is located in nearby Portland.

This webinar shares: technology publishers can use to customize content and business models for producing, selling customized content.