Lightning Source Inc.

BitLit Adds Springer to Bundling Publisher-Partners
December 7, 2015 at 11:39 am

Springer has become the latest publisher to offer ebook bundles to readers through Vancouver's BitLit. In an announcement made today (December 7), BitLit personnel tell The Bookseller that the new arrangement will add more than 100,000 titles to BitLit's "Shelfie" app. Some 1,200 publishers now offer some degree of bundling through BitLit, according to the…

Is Amazon Poised to Steal Print On Demand?
September 4, 2014

Many saw Print On Demand (POD) as the ultimate 'just in time' production solution to book publishing, which would wipe out all the inefficiencies of the 'just in case' approach that plagues the book supply chain. So why didn't it happen, or did it happen for some and not for others? Is there a new dawn, or just a new set of people who have been sold a pup and not looked hard at the facts?

Today we read that Barnes and Noble are installing Espresso Book Machines in three of their stores

BEA 2014: Bricks-and-Mortar Rebounding
May 29, 2014

Wednesday's BookExpo panel on the future of bricks-and-mortar retailing couldn't have been scheduled at a more auspicious time for indies: the day after the American Booksellers Association announced a resurgence in the number of independent bookstores.

For the first time since 2005, there are more than 2,000 independent outlets in the U.S. Although ABA CEO Oren Teicher reiterated that statistic at the panel, the line that brought the largest applause

Brian Dauphin Named Chief Financial Officer at Ingram Content Group, Succeeding Frank Kerrigan
January 24, 2014

Brian Dauphin, Senior Vice President of Ingram Content Group, will become the company's Chief Financial Officer on July 1, reporting to CEO John R. Ingram. Mr. Dauphin will succeed Frank A. Kerrigan, who has served as Ingram's CFO since 1996. Mr. Kerrigan has announced his intent to retire next year. Effective July 1, he will become Senior Vice President, for a transition period.

The Rise of the Full-Color Book
March 1, 2013

We know that books printed digitally have tended to be, like the old stitch about newspapers, black and white and read all over. For most of digital printing's existence, producing professional four-color books just wasn't possible; you had to use offset. But the times they are a-changing, and technological advances are making the production of full-color books in longer short runs more feasible and economical than ever before. The advent of sheetfed digital printing brought us the ability to print full-color books in very short runs—it was responsible for opening up the high-growth photo book market. Now "4-up" and roll-fed "printer/presses" are further changing the full-color publishing paradigm.

Before we go further, let's define some terms, as printers are, in essence, quite different from presses. Printers regenerate the impression for each copy from a digital file, which allows them to use electronic collation and print the pages of a book block in order. Presses, on the other hand, use a physical image carrier (a plate) to reproduce large printed sheets which are folded into signatures, gathered and bound. But printers become, in essence, presses when either the sheet size or output speed starts to approach the specs of an analog reproduction device (aka a press). A "printer/press" is my term for printers that have many characteristics of a press.

Ingram Content Group Launches On-Demand Journals Program
February 21, 2013

Ingram Content Group Inc. today announced the launch of a comprehensive, on-demand print and fulfillment journals program that will reshape the traditional supply chain in journal publishing.  

“Using an on-demand business model for journals will help publishers become more efficient in the distribution and production of journal content,” said Phil Ollila, Chief Content Officer, Ingram Content Group.

Ingram Adds Random House Content to eBook Platform
January 22, 2013

Random House will add more than 36,000 titles to Ingram's MyiLibrary eBook platform beginning in February. Titles will be both frontlist and popular backlist titles from all Random House imprints and each of their publisher-distribution clients, including Beacon Press, National Geographic Books, North Atlantic Books, Quirk Books, Smithsonian Books, Soho Press, Wizards of the Coast and many others.

Sixty new publishers add content to Ingram's VitalSource e-textbook platform to reach the education market
December 4, 2012

[PRESS RELEASE] NASHVILLE, TN ­ Vital Source Technologies, Inc., Ingram Content Group's leading e-textbook solution for publishers, academic institutions, and students, today announced that sixty new publishers have added more than 35,000 new digital textbooks and online course materials to its VitalSource Bookshelf® platform. "The students of today are using technology to their advantage, and we are experiencing significant growth in the number of publisher, institutional, and reseller customers using the VitalSource Bookshelf platform," said Kent Freeman, Chief Operating Officer, Vital Source Technologies, Inc. "We will continue to nurture our publisher relationships and expand and diversify our title selection to provide the digital content that's in demand by students and educators worldwide."

A Brief History of the Short Run
July 1, 2012

Digital printing has saved the book industry. The old business model that printed an excess of books has been replaced for many titles by a more efficient on-demand model. Consider my personal example: Back in 1972, I wanted to self-publish a book. I only wanted 500 copies, but the printer said the minimum run was 5,000. I still have 4,000 copies in the warehouse, because someone may want a book on 1970s phototypesetting some day.