Print-on-Demand publishing offers an incredible new opportunity for writers and publishers to release books to a worldwide audience with little up-front financial risk. This group is for keeping up to date with the latest news, the best workflows, and new opportunities as they develop in the world of PoD publishing.
Mike Shatzkin on Royalties
Mike Shatzkin has two interesting posts exploring the philosophies and economics of royalty percentage, as it applies to old-style publishing, print-on-demand publishing, and eBooks:
- The royalty math: print, wholesale model, agency model
- The other comparison: ebook royalties versus ebook self-publishing
Do you have anything to add?
Wall Street Journal on Espresso Book Machine
The Wall Street Journal has a recent news item discussing book retailers who have implemented the Espresso Book Machine system in their store:
Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., installed an Espresso machine with Xerox's printer last September and prints about 1,000 books a month on it, says print-on-demand manager Bronwen Blaney.
The bookstore, which isn't affiliated with the university, makes less profit on books it prints, because the cost to print and license the book is generally higher than the cost of buying an already printed book, says Ms. Blaney. But she says it's worth it because the store is getting a sale it otherwise wouldn't.
Blackwell, a book chain in the U.K. with 40 stores, installed an Espresso machine in its London flagship store in April 2009 and is considering adding around six more machines over the next 18 months. Blackwell CEO Andrew Hutchings says his only gripe is that the selection of contemporary titles it offers isn't as robust as he'd like it to be.
Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest U.S. bookstore chain by revenue, doesn't have on-demand printers in stores. Analysts say that smaller bookstores have more reason to buy the in-store printers because they don't have the storage space the big chains do.
Two things come to mind. Is the EBM worth it if the profits (and publicity) don't recoup the initial cost? And conversely, is this the direction that B&N and Borders need to take in bricks and mortar stores to counter the online dominance of Amazon?
An Espresso Bookstore?
Publishing Perspectives asks: "Could You Run a Bookstore With Just an Espresso Book Machine?"
$150,000 is a large sum of money to invest in a machine, but it is not much more then a small-to-medium sized, new independent bookstore might make in its initial inventory buy-in. With the many possible uses of the Espresso Book Machine, do you then think — assuming the cost will come down even further — it will be long before we see a bookstore that exists solely as an Espresso Book Machine and assorted promotional material? Could such a store exist? Would it be successful? And what would be the inherent compromises (reliability, for one)? Perhaps of most importance, would you shop there?
What do you think?
25 Things to Know About Self Publishing
Marketing help
Has anyone used a marketing service and gotten results? I get several email offers from Global Book Services to show my book at worldwide book fares. Also the Jenkins group offers marketing. Do you know anything about these two?
The Rise of Self-Publishing
From the New York Times, no less: "The Rise of Self-Publishing.
Last year, according to the Bowker bibliographic company, 764,448 titles were produced by self-publishers and so-called microniche publishers... This is up an astonishing 181 percent from the previous year. Compare this enormous figure with the number of so-called traditional titles — books with the imprimatur of places like Random House — published that same year: a mere 288,355 (down from 289,729 the year before). Book publishing is simply becoming self-publishing.
The figures don't lie...
