How Significant Is Digital Print to Your Future?
It’s important to remember that compared to offset book reproduction, both digital print and e-books currently comprise a small percentage of the total books published. In the case of digitally printed books, analyst estimates vary dramatically from forecasts of 25 percent annual growth to predictions that half of all books will be printed digitally in ten years.
Perhaps of greater significance are the reasons digitally printed books must grow:
- Most books are specialized titles under 2,500 copies where rapidly evolving digital printing technologies can save time and costs
- Untold opportunity exists in the estimated hundreds of thousands of manuscripts that go unpublished each year
- No book ever has to go out of print, nor do publishers have to risk long initial runs or high inventory costs with digital print
Even more importantly, a recent U.S. study shows that household spending on books is approaching a 20-year low, and the decline in both the amount and proficiency of reading among young adults and older teens is particularly acute. So anything we can do to make a wider range of books available at more affordable costs is a positive step in competing with other options such as television.
Everything Begins With Digital Workflows
A key to being a player in the new publishing model is to embrace digital workflows from start-to-finish. Sophisticated, automated workflow systems are essential, providing production options for every step in the content creation, production and distribution process including:
- Planning
- Asset management
- Content creation
- Managing and tracking
With digital workflows providing the basis for all print and electronic book publishing, book publishers are expanding their digital skill sets as well as finding manufacturing partners that can provide complementary workflow capabilities.
Digital Print Addresses Market Trends
Digital printing, combined with a streamlined workflow, is potentially the ideal combination for the short-run book publishing now dominating the industry. In addition to simply being better suited for smaller runs, digital print provides these benefits:
- Lowers total lifecycle costs even for longer-run titles by reducing risk at the beginning and end of product lifecycles.
- Gets titles to market faster in a competitive world where speed means everything
- Brings more titles to market, thus increasing the chances of discovering more titles with greater revenue potential
- Improved equipment expands the reach of digital printing solutions while lowering costs
- Helps move the industry toward a more profitable, demand-based system and away from the current antiquated fulfillment model
Learn More Facts About Digitally Based Print Solutions
To help you better understand how digital workflows, digital print and e-publishing are impacting the book industry model, Transcontinental published an informative white paper, The Impact of Digitally Based Publishing Solutions. Written from a publisher’s perspective, the two-part white paper covers important topics including:
Part I: The Impact of Digital Printing
- Digital Workflow Expands the Possibilities
- Digital Printing Comes of Age
- Market Trends Favoring Digital Printing Models
- Segments Most and Least Likely Impacted by Digital Print
- New Print-Based Models
Part II: The Impact of Electronic Books
- Role and Influence of Electronic Books
- Digital Rights Management (DMR)
- Converting a Book For Digital Distribution
- How New Models Can Enhance Book Publishers Profitability
Download a complimentary copy of Part I: The Impact of Digital Printing, today. And be sure to watch for Part II: The Impact of Electronic Books, in the next issue of Insights. To find out how Transcontinental can provide digitally based publishing solutions that are right for you, please contact us today.
