The View From AuthorHouse
Participants in the 2005 Book Summit: Industry Leaders Discussing the Future of Publishing in a Flat World are being asked for their views. Book Summit checked in with AuthorHouse President-CEO Bryan S. Smith and Vice President W. Herbert Senft II. AuthorHouse bills itself as the world's largest self-publishing house, having published more than 27,000 titles.
1. What are the implications to the industry with more books being sold beyond the bookstore?
As the book-buying public continues to become more oriented toward Internet-based shopping and purchasing, and as authors and publishers become more adept at internet marketing, there will be a decreased dependence on established books sellers as the primary sales channel.
Relying on print-on-demand for distribution also allows for books with small but targeted audiences to be produced in a cost effective way. These books will also rely on sales channels other than the bookstore, thereby making the traditional bookstore increasingly less important in the larger book marketplace.
2. What do you see as the most pressing issues facing distribution of digitally printed books?
There is an automatic assumption from the established players in the book trade that digitally printed books are of lesser quality than traditionally created and printed books. As a greater range of authors turn to leveraging print-on-demand, traditional book publishers and sellers will increasingly risk missing great opportunities because of this viewpoint.
The cost of printing is still a disadvantage for digitally printed books, forcing some of these books to have a higher price point than would be ideal for their target markets. Additional work with the technology needs to be made to continue to reduce the costs to bring them more in line with traditional print runs.
3. What would it take to get digitally printed books into the mainstream distribution channel?
The book trade will need to adapt its thinking and start to look at the marketability of individual books on their own merits as opposed to automatically grouping all digitally printed books together as inferior.
Success with various titles outside of the bookstore will also lead bookstores to seek out these individual titles and have to adapt their policies to take advantage of the individual opportunities that exist. As authors of digitally printed books have success with alternative sales channels, bookstores will either need to take notice or lose out.
4. What do you see as the future direction for print-on-demand publishing companies?
Print-on-demand vendors will need to continue to focus on improving and adapting the technology to increase the options available to their customers. Additional trim sizes, a cost-effective four-color option, and overall printing costs that approximate traditional print runs are just some of the issues that need to be addressed.
1. What are the implications to the industry with more books being sold beyond the bookstore?
As the book-buying public continues to become more oriented toward Internet-based shopping and purchasing, and as authors and publishers become more adept at internet marketing, there will be a decreased dependence on established books sellers as the primary sales channel.
Relying on print-on-demand for distribution also allows for books with small but targeted audiences to be produced in a cost effective way. These books will also rely on sales channels other than the bookstore, thereby making the traditional bookstore increasingly less important in the larger book marketplace.
2. What do you see as the most pressing issues facing distribution of digitally printed books?
There is an automatic assumption from the established players in the book trade that digitally printed books are of lesser quality than traditionally created and printed books. As a greater range of authors turn to leveraging print-on-demand, traditional book publishers and sellers will increasingly risk missing great opportunities because of this viewpoint.
The cost of printing is still a disadvantage for digitally printed books, forcing some of these books to have a higher price point than would be ideal for their target markets. Additional work with the technology needs to be made to continue to reduce the costs to bring them more in line with traditional print runs.
3. What would it take to get digitally printed books into the mainstream distribution channel?
The book trade will need to adapt its thinking and start to look at the marketability of individual books on their own merits as opposed to automatically grouping all digitally printed books together as inferior.
Success with various titles outside of the bookstore will also lead bookstores to seek out these individual titles and have to adapt their policies to take advantage of the individual opportunities that exist. As authors of digitally printed books have success with alternative sales channels, bookstores will either need to take notice or lose out.
4. What do you see as the future direction for print-on-demand publishing companies?
Print-on-demand vendors will need to continue to focus on improving and adapting the technology to increase the options available to their customers. Additional trim sizes, a cost-effective four-color option, and overall printing costs that approximate traditional print runs are just some of the issues that need to be addressed.
posted by Brian Jud at 7:49 PM
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