Book Printing--Mixed Results, Mixed Future

Allen is most concerned with the one-color trade business. Some of the top trade publishing houses reported net sales increases in the 12 percent to 19 percent range, while the U.S. Census revealed total bookstore sales were only up 31⁄2 percent through August. This leads Allen to believe the deficit between the two is a result of what he terms "channel fill"—in this case, publishing rates may have risen to fortify the inventories of e-commerce retailers such as Amazon.com.