Digital Printing: A Bright Future for Books
Q. What are you doing to try to explain these benefits to colleagues in your organization?
A. It is a cultural shift. You try to look at not just the unit cost of the book, but also the total cost of the printing. If we’re talking about printing 100 books and the unit cost is higher, you have to compare the total cost of printing, say, 10,000 units with offset. How many of those books are going to remain unsold, sitting on shelves in your warehouse? And how many are going to be destroyed at the end of the year? I try to have those conversations and get folks to understand the costs of carrying inventory. Sometimes just having the conversation more than once, I hope, will help.
Ellen Harvey is a freelance writer and editor who covers the latest technologies and strategies reshaping the publishing landscape. She previously served as the Senior Editor at Publishing Executive and Book Business.
