In Search of Short-Run Books

Production inkjet equipment has changed nearly every facet of the print industry in some fashion, so it should come as no surprise that book production is no different. Today’s publishers are under the same cost and time constraints that have impacted other sectors for years now, and they are starting to look for solutions. Inkjet offers a compelling story when it comes to the ability to produce, on demand, the exact number of books needed, rather than being forced to produce—and then warehouse and hope the sell—massive quantities up front.

“Publishers need ways to manage what has become an increasingly complex lifecycle,” noted Will Mansfield, director of worldwide product marketing & category management, Kodak Enterprise Inkjet Systems Division. “The number of titles is exploding, with multiple formats required for each title, and delivery times are becoming more and more compressed. In such a fluid business environment, publishers are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs and waste, and drive procurement efficiency and sustainability improvement. Publishers also need to extract maximum value from their entire list of titles, in order to maximize revenue.”

And, agreed Jonathan Edwards, VP global business development, Xerox, “Big leaps in production inkjet technology offer lower operating and machine costs, better image quality, higher capacities, and smaller footprints than the offset devices traditionally used for book printing. With this technology, book printers can efficiently produce runs of one to 1,000 units, in their local markets, within 48-hour turnarounds.”

“Digital printing allows for on-demand production, which cuts down on obsolescence and extra books. Extremely fast turn times, often in the range of hours to a couple of days, have put added pressure on book manufacturers to embrace inkjet. Inkjet can handle the fast turn times with vastly improved efficiency,” said Rob Malkin, business development executive, Inkjet Technologies, Ricoh USA.

This matters, because the production book market is growing. “Digitally produced book pages in Western Europe and the U.S. will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 12.3% between 2014 and 2019, surpassing 160 billion pages in 2019. This will largely be driven by more affordable inkjet technologies, according to Production Digital Page Forecast for Western Europe and North America, Caslon, 2015,” noted Edwards.

“We believe the number of books printed with digital technologies has more than doubled since 2010,” agreed Mansfield. “Yet offset production still accounts for around three-quarters of worldwide book sales. The market for short-run books is growing and will continue to do so for many years to come.”

“Publishers want to reduce inventory, and, as previously mentioned, technological improvements are driving higher quality and helping open up new markets,” agreed Malkin. “Digital book reading technology has leveled off. Yet, that technology has also continued to drive more physical book production to—and especially to inkjet printers.”

All about that tech

In particular, the explosion of continuous-feed production inkjet presses with quality that rivals—and at times even surpasses—offset has been the tipping point for many publishers to make the switch. “The high speed, low running cost, and improved print quality have allowed them to fill the gap between where cut-sheet digital leaves off (around one hundred) and traditional offset is most cost effective (a few thousand),” noted Mansfield. “These devices are ideal for publishing applications, where production can be focused on a more limited set of papers than in general commercial print applications.”

Up until now, however, those leaps were more or less limited to the black-and-white space, with color quality and speed still not quite up to offset levels. However, said Edwards, now that is changing, as well. “The color book publishing industry is at the start of a journey to on-shore a portion of color books. The creation of a global color book printing network to leverage the benefits of lean manufacturing is being enabled by the availability of a new generation of inkjet production printers able to print on offset coated stock. The benefits are not just about lean color book manufacturing; they’re about lean manufacturing and reducing the total cost of getting color books in the hands of consumers.”

It's also about the improvements to the substrates, noted Malkin. “I’m keeping an eye on our improved ability to dry inks on a variety of coated stocks. This will continue to open up opportunities for book manufacturers to add new offerings for their customers. Finishing technology is changing rapidly as well—now customers can really get the full capabilities from printer investments by attaching the latest book finishing equipment.”

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still challenges to overcome. “The challenges to digital adoption differ by segment,” stressed Mansfield. “For mass market trade books, there are no technical issues. The quality of digital production is largely up to the task. And the speed and cost of production allow for runs to be produced—economically—up to around 2,000 copies. Suitable papers are available in most parts of the world, or digital print vendors can offer precoating solutions. So, the primary barrier to digital adoption in the mass market trade book segment is the behavioral change required to move to a short count/edition run supply chain, rather than a traditional long run and warehouse approach.”

“At a high level, three major hurdles are investments in new technologies, volume of books to amortize the investments, and the transition period available to change the operation,” said Malkin. “Frequently, entering the short-run book market means getting new, digital equipment, and that can be a stumbling block for a lot of printers, especially those who have already paid off their offset machines. But when you take the long view, you realize that the investment will pay for itself if the company has the right strategy in place.”

Edwards agreed, breaking down the challenges both the printers and the publishers themselves will still need to tackle to fully embrace inkjet book production:

Publishers:

1. How to efficiently produce titles in the right quantities at the point of need, so millions of dollars in working capital doesn’t get tied up in unnecessary inventory.
2. How to focus more on expanding and marketing titles.

Printers:

1. Evaluate production inkjet technologies. As trade book publishers embrace inventory management models, these solutions improve the economics of digital print, allowing book printers to move a greater amount of work from offset to digital platforms. This flexibility will improve both overall plant efficiency and bottom-line profitability.
2.  Work with existing publishing customers to identify how digital print production can help them overcome key challenges, then scale the solution to others. Remember to educate your customers on how technology can improve the delivery of client messages and profits.
3. Consider customer requirements and finishing options when making investments in digital printing devices.
4. Assess your current workflow and its ability to serve book publishers. Consider how workflow automation technology can help you lower per-unit costs so the volume of books produced doesn’t influence costs.

At the end of the day, the most successful book printers are already starting to integrate inkjet into their production processes—and they are already starting to look beyond inkjet as well. “Book manufacturers who wish to offer one-stop shopping to their clients must offer services to make ebooks in both fixed-layout (Apple iPad only) and reflowable (iPad and Kindle devices) formats,” stressed Mansfield. “This would also allow them to bundle POD or short count runs along with an ebook for the rapidly growing self-publishing market. However, there are many ebook services available already, so for some book manufacturers, specialization in print may be the right strategy.”