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P.o.d. is holy grail for trade

23.03.07 Joel Rickett

Print-on-demand technology is on the verge of revolutionising the book industry, but publishers, retailers and distributors will have to change their business models rapidly if they are to reap the benefits.

That was the conclusion of a series of high-level p.o.d. discussions over the past week, including a session at the annual academic booksellers' conference and a Book Marketing Limited (BML) seminar. At the BML event, speakers including Lightning Source UK m.d. David Taylor and Michael Holdsworth, former m.d. of Cambridge University Press, called for the industry to abandon the use of the term "print on demand", and instead integrate on-demand capability across the supply chain.

Taylor told publishers and retailers that the technology meant they could "never miss a sale". "The model is sell it then print it, rather than print it, fill a warehouse and try to sell it." Technical barriers to the adoption of p.o.d. are dropping fast, Taylor added, and it is now viable on books with a cover price as low as £8; Lightning Source's average print run is just 1.8 copies.

Holdsworth showed how, in the current supply chain, a single book can be transported six times before reaching a customer, involving up to 25 different transactions: "The old model is risky, expensive, and not very green. The holy grail is to have one book movement and two transactions."

He detailed how CUP has grown its revenue from books that sell fewer than 50 copies each to £6.1m in 2006--15% of its sales. He said that the trick is not to "stigmatise" by classifying the books as p.o.d. on data systems: "Just say they are in stock, available and returnable. As soon as you make the customer think they might not be returnable, there's a barrier."

Borders' UK commercial director David Kohn expressed concerns that p.o.d. technology was "yet another example of how the media business is running away from terrestrial bookselling". But he said it also offered opportunities for retailers: "For customer orders, p.o.d. is close to representing the holy grail: great product offer, great service, acceptable margin, no inventory, limited space cost. P.o.d. can change the economics of managing backlist."

Joel Rickett Print on demand APSBG

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