DIGITAL BOOK PRINTING
THE NEW ECONOMICS OF PRINT-ON-DEMAND
David Taylor
Lightning Source
An Ingram Content company

ABOUT LIGHTNING SOURCE
- Founded in 1997
- 650,000+ titles are stored in our digital library
9
- Digital and offset printing for complete supply chain
management
- 60,000,000+ single-copy books printed globally
- Average print run is 1.8 copies
- Global operation
LaVergne, TN
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Allentown, PA
- 6,500 publishing partners
- 1.2 million books printed per month

PRINT ON DEMAND
LIGHTNING SOURCE INC.

Repurpose content and sell it
POD giving life … Revenue generation from content repurposed.
Gain incremental revenue from print-ready files generated from a
single hardcover title file.
• Large print
• Frontlist gaps
• Long tail – hardcover and softcover
• Backlist
• Out of print
• Special editions

Increased incremental revenue
(more money…)
For example, add revenue at little or no cost by having print-ready
files of a single title for:
Large print: $25 x 500 units = $12,500
Frontlist gap: $25 x 1000 units = $25,000
Special editions: $25 x 500 = $12,500
$50,000 additional revenue 1st year
Long tail/backlist/out of print: $15 x 300 units per year = $4500
Special editions: $20 x 100 = $2000
Large print: $20 x 100 = $2000
$8500 incremental revenue every year from year two

Large Print
Using POD, large numbers of titles can be made available
without incurring significant costs
• It’s not just for the older generation
• 1 in 6 people 45+ years report some sort of visual impairment*
(That’s a population of 16.5 million today – expected to rise by 20 million by 2010)
• Social responsibility
• POD removes the need for publishers to print speculative stock
• Reflow text into larger point sizes
* Source- Publishers Weekly – 5/19/2008

XML is everywhere
XML is everywhere – especially in POD
• Distributing catalogs (ONIX)
• Rendering content (OEB, ePub, PDF)
• Ordering content (EDI is still king, but XML formats are available
too)
• In fact, within Lightning Source, virtually all of our internal system
communication are enabled via XML

A Perfect Storm….
Make the book available in multiple formats – XML
Assume there is a demand – the long tail
Let customers find it – the internet bookselling model
Let publishers make money out of virtual inventory, single copy
supply when there is a demand - POD

Publishers like this idea…
• Multiple versions = increased sales
• Reduced inventory = reduced capital
• Get out of having big, costly warehouses
• Social responsibility
• Reduced shipping costs
• Reduced carbon footprint
• Improved availability messaging to customers = more sales
Traditional model of publishing is shifting from one almost exclusively
based on speculative inventory to one increasingly based on micro or
virtual inventory

Stuff you need to make this
really work….
• Genuine print on demand capability
• Single copy production to allow move to micro or virtual inventory
• Fast, rapid…
• Digital workflow management
• Quality – paper and case options
• Secure repository for multi-purposed digital files
• Linked to network of wholesalers, distributors, resellers
• CDF capabilities
• A genuine global footprint

Conclusion…
Having an effective digital workflow enables you to re-purpose your
content in a variety of formats/uses for little effort and cost.
POD allows you to make all of them available for purchase for little
effort and cost.
Never lose a sale. Never disappoint a customer