Print-on-demand or on-demand book printing services have become well-liked recently. However, if you think that this is a brand-new trend then you’re mistaken. Way back in the mid-1990s, a brand-new term emerged: On-demand Book printing. The vow of this technology seemed lavish at the time—could physical inventories of books really be abolished and replaced by a system during which books weren’t printed until they were ordered and paid for? The technology was met with plenty of disbelief, and for good reason. There have been hindrances, not only with the printing technology available at the time, but also in the capability of inventory and order management, workflow, front ends, and finishing systems to fulfill the production needs of on-demand, book-of-one virtual inventories.
But now one won’t call it inequitable if he/she is told that this technology is influencing everything. It is touching because of the expeditious advancements, constant research, and development within the industry. Several changes have set in that have changed the way books are published. And therefore, the result of one such tech advancement is the onset of a new form of a book-printing technique called Print-on-Demand. This technology has made printing books way easier, fast, and more cost-effective plus efficient than its conventional counterparts.
Books are old souls
Inexplicably enough, one of the reasons behind this on-demand book printing rise is that the definition of a “book” has evolved, clearly regarding what it means to produce a printed and bound book on-demand, either as a book-of-one or within the required quantities. A published book traditionally appeared in a hard-cover edition first and was sometimes accompanied by a paperback version. The hard-cover book was generally printed in signatures that were folded, sewn, and case-bound. The paperback was normally perfectly bound from a stack of printed signatures. Further common methods, like saddle-stitching for small booklets or magazines, were appropriate for definite applications but not extensively used for books. To a great extent, people related the concept of a book with its production methods. This precisely concerned how it was bound, but it also factored in attributes like the format and use of color.
Then came the era of e-books (e-delivery), and therefore the focus of the book returned to its content. Publishers paid more attention to their digital assets and how to reuse them. Production sites started reconsidering what the printed version of a book required.
This change in viewpoint meant that production sites started to line up other types of content—those that were indistinguishable in format—more meticulously with books. The more workable these sites became in terms of production capabilities, the more styles of content they could produce for their customers. After all, what’s a printed book aside from a heap of sheets of paper that are bound together in one vogue or another. The book’s content is clearly important, but there are even virtually content-less objects in book form (think about blank ruled notebooks and sketchbooks).
Print-on-demand is a process that empowers published books to be printed as and when the demand emerges for the book. This is often not a publishing model but rather a distribution model that has unplugged new paths for publishers and aspiring authors to urge their books to move into the market. The print-on-demand technology entirely relies on the digital printing process, wherein a completed manuscript is typeset and formatted to the specifications acceptable for digital publication. When the quality check processes are done and the author gives approval, a book is sent for printing, and therefore the copies of books startup looking at the number required.
Advantages of Print on demand
On-demand book printing was developed to keep older books in print without having to print and retain them unless procurement is created first. But nowadays, new books are printed on-demand too because one can print as many copies as required and they will never move out of stock! An excellent majority of offbeat authors and self-publishers take the print-on-demand path. This is because it offers a workable distribution model and writers get the benefit by making it worthwhile. Unlike offset printing, print-on-demand requires a low starting investment with a faster ROI.
As discussed, the print-on-demand process entirely depends on the digital printing process. It is evolved as a significant advancement within the printing and distribution process since the days of the commercial revolution when offset printing technology and others came out as an answer for publication processes. In offset printing, authors and publishers had the advantage of printing huge volumes of books at economical prices and keeping them in stores and warehouses and awaiting sales orders only. What offsets printing failed to offer was the comfort of printing a standalone copy of a book. If one copy of a book had to be printed, an author or a purchaser had to relinquish the extra money for the price involved in bulk printing or in most cases experience contradiction to print by printers. But what print-on-demand does is entirely distinct.
Another advantage of on-demand book printing is that if the primary 20 copies of your book are released and you come off to search out a mistake within the script, you can briskly make the change prior to printing to any extent further copies. How advantageous is that! Once you receive a book printed on-demand, you are confident that fresh stock is delivered to you from the closest storage facility. This makes the delivery of your book faster and low-priced. New authors and self-publishing houses have voluntarily embraced this model thanks to its cost-efficiency, limited inventory carrying cost, and faster TOT.
What does the bottom line say?
According to the print-on-demand report 2020 by Printful, the POD industry has grown by 12% over the past four years. On top of that, a recent survey from Printful found that 45% of print-on-demand store owners saw a surge in sales throughout 2020.
However, the incredible evolution of on-demand book printing from its earliest days in the 1990s to the automated climax, where it’s on its feet today, uplifts many subsequent possibilities. The chances are there to check these and plenty of other possible options now that the front-end, print, and finishing technologies permit so much more than traditional processes. This is truly an encouraging option for book printers to opt for the on-demand book printing workflow.
How to go about it:
- Book printing applications tend to be tethered to a particular kind of paper. By researching along with your customers, paper providers, and printing system provider, you will be better prepared to supply the required papers that are acceptable for the application and perform well on your printing system.
- It is a slip-up to focus only on the cost of consumables (specifically ink) as you explore the inkjet opportunity. Printing with inkjet technology doesn’t come down simply to a value comparison with offset printing. Inkjet provides a path to opportunity for book (and other) applications that are unsuitable using offset, yet can provide new earnings initiating new opportunities for publishers.
- The production of short-runs and small batches requisite that specific attention is paid to job onboarding, pre-flighting, queuing, and support for e-commerce transactions. Without these abilities, it’s out of a question to make a highly automated production environment.
• Recognize the abilities you build with On-demand print offering, opportunities for book-like leaf documents, like yearly reports, catalogs, directories, mailers/transpromos, and magazines/tabloid