The dilemma of on-demand printing application and development in the publishing industry
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With the emergence and development of digital technology and network technology, many new terms have appeared in the publishing and printing industry, such as: online publishing, on-demand publishing, on-demand printing, publishing e-commerce, on-demand printing, and so on. The solution to some practical problems such as online publishing, on-demand publishing, on-demand printing, and publishing e-commerce, in the final analysis, relies on the development of on-demand printing technology.
First, the concept and characteristics of on-demand printing
On-demand printing is a digital-based printing method that uses sophisticated, highly automated, modern digital presses for instant printing of variable data prints. In the publishing industry, on-demand printing is a new printing technique that enables publishers and authors to print books at any time and on demand.
Print on demand compared to traditional printing methods, it is characterized by:
1 Eliminates the traditional proofing, printing, printing, hanging, washing blanket, homing adjustment, ink balance, test and other processes, shortening the printing cycle, improving the printing speed, real-time printing, and does not exist Cost sharing, the cost of the first piece to the innumerable piece of consumables is basically the same, so that a very small amount of printing can be achieved.
2 On-demand printing relies on digital technology, communication technology and network technology to enable remote printing and proofing.
3 is the use of digital information, not only easy to save, can be output multiple times, can also modify or reorganize the content according to customer requirements, selectively output, to achieve personalized service.
Second, the development of on-demand printing in foreign publishing industry and problems
In the 1980s, desktop publishing systems were more common, but the final product was still obtained by film-based printing. Therefore, the printing staff must first make a plate and then load it onto the printing cylinder to start printing. In order to obtain a stable quality print, the process of testing is required, and four-color printing is used. The waste of this process is even more powerful than monochrome printing. Therefore, in order to share the cost and achieve certain economic benefits, a book must be printed in hundreds or even tens of thousands of copies at a time.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the emergence of high-quality digital presses changed this situation. The digital press is controlled by a computer to directly spray ink onto the paper, similar to a laser printer. This technology was noticed by printing professionals who found the technology to make it easy to print documents in the required quantities without the 500 or 1000 print volume requirements.
By the end of the 1990s, many new companies began to apply this technology to the printing of books. At that time, personal publishing in the United States using traditional printing methods prevailed. Because of traditional printing, authors must print hundreds of copies at a time, which is costly. They have to sell these books to recover the cost. Even if you print a book for $2, 1000 is a relatively large investment (this does not include marketing expenses), and most authors do not want to spend this money. At this time, digital printing became a more practical choice. On-demand print publishing companies are produced immediately. Due to the characteristics of on-demand printing, on-demand printing has had a major impact on the publishing industry, and on-demand printing and publishing has prevailed abroad.
However, is the application of on-demand printing in the publishing industry as simple and beautiful as imagined? This is not the case, and there have been many problems. Mainly technical and sales issues.
First look at the technical issues.
1 The size of printed books printed on demand is usually fixed. The traditional printed and published books have various styles and are widely recognized. The single-print style of printed books on demand obviously cannot satisfy a variety of books. Publishing requirements. Moreover, the binding method for on-demand printed books is also limited, and for books that are too thick or too thin, binding is difficult.
2 Today's color digital printing costs are still high. If the text is printed in color except for the cover, the cost of such a book is too high, so most on-demand printing companies do not provide color printing for the book.
3 On-demand printing can't print and staple beautiful glazing inserts in a book.
4 reprinting procedures are complicated. When you need to reprint the book on demand, you must first determine if you have the right to reprint. Then, when you reprint, do you have the right to reprint in other forms, such as electronic version, audio version, etc.
5 Digitalization of existing books. Books that already have a printed version must be digitized first when they are reprinted on demand. There are currently three methods for digitizing book content: simple scanning, scanning with optical symbol recognition software (OCR), and retyping input. So digitization is not an easy task.
Look at the sales problem:
1 printing costs. For a large publisher, printing 10,000 copies of a 200-page paperback book, the average printing cost adds up to about $1 to $1.50. Printing costs typically range from 10% to 15% of the retail price, printed on-demand printing technology, and each volume is about $4.5 to $5.
2 profit distribution problem. The traditional publishing profit distribution is usually: the issuer gets 15% of the retail price, the wholesaler gets 15% of the retail price, the retailer gets 40% of the retail price, and the publisher actually gets 30% of the retail price. 30% also includes printing costs, operating costs and royalties of the author. In order to reduce the retail price of books and at the same time gain a certain profit, the on-demand printing publishers offer discounts to retailers between 30% and 40%, but at the same time eliminate issuers and wholesalers. The end result is that they have to spend more money to bring the book to market, and the publisher pushes the task to the author in order to save money. The final impact of the book sales. In addition, due to the traditional habit, no matter how much discount the publisher gives to the retailer, the retailer usually only deals with the wholesaler and does not buy books from the publisher. Obviously, this new mode of operation will be difficult to operate successfully. At the same time, profit distribution also involves the issue of order tracking. Order tracking is not an easy task. Maybe you will advertise and designate customers to a fixed location to order, but will these companies responsible for on-demand printing honestly give this information back to you? This is a big problem.
3 logistics and distribution issues. The biggest advantage of on-demand printing is that the book will only be printed after the book has been sold in advance. But books printed on demand are almost impossible to appear in bookstores, and it is impossible to sell them through bookstores. Even if the book is sold, if it comes back to the return, the loss seems to fall on the head of the retailer, which obviously complicates the problem.
For some of the above reasons, the sales of on-demand printed books are generally not good, and the number of books issued is very limited, and cannot be compared with books issued by traditional printing methods. On-demand printing and publishing makes it easy to publish books, but it is not so easy to get a certain income. They took certain measures in response to the above situation, such as: books published on demand can be printed to all printing companies of the issuer, so that the names of the books can be listed in their catalogue, and they can also be printed. And get a certain profit. You can also sell books through an online bookstore. For online bookstores, the richer the books, the better they are. Moreover, online bookstores usually receive orders for special books. They can list a list of books printed on demand on the webpage. There are great opportunities for profit, so online bookstores are used to sell and promote books printed on demand. It works. You can also create a website to introduce your own books.
Third, the status and problems of on-demand printing applications in the domestic publishing industry
The application of on-demand printing in the domestic publishing industry is only for short-run books, and does not reach the height of on-demand publishing. At present, the IP publishing house and the People's Time Network have applied the new technology of on-demand printing. Since its establishment in January 1999, the People's Time and Space Network has used the publishing industry as its foundation to reorganize traditional publishing resources with information flow. It has also launched an online publishing platform to launch e-commerce. The Intellectual Property Publishing House itself is the legal unit for publishing patent documents and books. The characteristics of patent documents and book printing are many varieties, small batches, and strong timeliness. Such books are printed on demand and are suitable.
Although the application of on-demand printing in the domestic publishing industry has just started, the problems it faces in development are predictable. First of all, we have the same problems that have arisen abroad. As far as the cost issue is concerned, China's equipment and technology need to be imported from abroad, and obviously the cost is higher. Furthermore, the digitization of books in China is slower than in foreign countries, and the variety of digital books is limited. China's network coverage is also quite low. If we want to obtain orders through the network platform, we need to further accelerate the network construction in China. China's publishing industry is still protected, lacking free competition, and accepting new technologies is not very proactive. The middlemen who promote the marketization of books are too single. The piracy of our country is another huge problem. Some publishers, for the publication of a new book, prefer to take more than one print at a time, quickly occupy the market with a large number of genuine copies, and do not want to use part of the on-demand print test, so that pirates can take advantage of it.
Fourth, the publishing industry's on-demand printing application has bright prospects and rough roads.
From the advantages of on-demand printing and the problems faced in the domestic and international publishing industry, our conclusion is: the on-demand printing and publishing prospects are bright and the direction is correct, but the road to its application is bumpy, the process It is long. Although on-demand printing technology is still immature, it is adapted to the needs of social development and is the inevitable direction of progress. With the continuous advancement of technology, as people continue to solve problems in development, it will mature and be widely used.