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Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks
Steve:
I absolutely agree with you. The current paper book system simply cannot survive -- there is too much cost and waste in the system with larger than needed print runs, returns, shipping, etc.
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I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the current system actually costs less overall than any of the available alternatives. It's not so much that it's a good system - but it's the least bad system out there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks
B&N and Borders are in serious financial trouble and don't seem to be making any headway with their brick and mortar stores.
Plus the current system of "big chain orders 5,000 books...and then returns 4,999 for credit three months later" is just certain death for smaller presses.
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I agree with you here, especially on the effect it can have on smaller presses - but the returns system does allow bookstores to take more chances on niche books than they might otherwise be able to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks
I love physical bookstores and I love having printed books...I think the only way the industry can survive is to go to the "boutique store" method above -- sure, there will always be a handful of "big box stores" I suppose, but I think the smaller stores will become the norm (again):
In many markets, smaller stores, comparable in size to the old Waldenbooks/B Daltons or typical Indie book store. The store probably only carries a couple of thousand titles, the titles that are guaranteed to sell.
A good chunk of the store is the cafe/lounge -- the idea is, "come in, get your drink and snack and browse for what you want." (Many people will use their existing ebook reader, laptop, smartphone, tablet if they have it with them, but there will be plenty of "loaner" browsing devices to go around.)
When you find something you want, you can buy and have it directly downloaded to your ebook device of choice but the really interesting option is you can buy a printed version -- then the dedicated ebook printers in the back go to work, printing out an "on demand" copy in a few minutes.
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I think this is a great idea, though I think it would be better as an add-in to a conventional bookstore. Keep more common books in stock, and have the on-site printing capacity replace special orders.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks
(I know most people are thinking of the Espresso Book Machine but the technology is still pretty finicky -- I don't see any reason you couldn't just use a business-quality high-volume laser printer and have the clerks in the back handbind the books with Gorilla Glue).
It's a great deal for everyone:
The publisher gets a sale with no printing, warehousing, shipping or return costs.
The bookstore gets a sale with no shipping or shelving or return costs. Huge savings on rent because the stores are physically much smaller. Plus the bookstore can position itself as "We have every book in the world -- in stock, in your hands in minutes."
And the reader gets presumably decent pricing and instant delivery of books instead of waiting a couple of days for a book to be mailed to them.
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I don't think this would be a successful business model. First, the process you describe would produce a really sub-standard quality product; and returns or no, substandard product hurt sales in the long run.
With regard to printing costs, they're not eliminated; they're simply moved. The publisher's no longer paying them, now it's the retailer. There's no cost savings here, if anything it's an increase because any POD system has a much higher cost per copy than offset printing.
Meanwhile, the reader is either paying more or somebody else is getting paid less - either the bookstore, publisher, or author. Remember, costs are higher in this model, and if the line's held on price, the person most likely to eat those increased costs is the author.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks
Naturally, the publishing industry would fight this business model tooth and nail because they'd have to come up with a secure means of protecting their content and monitoring printed copies...and well, it makes sense.
But it would be a great way for publishers and brick and mortar book stores to compete with ebooks.
Not only that, this model would enable the "bookstore boutique" to survive in smaller communities where the major chain stores cannot survive. I can see these smaller stores becoming as commonplace as McDs...well not quite, but you get the idea. (Or maybe some brilliant exec at McDs, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks or another large chain would add on the the "bookstore" model to an existing food/cafe chain).
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This kind of system can't and won't replace the current one until POD books become at least an order of magnitude cheaper to produce.
If you go by
Lulu and their cost calculator a 250 page standard size paperback (and that's 250 sheets so 500 pages for the reader) costs $8.00 to manufacture. They're probably the biggest POD house out there at the moment, so any other POD system's going to have comparable costs - if not higher.
That's $0.01 per copy more to manufacture a book by POD than the cover price of most of the mass market paperbacks I've bought recently; and most of the paperbacks I've bought lately have been longer, some of them much longer, so they would have cost even more to produce by POD.
Right now a mass-market paperback costs about $0.80 to print - and with an industry average sell-through of about 65% that works out to an effective manufacturing cost of about $1.25 for every copy sold - which is still less than a fifth of the manufacturing cost of POD.
That's the killer - yes the system is wasteful - but it's still cheaper than POD.
Publishers aren't fighting this idea because it makes sense, or because it would break their monopoly or anything like that. They're against moving to this model because it would cost too much.
POD is brilliant for small print runs and specialized books. It's not a replacement for offset printing and the current returns system and won't be until it becomes much cheaper.