6 Tips for Digital-Printing Success

"There's nothing like a hot book to make things happen," says Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large of the New York-based publisher PublicAffairs which is part of the Perseus Book Group.

In the event that Scott McClellan's "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," made people giddy in the spring of 2011, Osnos responded by utilizing the digital print-on-demand (POD) tech.

"With McClellan, we had 60,000 copies in print, which went to an order for 180,000 in 72 hours," McClellan says.

In collaboration in conjunction with John Ingram, chairman of the Ingram Content Companies, which includes the digital printing service supplier for corporate stationery, Osnos arranged an arrangement that allowed PublicAffairs to satisfy the requirements in the market for this title.

In this article, Osnos offers eight suggestions to ensure success with digital printing by reminiscing PublicAffairs' experience with this best-selling book that went on to become a bestseller overnight:

1. Digital is a good way to fill in gaps in offset.

POD is perfect for meeting the short-term demands for books that go on sale in a flash. We realized that in the event that we did not fill all the requests to print "What Happened" with offset, it would result in a loss of sales.... Therefore, we reached an agreement with Ingramquick to print the book and to distribute 7500 copies The book as a hardcover. The books were delivered to Lightning Source/Ingram to customers in just 48 hours. We were able to fulfill the demands of small, independent bookshops who normally been waiting. POD helped fill the gap, and we moved as quickly as we could via traditional printing channels.

We tried the procedure in October, as George Soros' book, "The New Paradigm for Financial Markets," began to sell at an exponentially higher rate. Lightning Source produced a hardcover version of the book that allowed Lightning Source to market 2,000 books within only 48 hours.

2. Make sure you know when to pay the amount due.

If you have a book that is popular publishers will be more than willing to offer a higher price. It is better to have an even lower margin rather than losing the opportunity to sell and have no margin. In addition, filling gaps tends to increase the momentum of sales. I'm convinced it is true that "What Happened" would not be the No. #1 on The New York Times Best-Seller List without the POD.

3. The customer always has the right.

It's crazy to tell the consumers, "You can't have it until we're ready to give it to you." Publishers need to satisfy the needs of customers and we have the technology that allows us to fulfill that demand...

4. Bring the frontlist to the top of the list.

Everyone is aware that POD is great to backlist books.... It is mine am of the opinion each publisher must make use of POD as a supplement to front-list books.

5. Forget quality qualms.

Quality of hardcover is no longer a problem for us. The change in the printing process of letterhead printing does not have to be obvious to the consumer. The only distinction between POD and offset that is regular is that POD does not have a matte-finish cover that is a small change that consumers would not be able to notice. There were no complaints.

6. Mold your mindset for POD.

Typically, when you face an issue, you gather individuals together to address the issue. However, in order to succeed in the world of POD, it is necessary to break through the bureaucracy. You won't be shackled to a procedure. However, we did possess POD prior to us which made it easier to get through quickly.