Publishers Explore Digital Printing Revenue Opportunities

Extending the Life of a Title
Digital printing is not just a new way of printing books, noted the panelists, it's also a catalyst for new publishing processes. With the elimination of printing plates, digital printing can produce short-runs faster than offset and at increasingly affordable rates. According to Bruce Watermann, SVP of operations at Blurb, this opens up a host of new opportunities for publishers, one of the most important being the ability to extend the life of a title. Watermann views digital printing as a crucial part of his authors' "bell curve." "At the beginning, a new title will be published digitally," said Watermann. "If the title is successful it will move into offset or high-speed inkjet. Once the title moves into the author's backlist it will go back to digital." Digital printing allows publishers to test unproven works in the market at low risk and continue generating revenue after the height of a book's popularity.