Why John Ingram from the US launched print on demand in Sharjah
American businessman explains rationale behind printing books only as they are ordered
SHARJAH: American businessman and philanthropist John Ingram is a global authority on book publishing. For over 50 years, the US-headquartered Ingram Content Group, which he steers, has been dedicated to the book industry, growing to be a leader in book distribution with offices and facilities all over the world. It works with tens of thousands of publishers, authors, book and specialty retailers and libraries, providing a hub for the book industry and catering to its rapidly changing requirements.
Ingram, who has set up the Lightning Source facility at Sharjah Publishing City, is best known for his print-on-demand services.
Explaining what that means in an exclusive interview with Gulf News, he said, “Print on demand is the ability to print a single copy of a book quickly and at high quality when a sale occurs. It allows publishers, distributors, wholesalers and booksellers to sell a book first and then have it manufactured.”
Clearly, this is distinct from traditional printing. As he explains, “Traditional printing involves printing a large quantity of stock at once, anticipating future sales. This requires warehousing and can lead to excess inventory. Print on demand involves printing books as they are ordered, which avoids excess inventory. Because the book is printed and shipped close to the end customer, it’s also saving shipping costs and is better for the environment.”
My vision for print on demand originated from thinking that it would be a smart idea if we could sell a book first and then print it, rather than papering our wholesale warehouse with books that we had bought and hoped to sell.
Ingram’s decision to bring Lightning Source-on-demand service to Sharjah was in response to high market demand from publishers. “I was also personally very impressed by His Highness Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi’s vision for Sharjah and all the good work that has been done to make Sharjah a cultural hub for the written word,” he shares.
Main challenges
According to him, the main challenges facing the print industry today are environmental pressures and the need to reduce the carbon footprint of a book. “In the book industry, there are more titles being published than ever before. The traditional model of printing first and supplying from inventory has become increasingly challenged in this world of millions of titles, often with very specific demand profiles.”
While the machinery that Ingram deploys to print a book is commonly used by traditional printers and can be used for any print run, the group’s uniqueness lies in its IT capabilities and connectivity to reselling channels, so it can print a book when there is a demand.
But what is the relevance of print on demand in today’s times?
“With the shift to online purchases, the attractiveness of printing a book as close to the end customer as possible, being able to guarantee swift supply, allowing a publisher to never miss a sale due to low or no stock, not putting titles out of print, allowing the long tail of demand to be fulfilled, etc. grew in importance,” he says.
A sale is never lost
“Print on demand has provided publishers solutions by keeping books alive and always available so that a sale is never lost; allowing books to be kept in print so that sales can be realised without needing to hold inventory; taking cost out of the supply chain by not over printing; reducing the cost of write offs for obsolete stock; cutting transportation costs; and, allowing a better use of cash rather than having it tied up in excess inventory – are some of the advantages,” he continued.
According to him, print on demand also has a huge role to play in helping the industry reduce its environmental footprint. “It allows a book to be manufactured in a market when there is a sale rather than printed and shipped from inventory held in an offshore warehouse allowing a huge reduction in transportation costs and associated carbon.”
Ingram’s global print on demand service has allowed titles to be made available to booksellers in other markets without the need to either sell the rights or ship stock and have it held speculatively in a warehouse.
Widely used model
“We link our print-on-demand service to wholesale points of distribution so that, for example, a bookseller in London or New York can order a title and receive it within a couple of days. Ingram makes the sale to the bookseller as a wholesaler at the price set by the publisher, manufactures the book on demand, deducts the cost of printing the book and pays the publisher the balance. This model is used very widely around the world,” he explains.
As for the cost factor, Ingram says publishers have been on a journey to understand that it’s not just about the costs associated with printing the book. “It’s all the other costs that need to be considered. For example, the cost of a lost sale because you have run out of stock; the cost of capital that you have tied up in stock that has not sold; the cost of transporting stock around the world to hold speculatively in a market; the cost of having a distributor hold the stock for you in a warehouse, etc.”
Since 1998, Lightning Source has provided publishers and authors access to comprehensive bookselling channels in the industry and has since grown to become the largest print-on-demand service in the world serving publishers in nearly 150 countries and in over 350 languages.
Definition of success
Ask Ingram how he defines success and pat comes the reply: “Success requires many things, but I would say that two very important factors are having a vision and assembling a team of people who both share it and can deliver it.”
He lets on that, “My vision for print on demand originated from thinking that it would be a smart idea if we could sell a book first and then print it, rather than papering our wholesale warehouse with books that we had bought and hoped to sell. I would also like to say to our publisher customers that we succeed when they succeed. Mutual success is a very powerful thing.”