Quite aside from being stunningly beautiful from top to bottom, New Zealand is unique, a nation of 4-1/2 million English speakers that is not on the way to anyplace else. When you go to New Zealand, you go on purpose. And you arrive on a large boat … [Continue reading]
After seeing Lightning Australia and a couple of publishers, and learning a few things
Ingram's Lightning Print operation outside of Melbourne isn't massive (at least not yet), but it sure has a lot of capabilities. It can deliver hardbacks as well as paperbacks, color as well as just black, and pretty much an infinite number of trim … [Continue reading]
We’ll see how what I actually learn compares to what I expect to find out
Australia and New Zealand have always been the far outposts of the English-speaking territories for book publishers based in New York and London. But the logistics and economics of managing inventory are very difficult. These countries are across … [Continue reading]
The best ways to use Lightning are not widely employed yet 20 years in
The 20th anniversary of Lightning Source, the digital service provided by Ingram that supplies both printed-on-demand books and ebook file distribution services for publishers, was recently noted in a tribute piece in Publishers Weekly. The growth of … [Continue reading]
Imprint consolidation at big houses is a sign of changed times
I had reason to learn recently that Ingram has 16 million individual titles loaded in their Lightning Source database ready to be delivered as a bound book to you within 24 hours, if not sooner. So every book coming into the world today is competing … [Continue reading]