Re: Print On Demand

[kay ludi <kludi@juno.com>]

Hello all,
Kay and I will be out of town starting tomorrow and returning late
Sunday. We will provide our input early next week.
John & Kay Ludi
AIS Storefront

On Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:40:47 -0700 John I Jones <jijones@usjoneses.com>
writes:
(If any of you have difficulty downloading or reading this I have put a
PDF version (POD_Description_R2) on the AISBoard website.


http://www.aisboard.org/aisdocs/




Over the past several years the subject of Print On Demand has come up in
relation to the various AIS publications we provide.


I decided to do some research on the subject and in conjunction with some
pricing that Jody Nolin did and in consultation with Mike Lowe and Judy
Keisling, I would like to present the following for discussion. I am not
at this time making a motion but rather want to make sure that we have
ample time to vet the issue.


I open this discussion in regards to printing the 2009 Checklist but the
same could apply to almost everything we print.


______________


Print On Demand (POD), sometimes called publish on demand, is a printing
technology and business process in which new copies of a book (or other
document) are not printed until an order has been received. "Print on
Demand" developed only after digital printing began, because it was not
economical to print single copies using traditional printing technology
such as letterpress and offset printing. In todays print market some
companies also use the term to mean short run printing often targeting
vanity or academic works.
In its simplest form copies of the document are only printed when an
order is received.
CreateSpace (createspace.com) is an established POD printer (an
Amazon.com company). I  have approached them as a POD source for the 2009
Iris Check List. Following are the terms, operational characteristics,
and benefits of using this POD source.
This is how it works.  
The CreateSpace primary thrust is to produce Trade Paperbacks but they
also have the capability to produce hardback books.
Production (for a Trade Paperback)
AIS signs up for a (free) account and submits a print ready file to
CreateSpace. The file is reviewed for conformance to their technical
standards. (No proof reading is performed, that would be our
responsibility.)
Once the file is approved we would order a proof copy. The charge for the
proof copy is the same as a production copy (pricing below). The typical
time for production of the proof copy is 1-2 days.
Once the proof is approved, we set the list price for the book and
activate the sales channels we wish to use (see below). 
At this point we are given a page in the CreateSpace eStore. This is a
webpage that anyone can use to purchase our book. If you would like to
see a sample page, go to:   
https://www.createspace.com/3405715
(you may have to paste this address into the address bar of your browser)
Purchasers pay the list price plus shipping and we receive our royalty
from CreateSpace.
When a book is ordered CreateSpace prints the book and ships it to the
recipient. It generally takes 1-2 days for production. At the time the
order is placed the purchaser is given an estimated delivery time and has
a choice of shipping methods.
We can of course order copies at our cost to have on hand at the AIS
Storefront or to offer for sale at our meetings and conventions.
Production (Hardback)
Once the trade paperback version has been approved for production, we can
opt to have the book produced in hard cover. There is an additional setup
charge and different pricing for this (see below).
Marketing 
As part of the standard package CreateSpace provides an eStore page (as
mentioned above) and a listing on Amazon.com. (At this time a hardcover
version would not be listed on Amazon, only on the eStore)
They also offer a Pro Plan option that allows us to earn additional
royalties and lower manufacturing costs as well as access to an Expanded
Distribution Channel (EDC) with the potential to distribute our book to a
larger audience through more outlets including: retailers, bookstores,
libraries, academic institutions, wholesalers, and distributors. One
disadvantage of the EDC is that books sold through the Expanded
Distribution Channel may be manufactured by third parties. There may be
some minor differences in manufacturing (e.g. paper thickness, color
shade, etc.) between the EDC and other Channels. (Hardcover books are not
listed in the EDC.)
Below is a Cost and Royalty Comparison between the Standard and Pro
Plans. 
(List price shown only for comparison, our price will be different)

Standard PlanPro Plan
CS eStoreAmazonCS eStoreAmazonEDC
List Price$16.00$16.00$16.00$16.00$16.00
CS Share$7.70$10.90$5.85$9.05$12.25
AIS Royalty$8.30$5.10$10.15$6.95$3.75

We can choose which channels we activate for our sales.
Costs (Trade Paperback)
Standard account  no charge
Pro Plan  $39.90 first year, $5.00 per year thereafter
Estimated unit manufacturing cost (794 pages plus covers, 6 X 9 trim ) -
$10.37 
Costs (Hardback)
Conversion to hardback - $199.00
Estimated unit manufacturing cost - $18.41


Jody has gotten some quotes for small run quantities of hardcopy
versions:
Source300 units
per copy/total cost400 Units
per copy/total cost500 units
per copy/total cost
Colorwise press70# satin17.44/$523216.66/$666516.14/$8072
50# uncoated16.47/$494215.70/$627815.18/$7588
DiYa Corporation
(7 days for sample, 35 for final)Includes shipping18.89/$566712.48/$6240
Book Printing Revolutionplus shipping, $99 set up
fee18.57/$557116.24/$6496
Bookmastersplus shipping16.53/$4959





Benefits of POD
AIS does not have to spend thousands of dollars to have 1200 - 1500
copies of the Check List printed and shipped to the AIS Storefront.
Much faster availability of first printed units.
There is no minimum purchase requirement.
There are no storage requirements for the AIS Storefront, no trips to
storage containers.
We dont have to insure the books against loss or damage (we have in the
past lost the entire stock of a Check List to water damage).
Large heavy cartons of books dont have to be shipped to new storefront
locations.
No risk of loosing money long term by ordering too many copies and having
to sell them at  below cost.
We dont have to worry about continually changing shipping and mailing
charges esp. to foreign addresses. That is all handled by the eStore
process.
We could price the softcover at $17.00 and the Hardcover at $22.00. The
hardcover price would only be a $5.00 over the price of the previous
Check List from 10 years ago. (We ordered 3000 copies of the 1999 Check
List. The per unit cost was approximately $4.00, total cost approximately
$12,000 plus shipping.)
Convert publication to Kindle - $69.00


Longer Term
We could, for minimum cost, convert previous Check Lists to POD and
eliminate all the costs of maintaining storage of them.
We could publish a complete copy of an updated and corrected Registrar
database.
Disadvantages
Might be slightly more expensive for purchasers.

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