State of the Digital Book Printing Market

Question Title

* 1. The zero inventory model is financially attractive. Is it possible we will live in a world without brick and mortar booksellers by 2025?

A) Unlikely. People will continue to patronize physical bookstores.

B) Mostly. Book stores will be relegated to airports, train stations, museum shops and other specialty locations.

C) Yes. Rapid response printing and distribution will make this the only means to keep book publishing profitable.

Question Title

* 2. How urgent is it for publishers to get down to a zero inventory model for printed books?

A) It should have happened by now.

B) There is a window of about 1-2 years before it becomes a survival requirement.

C) It will take 5+ years for all the infrastructure pieces to fall into place.

D) It won’t matter. Ebooks have solved this problem already and will accelerate the decline of printed books.

Question Title

* 3. What is the biggest barrier to a zero inventory-publishing model?

A) Culture/change management

B) Infrastructure investment

C) Lack of technology

D) Training

E) Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 4. Recent trends have focused on centralized book printing plants with ever-greater efficiency. With the advent of high-speed digital book printing technology, has time come for a shift to regionalized/decentralized book manufacturing plants for the 80% of titles that sell less than 5,000 copies/year, enabling faster, more cost effective delivery times?

A) Yes. Consumer expectations for accelerated delivery and rising shipping costs will cause a shift toward decentralized printing

B) No. The capital to invest in decentralized high-volume digital printing plants isn’t available

C) Maybe. But we need lower-acquisition cost sheet-fed ink jet printers rather than more expensive roll-fed ink jet printers

Question Title

* 5. Many book manufacturers can’t afford the risk of a “build it and they will come” capital investment in rapid response book manufacturing. What can be done to help book manufacturers make the investment in an automated/digital book manufacturing operation?

A) Publishers’ continued adoption of the digital model will generate enough demand to warrant these investments by the manufacturers.

B) Equipment manufacturers will have to provide lower acquisition cost digital equipment and finishing.

C) Darwinism will sort it out. That is, printers that continue to evolve and become more nimble will rise to the top.

D) Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 6. In the next 3 years, where is growth most likely to occur from ink jet technology?

A) Replaces offset print technology

B) Replaces digital toner print technology

C) Creates new products

Question Title

* 7. Will traditional publishers maintain their value in an automated book manufacturing world, or will publishing move mainly to a self-publishing, free-for-all?

A) Maintain value. Publishers are adapting quickly to social media, mobile communication, and other modern forms of marketing communication on a scale that cannot be matched by self-publishers.

B) Lose value. Publishers’ legacy infrastructures prevent them from moving fast enough and their skill will be replaced by smaller, more nimble start-ups/self-publishers.

C) Lose value. But publishers will try to compensate for speed by incubating small start-ups to address self-publishing needs

D) Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 8. Currently, pages printed digitally account for an estimated 5% of the book market. What percent of printed book pages will be digitally printed by 2020?

A) Less than 10%

B) 10% - 25%

C) 25% - 50%

D) More than 50%