{"id":2154,"date":"2025-12-08T10:41:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/?p=2154"},"modified":"2025-12-08T10:41:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:41:24","slug":"new-generation-trade-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/?p=2154","title":{"rendered":"New generation trade books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\" Over the last twenty years or so a huge and complex ecosystem has grown up for writers. Thanks to prepress and digital printing advances everyone and their dog can claim to be a published author. And sometimes it feels like they do. Traditional publishers are awash with new authors and titles; bookshops are stuffed to the gills; there\u2019s an award for every possible nuanced category; readers can find a book on pretty much any topic in nonfiction and fiction; and most of those titles have sincere and positive online reviews. New businesses have sprung up to support authors, from paid-for book reviews, video promotions of titles, through to extended book clubs whose members authors can pay to read and review their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this drives digital printing volumes, so it\u2019s all good business. And yet in ecological terms there\u2019s something a bit niggling about it. This abundance is not truly reader or market driven. It\u2019s a product of what technology makes possible and human aspiration. Everyone has a book in them yes? Yes of course. But is that book anything someone else wants to read? The answer to that is sadly, \u2018not necessarily\u2019. Potentially the accessibility of digitally printed vanity titles could amount to lots of excess emissions and waste. And technology does not stand still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new HP PageWide digital press is helping Acutrack, one of the US\u2019s primary book-fulfilment companies, keep up with TikTok-driven surges in book demand. Acutrack now handles 90% of its output inhouse and expects \u201ca fourfold increase in productivity\u201d. Acutrack\u2019s business is aimed squarely at self-publishers and offers a complete service right down to integration of the Acutrack front end with an author\u2019s e-commerce system. This is a big step up from Amazon\u2019s print on demand model and Acutrack is just one of many, many digital printing companies. They serve a huge and rapidly growing self-publishing community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acutrack, based in Livermore, California, refers to its customers as \u201csocial first authors and brands\u201d and most of them come from TikTok and other social channels. Acutrack is one of many new businesses taking advantage of the developments in digital printing and the wider digital ecosystem. If you need it Acutrack can help with all aspects of book production. An extensive partner network provides services such as editing, formatting, cover design, marketing and even writing the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acutrack\u2019s new digital press makes possible the production of up to 5000 books per shift printed on demand. This could mean 5000 different editions, since digital data can change with every page impression. The sustainability arguments for on demand production have been straightforward for years: no warehousing is needed, waste is minimised because the sales are fulfilled using a digital press printing on demand. Acutrack benefits from a reliable and consistent production system that responds to data driven book purchasing. It\u2019s all very clever, but this is about authors and algorithms, not readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-publishing is helping book printing businesses to thrive in the digital world but traditional book publishing industry is not quite so happy. Traditional publishers face immense competition from the self-publishers, who are neither as risk averse or as hidebound when it comes to social platforms. Things can only get worse. According to Author Media, a consulting company that helps authors to build their online presence, traditional publishing\u2019s sales are down 9.4%. And now Spotify streams audiobooks which will further drive digital printing of books on demand. Throw Artificial Intelligence into the mix and the possible opportunities and horrors are endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was produced by the <\/em>Verdigris Project,<\/em><\/a> an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print\u2019s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: <\/em>Agfa Graphics<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>EFI<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Fespa<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Fujifilm<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>HP<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Kodak<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Miraclon<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Ricoh<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Unity Publishing<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Xeikon<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please also include the Verdigris logo and a link to this website. If you don\u2019t already have our logos, you can get them by downloading the <\/em>\u201cPublishers Bundle\u201d<\/em><\/a>. And don\u2019t forget terms of the Creative Commons license at the footer of the site. Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Over the last twenty years or so a huge and complex ecosystem has grown up for writers. Thanks to prepress and digital printing advances everyone and their dog can claim to be a published author. And sometimes it feels like they do. Traditional publishers are awash with new authors … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2155,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions\/2155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}