Transcontinental Printing launched a new eBook Solution in partnership with De Marque at BookExpo America. The solution allows publishers to upload content once in an ePub format, which is then converted to print-ready PDFs and distributed through the partners' digital platforms to numerous retail channels. The solution provides flexibility for publishers in areas like customizing sales reports, billing, pricing strategies, and accessing international markets. It was seen as addressing the need for publishers to plan and monetize content across multiple channels. The partnership between Transcontinental and De Marque on the eBook Solution was highlighted as an innovative response to changes in the publishing industry.

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2. 14 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2011
I
n late May 2011, at BookExpo America
(BEA) in New York City, Canada and
Quebec stepped proudly into the techno-
logical spotlight as Montreal-based
Transcontinental Printing launched a new
eBook Solution created in partnership with
De Marque, a developer of international
platforms for digital content,based in Que-
bec City. The annual BEA trade show bills
itself as North America’s largest gathering
of book-trade professionals. It is organized
in conjunction with the Association of
American Publishers and the American
Booksellers Association (among others)
and coincides with NewYork Book Week,a
7-day festival of special events to draw the
public’s attention to top authors and books.
Transcontinental currently ranks itself as
NorthAmerica’s fourth-largest printer,owns
35 North American printing facilities with
multiple capabilities,and produces over 50-
million books per year for the U.S and
Canadian markets. The company’s innova-
tive eBook solution numbers among many
radical paradigm shifts in the publishing,
production, ordering, selling, and distribu-
tion of books on display this year at BEA.
New book business models
Another May event, the Toronto Digital
Printing Forum, conducted by Interquest
Ltd. at Ryerson University’s School of
Graphic Communications Management,
also focused on changing business models
in the book trade. In fact, it devoted an en-
tire afternoon to statistics presented by In-
terquest and case studies presented by two
panels of experts, one consisting of book
printers and distributors, and the other of
publishers. The trends that emerged in
these sessions are summarized below.Most
were driven by economic and environ-
mental pressures for cost and waste reduc-
tion and demand for improved efficiencies
to streamline and integrate the operations
of ordering, production, distribution,
billing, and sales reporting.
Forum speakers generally agreed that
while market demand continues for books
printed by traditional web and sheetfed off-
set presses, toner-based and inkjet printed
books are on the rise, since they allow for
the lightning turnaround times that have
become mandatory,along with printing on
demand, economical shorter runs, and the
associated benefits of waste reduction, bet-
ter inventory management, and reduced
warehousing costs.Other contributing fac-
tors to the growing popularity of toner and
inkjet book printing include the rise of self-
publishing and customization (for exam-
ple, anthologies of required readings for
college and university courses); new, envi-
ronmentally progressive stocks; and recent
improvements in electrophotographic and
inkjet technologies (including new finish-
ing devices and expanded automation and
workflow integration capacities.)
Additionally, economic pressures, rising
fuel prices,more complex technological de-
mands, and more business generation via
the Internet have promoted more acquisi-
tions, and partnerships among both book-
sellers and equipment vendors. These
partnerships include a rise in global print-
ing and shipping networks to print and dis-
tribute books closer to the point of sale.
Regarding electronic versus printed for-
mats, a decline in the prices of e-readers
and corresponding growth in the sale of e-
books now factor more and more promi-
nently in publishers’ and booksellers’
revenue strategies. Case in point: In Janu-
ary 2011, Amazon reported selling 115 e-
books for every 100 paperbacks sold, and
e-books accounted for about 10 percent of
all the company’s trade-book sales. Al-
though according to the Association of
American Publishers,only seven percent of
adults read e-books today, net sales of e-
books approached $70 million in January
2011,a 115.8 percent increase above the $32
million in sales recorded in January 2010.
Although the recession and pricing pres-
sures have resulted in fewer books being
printed and purchased, along with the clo-
sure of several major book retailers, con-
sumer demand for printed books still
clearly persists. For instance, in a January-
2011 survey by the Book Industry Study
Group,75 percent of students said they still
prefer printed textbooks.
Accordingly,publishers and vendors must
remain flexible in response to consumer de-
mand for both e-books and p-books, while
uncovering new revenue streams in the
evolving marketplace. So far their new
strategies include participation in emerging
digital archives of content that can be cata-
logued, managed, and distributed to multi-
ple sales channels in either electronic or
printed formats. They are also experiment-
ing with the potential for greater interactiv-
ity between printed books and catalogues
and electronic media (for example,a printed
children’s natural science e-book with links
to reference pages in a printed volume as
well as an interactive Website).
Transcon’s eBook Solution
Before BEA, I spoke with Bruce Jensen,
Transcontinental’s Vice President of Sales
for the Magazine, Book and Catalogue
Group, and Simon de Jocas,Vice President
of Business Development at De Marque, to
learn more about the specific eBook Solu-
tion jointly developed by their companies.
“Transcontinental invested considerable
time to understand the current market
changes and opportunities, and then fig-
ured out if we could devise a solution and
what it would be, and to source the best
provider,”recounts Jensen.
“We began by asking what is the emerg-
ing business model for books between dig-
ital and print. Our answer was a hybrid of
both. So all business decisions have been
based on customer preferences for access-
ing content as both printed books and dig-
ital options. The biggest challenge facing
publishers today is to plan what to do with
content, how to distribute it over multiple
channels, how to monetize it, and make
money from offering new services and ca-
pabilities.
“In today’s marketplace, change occurs
not in weeks or days but hours, so nimble-
ness to adjust to market changes rapidly
was also paramount,”adds Jensen.
Re-monetizing the Book
VICTORIA GAITSKELL
Continued on page 30
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“Another guiding principle for De Mar-
que was to find a solution in which all the
players in the book chain still have their rai-
son d’etre,” continues de Jocas. “The goal
was not to replace but to enable each mem-
ber of the book industry – publishers, re-
tailers, and end users – to participate in the
solution. The end user or book buyer can
still buy books at stores or on the Internet.
Even the printing industry – Transconti-
nental being one player – has found its
place in the solution as well.”
“Publishers are the main beneficiaries
and participants in the new system,”Jensen
explains.“In addition to large publishers, it
supports smaller ones, who can’t necessar-
ily afford their own robust technology de-
partments, and helps them find an
inexpensive way to get into new markets.
Additionally,printers who plug into the sys-
tem gain the ability to be full-service
providers by developing and monetizing
new business solutions for their customers
using our relatively simple system.”
Three international platforms
The eBook Solution works by enabling par-
ticipants to access its three international
digital platforms that store and deliver
books to numerous retail channels. De
Marque launched the first platform, called
ANEL, in early 2009, comprising publish-
ers in Quebec and French-speaking
Canada. The same year, they added a sec-
ond platform composed of three major
publishing groups in France, called Eden
Livres. In 2010, the company added a third
platform, called Edigita, including three
major publishers in Italy.
Participating publishers each deposit
their content in one of the warehouses
where it is accessible to all selected distrib-
utors. Publishers can thus connect to a large
number of retailers quickly via already pre-
determined rules and choose which retail-
ers they want to sell to.
Jensen confirms that among the strengths
of the system’s international linkages to three
platforms with titles in English, French, and
Italian is that a publisher who subscribes to
any one of the warehouses can access books
and publishers in all three. Thus the system
enables publishers to penetrate language and
geographic markets that they previously
thought were inaccessible.
Additionally,publishers only need to up-
load one file in ePub (an industry standard)
format for all commercial channels.
Through a simple conversion process, the
files are then delivered as print-ready PDFs.
de Jocas explains that this feature offers a
huge advantage compared to other systems
where publishers have to make the same
change for each distributor. Jensen adds
that the one-file system greatly facilitates
reprints of older and discontinued titles (a
process that traditionally has been a signif-
icant source of new revenue for publishers),
as well as the revision of text and formats,
creating new editions, and locating the
most current versions of titles.
de Jocas points out that another ad-
vantage of the system is its neutral soft-
ware platform. He says the system is
“agnostic”in that it is written to work on
any platform, whereas other solutions
may be built to work with either Mac or
PC platforms only. (As another example,
all e-books purchased from Amazon must
be read on a Kindle or within a Kindle app
as opposed to any other e-reading device).
de Jocas also enthuses about the fact that
the solution doesn’t impose specific secu-
rity, pricing, or marketing protocols, leav-
ing publishers free to make many of their
own choices and devise their own pricing
and marketing strategies.This built-in flex-
ibility also includes the ability to customize
sales reports, billing, and accounting infor-
mation, depending on which areas and
markets the publisher wants to concentrate.
“Stressed-out bosses can look at current
sales statistics in the format they choose
24/7. That’s very powerful,” says Jensen.
“People need better information to decide
on successful marketing strategies, as well
as flexibility in pricing strategy based on
market responses.The flexibility of the sys-
tem gives publishers the opportunity to do
specific market testing without a huge fi-
nancial outlay.”
Already the success of the eBook Solu-
tion is such that Transcontinental has been
selected as the official eBook partner for the
Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA).
In a May 16 media release, Mark Lefebvre,
President of CBA, stated “Our partnership
with Transcontinental provides our mem-
bers with award-winning software that will
allow retailers to address their customers'
digital preferences and ultimately better
serve them by offering e-reading options
that consumers are demanding. Addition-
ally, the sales reporting and consumer ana-
lytics functionality of their program
provides retailers with a unique solution
not yet seen offered by the bigger corporate
retailers, so the competitive advantage is
huge with this product.”
In a parallel development, also in May
(apparently a huge month for book-trade
developments!), the American Booksellers
Association (ABA,a not-for-profit trade or-
ganization of independently owned book-
stores with storefront locations) entered
into an agreement with On Demand Books
(ODB), maker of the Espresso Book Ma-
chine (EBM, a production line for perfect-
bound paperbacks) to promote the EBM to
their members.As well,the agreement helps
publishers gain access for their titles to
EBM’s affiliated content network in ex-
change for software-licensing discounts for
their members who purchase or lease the
machine.
Earlier, in September 2010, On Demand
Books and Xerox announced a partnership
whereby Xerox will market,sell or lease,and
service the EBM worldwide.On Demand re-
portedly plans to have more than 150 EBM
installations worldwide by the end of 2011.
In a quick e-mail summing up Transcon-
tinental’s activities at BEA, Cathy Stojak,
Marketing Projects Manager for the com-
pany’s Book, Magazine & Catalogue Group,
wrote: “We had a full three days of demos –
lots of traffic and a few contracts signed.One
thing’s for sure – having spoken to all sizes
of book publishers,I realize their pain points
all seem the same: How do I plan effectively
for my content and how can I create new
ways of monetizing?
“This industry has really been shaken and
it’s great and inspiring to see how publishers
are rolling up their sleeves and getting busy
trying to figure out what’s best for them,”she
concludes.“Each case is different, so there is
really no set marketing strategy – just lots of
options and technology.”
Victoria Gaitskell is keen to exchange ideas
with readers at victoria@printaction.com
Gaitskell
Continued from page 14
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