PRIMIR Books Study Points to Morphing Industry Model
Also lurking is the potential of a change in the publisher-bookseller relationship. Currently, the industry’s model is a consignment approach which provides for a full-credit unsold-return privilege.
The traditional consignment business model places the sales and profitability risk with the publisher—the reduced publisher price model shifts the risk to the bookseller; a risk that they had previously declined to take with the occasional exception of a specific title. However, economic conditions and the need to take cost out of the entire book industry system to ultimately reduce consumer prices, may lead to the adoption of the no-returns model. Returns and unsold copies account for over 50% of the print run in some book categories. Thus, a change in the publisher bookseller business model will have a significant negative impact on conventional book manufacturers and their print supply chain. Run length reductions are likely to favor digital printing technology at the expense of offset.