The Average Daily Print Run Is 1,300 Copies! Lynch Printing Adopts The 2 Points Of Experience Of Print On Demand, Which Is Very Crucial!

The average daily print run is 1,300 copies! Lynch Printing adopts the 2 points of experience of print on demand, which is very crucial!

In recent years, with the continuous development of domestic inkjet printing technology, domestic on-demand printing has entered a period of rapid development. However, the deeper the application, the higher the requirements for the technical improvement of on-demand printing and the improvement of the industrial chain.

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In 2021, the Group made strategic adjustments and integrated its three publishing units and seven printing plants into Rongtong Media Co., Ltd., thus starting a deeper strategic transformation. We have been exploring the road of print on demand for many years, and the author will share the current development of book print on demand from a personal perspective.

The publishing industry is in crisis,

The market's acceptance of print on demand continues to grow

At the beginning of 2023, a news that "the preferential corporate income tax for cultural transformation enterprises expires (as of the end of 2023), and the publishing industry will levy 25% income tax", which caused a lot of shock. Although in December 2024, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the Publicity Department of the Central Committee jointly issued an announcement to "continue to exempt the levy", for the publishing industry, the adjustment of tax costs may only be a matter of time, which is bound to have a certain impact on the operation of most publishing units.

As of 2021, the year-end inventory of Xinhua bookstores and publishing houses across the country has reached 7.395 billion copies (sheets, copies, boxes), amounting to about 170.577 billion yuan.

In the past five years, the number of unsalable varieties in the book retail market has increased from 899,000 in 2019 to 1.036 million in 2023, and the inventory-to-sales ratio of some publishers has reached an astonishing 8:2.

In addition, the printing cost accounts for 20%~40% of the overall cost of the book, and the cost pressure is greater. In addition, in 2023, the warehouses of many publishing units will be flooded, and more than 500 million yards of books will be scrapped...... The current publishing industry is facing many crises, and it is urgent to reshape the printing production link of the publishing industry through on-demand printing to alleviate the pressure of new inventory.

With the blowout development of high-speed inkjet printing technology in 2019, now, the key issues such as printing color, printing speed, and printing cost that everyone is concerned about have made substantial leaps forward, and relevant departments are also continuing to promote the process of on-demand printing.

Lingqi Printing and its key customers, Science Press, have been included in the "Pilot Unit for the Reform of Copyright Page Information of Printing Books on Demand" (belonging to the two fields of printing and publishing) in the "Pilot Work Plan for the Digital Development and Reform of the Printing Industry", and the trial implementation of the printing power of attorney filing work of "second preparation and second passing" (In August 2024, the Printing and Distribution Bureau of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Trial Operation of the National Printing Power of Attorney Filing System", which clearly requires all parts of the country to participate in the trial operation of the new system. Provide more policy support for subsequent on-demand printing and on-demand publishing.

Print-on-demand still needs to be perfected

Close to market demand and production needs

Since 2020, Lingqi Printing has formally established a print-on-demand strategic partnership with Science Press, setting up the publisher's database center in Lingqi Printing Factory, focusing on the printing of small orders such as scientific research monographs and paper collections.

At present, Lingqi Printing completes about 64,000 varieties of print-on-demand orders every year, and during the peak period, the average daily production is 700~800 kinds, and the average daily printing volume reaches 1,300 copies. There are about 200~300 kinds of products produced in a single day, and the peak number of printed books in a single day reaches 500~600 volumes. Here, the author shares the real demand for print-on-demand that we encountered in the actual production process.

01

The printing quality needs to be improved, and the printing cost still needs to be controlled

For products with high quality requirements, such as popular science books, the current on-demand printing supported by high-speed inkjet printing technology still cannot meet the high quality requirements of publishers in terms of four-color printing, especially in terms of color density, color level, and front and back registration. Although high-speed inkjet printing does not produce color changes due to temperature changes compared to electrostatic printing, it is still at a disadvantage in high-volume printing compared to offset printing. Therefore, we also need to seek higher quality and more profit in short orders.

It should be emphasized that most publishers choose to use on-demand printing to print science and technology books, textbooks, teaching aids, etc., but the price of such books is generally not high, and even some textbooks must strictly control the cost due to the low price ceiling. Even though the printing cost of inkjet printing has been as low as a few cents per sheet (A4), which is a significant improvement compared with 5 years ago, in the case of its quality has not achieved a new breakthrough, it must be further reduced in terms of use cost before it can be widely used in the market. The cost here is not only the cost of printing, but also the cost of consumables in the entire printing process, such as the cost control of paper, ink, printhead and other wearing parts. This not only requires the efforts of equipment manufacturers, but also requires printing companies to work hard in the way of procurement.

02

The post-press supporting processing capacity and hardcover post-press capacity need to be strengthened

The predecessor of Lingqi Printing is the 2207th Factory of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which can be said to be an early enterprise to enter the field of on-demand printing from traditional printing, and its post-press capabilities have always been strong. However, according to the author's observation, there are still some printing companies in the market that are transformed and upgraded from graphic shops or small printing factories, and these enterprises have weak post-press processing capabilities and hardcover post-press capabilities. Most of them are more willing to invest money in replacing printing equipment, but they do not invest enough in post-press processing and lack of understanding, which is mainly manifested in two points.

First, the efficiency dilemma of "printing but not loading" is more prominent. The speed and efficiency of post-printing are relatively low, taking an order as an example of the author's personal experience, the printing process took only two days to complete all the printing tasks, but the follow-up post-press processes such as binding and cutting took a whole week, which seriously affected the order delivery efficiency.

Second, when special processes such as special paper, UV printing, embossing, and hot stamping, these enterprises do not have relevant post-press equipment and personnel reserves, and cannot complete the order, or need to outsource the order for processing. This not only leads to the profit of the entire business being compressed by the outsourced processing plant again, but also the profit sharing of some outsourced processing will even reduce the profit of the printing factory by 20%~30%, and at the same time, it also needs to bear the communication cost in the outsourced processing process and the risk of loss and loss of transfer transportation.

Obviously, the development of on-demand printing has evolved from an optional question of "whether to get involved" to a mandatory question of "how to get involved" and "how to improve quality and reduce costs". Whether it is the release of the tax exemption policy, or the rising publishing inventory, or the risk of storage loss caused by the flooding of the warehouse, this is undoubtedly full of "crisis" for the publishing industry, but at the same time, it has also accelerated the urgent demand for on-demand printing in the market, ushering in a new "opportunity" for it.

At the same time, the author also feels that in the past two years, the publishing unit has a deeper understanding and application of on-demand publishing and on-demand printing, just like the reward system adopted by the Science Press, that is, the editorial department will receive a special reward for every new POD book published that year. The promotion of the operation mode of the upstream publishing unit is undoubtedly more conducive to the full rollout of the on-demand printing method.