May 20th, 2009
How’s that for a headline! Pulled directly from Publishers Weekly, the word is that “The number of new and revised titles produced by traditional production methods fell 3% in 2008, to 275,232, but the number of on-demand and short run titles soared 132%, to 285,394….Taken together, total output rose 38%, to 560,626 titles….Since 2002, production of on-demand titles has soared 774% compared to a 126% increase in traditional titles. Gallagher said the improvement in on-demand printing technology was a major contributor to the growth.”
Keep in mind that last year on-demand added over 120,000 titles, so this number is less impressive than it sounds; the two-year jump would be astronomical.
I’ll have more on this shortly. But for now, read ’em and….think.