Book Tech the Magazine

In 1998 BookTech the Magazine was launched. It was read by a highly targeted audience of book and multimedia publishers and their key suppliers, including the producers of trade, professional, software, directory and educational books. The subscribers of BookTech the Magazine were managers and executives with buying power, including: attendees of BookTech the trade show and active subscribers to Publishing & Production Executive employed in a book publishing capacity. Free subscriptions were awarded to qualified readers on a limited, first-come, first-served basis. This was the original website for BookTech, the Magazine.

The hugely successful publication evolved with the changes in the book market, and expanded its mission to have a wider appeal to all business executives at book publishing companies. By 2006 BookTech the Magazine was called. Book Business.  It was/is published six times a year. This site's logo changed to reflect the new name. Eventually Book Business developed a new website with their new name. The domain registration for BookTechMag.com expire and the site disappeared from the web. If the archived content of this website piques your interest, go to the new BookBusiness website at: http://www.bookbusinessmag.com.

My father was a subscriber to the old BookTech. He moved on to the new website to get his news. Recently, I discovered that the domain for BookTechMag was available, so I bought it with the goal of recreating some of its original content from archived pages and to point visitors to their new site. I did not want someone else to purchase the domain and re-purpose the site for something that had nothing in common with the original BookTechMag.com website.

There was so much content to chose from I decided to share some from 2000 when Book Business was known by its old name: BookTech the Magazine. I also have included some archived content from 2006 when the site was Book Business. It was a blast from the past looking at the 2000 editorial articles. It was where I learned a lot about the world in a way that was fascinating. I was very much into jewelry and thought about becoming a silversmith due to an article about a company that designed sterling silver rings for the online marketplace. Both gold and silver were metals I had learned about in school, but gold was really out of reach for me financially. I brought an article on silversmiths from BookTech into school and showed my teacher who turned me onto a world of craftsmen who did nothing but create amazing jewelry from sterling silver bars. I was smitten and studied metal craft in school as a result of BookTech's early influences on my young mind. But I digress. Let me get back to BookTech.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PAGE CONTAINS SELECTIVE ARCHIVED CONTENT FROM THE ORIGINAL SITE.

Since the site will not be exactly as you remember it, please be indulgent.
Now let's take a nostalgic stroll back to 2000 and then a slight jump forward to 2006.

 

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2000 Editorial Calendar

BookTech, the Magazine, is read by a highly targeted audience of book and multimedia publishers and their key suppliers, including producers of trade, professional,software, directory and educational books. Combined with the popular BookTech Conference Series, held twice each year, and booktechmag.com, BookTech offers its readership a one-of-a-kind resource.


2000 Editorial Calendar

An exclusive focus on the informational needs of today's book production, design, prepress, and manufacturing management makes BookTech the Magazine an excellent medium for your advertising message every issue in 2000!

July/August
Closing Date: May 26
Materials Due: June 2

  • SPECIAL FOCUS: People and Technology
  • Showcasing forward-thinking book production managers' innovations, management approaches and veiws.
  • BONUS DISTRIBUTION: Seybold San Francisco

September/October
Closing Date: July 28
Materials Due: August 4

  • SPECIAL FOCUS: Top 20 Book Manufacturers
  • PAPER: Selecting a Coated Cover Stock
  • TECHNOLOGY: Publisher/Printer Manufacturing-Data Exchange
  • PRINT BUYER'S WORKBOOK: Book Budget Fundamentals
  • COVER CLOSE-UP: Production Executive Profile
  • DIGITAL TRACK: Printer/Publisher Telecommunications
  • FINISHING FOCUS: Bindery Technology Briefings
  • ON THE 'NET: Online Trends
  • DESIGNER'S TECH FILE: Reproducing Food Photography
  • BONUS DISTRIBUTION: Graph Expo 2000

November/December
Closing Date: October 3
Materials Due: October 10

  • SPECIAL FOCUS: BookTech West 2000 Show Planner and Guide
  • TECHNOLOGY in MANUFACTURING: Four-Color and CTP
  • PRINT BUYER'S WORKBOOK: Negotiating Production Schedules
  • COVER CLOSE-UP: Production Executive Profile
  • DIGITAL TRACK: Automating Tabular Data Publishing
  • FINISHING FOCUS: Binding Trends for Digital Short-Run Books
  • ON THE 'NET: Online Trends
  • DESIGNER'S TECH FILE: Covers That Look Great on the Web and in Print
  • BONUS DISTRIBUTION: BookTech West 2000

For additional information, contact Donna Loyle at (215) 238-5320

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June Issue 2000

North American Publishing Company provides your online connection to the News, Resources, and how-to information for the Printing & Allied Graphic Arts, Publishing, Packaging, Direct Marketing, Broadcast Information, Promotional Marketing, Communications Catalog Management and Consumer Electronics industries, as well as some of the most effective business-to-business mailing lists.

The 2000 Printing Industry Goldbook is the most complete, authoritative single-volume information source covering the printing marketplace. You'll find up-to-date profiles with contact data for over 36,000 companies, including 28,000 printers and 8,000 print buyers, manufacturers of equipment and supplies with detailed product listings, dealers/distributors, color prepress/imaging operations, paper mills, and more

The Printing Industry Goldbook 2000 is the largest all-in-one source of printers, print buyers and suppliers. It provides up-to-date profiles of over 36,000 companies in the graphic arts marketplace, including 28,000 commercial and in-plant printers along with 50,000 of their key contacts. Printer listings also include data on "number of employees" and "types of printing performed."

You'll also find over 8,000 print buyers, manufacturers of equipment and supplies with detailed product listings, dealers/distributors, color prepress/imaging operations, paper mills, and more!

Contact information consists of key personnel names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, and many E-mail and Web addresses.

Plus, there are insightful market reports from our Contributing Sponsors: NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies; Printing Industries of America (PIA)/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF); The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL); PrintImage International; and the North American Graphic Arts Suppliers Association (NAGASA).

The Goldbook is simply your best business information value in the printing industry. You can use it to quickly and easily:

  • Locate targeted sales leads
  • Identify prospective partners
  • Evaluate potential new suppliers
  • Analyze competitors
  • Access critical industry data for strategic planning and so much more!

And with your choice of a CD-ROM or print version, you can select the format that best fits your needs. Using the CD-ROM, you'll be able to effortlessly create unlimited targeted mailing labels or telemarketing prospect lists -- in any of 32 file and label formats! The 2,069-page print version is great for quick look-ups and comes in one convenient, soft-cover volume. For maximum flexibility and value, consider ordering both versions at our special "Super-Saver" price. Plus, if you pre-pay for your order, shipping is FREE!

There's no risk in your Printing Industry Goldbook 2000 purchase, because you're protected by our full 30-day money-back guarantee.


For more information or to place an order, click here, call 800-777-8074 or E-mail to customerservice@napco.com.
Direct editorial questions or free listing requests topgbeditor@napco.com
ISBN (Book): 1-888576-62-6
ISBN (CD-ROM): 1-888576-72-3

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The 2000 Packaging Sourcebook is the packaging and converting industries' only all-in-one marketing resource, contact directory and purchasing tool. With over 20,000 detailed company profiles and 30,000 key contacts for buyers, converters and suppliers, the 2000 edition is your "must-have" guide to more profitable sales and sourcing strategies.

The 2000 Directory of Major Mailers is the single-source reference tool every direct mail professional must have! Available in both print and an easy-to-use CD-ROM version, the 2000 edition contains information on nearly 7,000 companies and detailed analysis of more than 17,000 individual mailings. For direct mail marketers it's nothing less than "inside information." For suppliers to the direct mail market, it's an absolute gold mine for the printing services they provide...the envelopes they sell...the fulfillment services they offer, and much more. Visit Now!

Inside the September/October 2000 Issue:

Top 25 Book Manufacturers Intro
About the Top 25 Book Manufacturers
The Top 25 Book Manufacturers (Chart)
Barnes & Noble.com Launches eBookStore

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2006 BookBusiness formerly BookTech Magazine

If you find these articles valuable, click here to subscribe to Book Business magazine. You can also subscribe to Book Business Extra!, our FREE e-mail newsletter. Hundreds of other articles on this topic can be found in the Book Business magazine Article Archive. 

May 6 2006

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Are You Ready for the Future
Industry leaders tackle the challenges and opportunities ahead—from electronic publishing to online content viewing to increasing competition and...

The Chronicles of a Marketing Maven
Mary McAveney—the new VP of marketing for Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing—talks about the changing landscape of children's book...(see full article below)

The Chronicles of a Marketing Maven
Mary McAveney—the new VP of marketing for Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing—talks about the changing landscape of children's book...

Quality Sales Materials on the Fly
>Thompson West reveals details behind its new online collateral-ordering system where sales reps can customize, get estimates and order sales...

Keeping the Faith
It wasn't too long ago—about three to four decades—that bookstore chains made no room on their shelves for religious publications. Out of...

Can't See the Forest for the Tree Farms
Conservation groups say that what boils down to a business decision for many publishers is a question of survival for those living in the forests of North America.

Search and Sell
Oxford University Press implements a new system to launch new products quickly, reducing 3 weeks of work to a single search command.

Marketing a New Title on Peanuts
Fantagraphics, publisher of "The Complete Peanuts," had a limited marketing budget. Here's how the company turned the comic strip into a best-selling book series without spending big bucks.

The Top 30 Book Manufacturers and Cover Stock Buyers Guide
editor's note
Helmets and Safety Goggles Advised
There is a saying that goes something like this: "If you can't look back on the year and either laugh or cry, it was a year wasted." It seems in the...

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As You Like It

Educational publishers utilize short-run technology to customize course material and reissue out-of-print titles.

As professors begin creating their course plan for the year, often they'll select a title that they once used during their days as an undergrad or graduate student, not realizing that the title has been pulled from the backlist of the publisher as 'out of print.'

The advent of short-run digital technology has allowed publishers to offer books that are no longer in print in quantities anywhere from one to a few thousand. The technology in recent years also has opened up custom publishing divisions at major educational publishers. Most of the majors have recently implemented sophisticated helpdesk software to improve their ability to respond to customer/publisher/reader requests. Zendesk and other helpdesk systems are often customized to the needs of the publisher, so helpdesk support is often provided to ease the transition to the new systems. Short-run technology now enables easy fulfillment of high demand, low volume books, and the helpdesk systems take the load off of management and enable them to quickly respond to numerous requests for help of information.

Pearson Education is one of several large educational book publishers to offer such a program to its customers. The company's custom publishing program with Offset Paperback Manufacturers (OPM) allows professors to pull chapters from several titles to create their course material.

"Whether it be Pearson, McGraw-Hill or Thomson, their custom divisions are pretty much all digital print," says Dale Williams, director of prep, sheetfed and digital printing operations at OPM. "Because the professors that order material from these companies take chapters from different books and combine them into a new book for a different class, it's obviously going to be shorter run."

Williams says that the custom book program the Berryville, Va., company fulfills for Pearson takes up to about 85 percent to 90 percent of its digital print capacity. "[Last] year we did about a billion pages [with Pearson], and [this year] it's supposed to be closer to a billion-five, maybe two billion pages," Williams says.

Currently OPM is able to produce only black and white customized books for Pearson, but Williams says the company will be able to offer color custom publishing in 2006 at price points the market will be able to bear.

"Right now, if [educational publishers] have a [custom order] that requires a lot of color pages, [they're] chopping up the books," he says. "They have a warehouse full of these books and they ... take chapters out .... That's just labor-intensive."

Commercial Communications Inc. (CCI), in Hartland, Wis., also offers custom book publishing programs for several clients including Houghton Mifflin.

"The main tool that we have is called Publication Zone," says Chad Hegwood, vice president of technology at CCI. "It is the core piece of everything that we offer, and it keeps track of their customers' orders. That's what [our customers] want to know. How much are their customers ordering [and] when are they ordering it? [Publication Zone] is the repository for all that information."

Hegwood says the original custom-book program it offered its clients was PDF-based, where a publisher's customer came onto a Web site, and picked several chapters from different books and previewed the content online. For example, a math professor would consider their course plan and choose course material from different texts containing that specific information, Hegwood says. "If it's history, [a professor may ask], 'Am I going to cover the history of Russia?' If not they can leave that out of their book."

Hegwood says XML applications is where custom publishing is going. "The XML side is very similar to PDFs, but we are using XML data [where] you can be a lot more flexible and build books at a much lower level." He explains that professors will be able to customize their books with single pages or passages from a book.

"When it comes time to select or view your content, you're going to be able to [do so] at a much more granular level. [Publishers] won't only be [able] to build books, but they'll also produce the instructor solution manuals and student workbooks, and build those in association with the book."

Not just anyone can access the site to order a book, though, Hegwood says. Professors have to be approved by the publisher to become users and are grouped into user types, based on the number of times they order books and the quantities they request.

The user types help publishers keep tabs on their customers, and factors such as the type of customer they are, and the frequency and size of their orders determine what is accessible to them.

RESTRUCTURING OLDER TITLES

In addition to customizing course material for Pearson, OPM also uses digital technology to bring back out-of-print titles.

"We manage what we call their ARP [automatic replenishment program] program, keeping those titles [in stock] that you only turn 50 or 100 of a year, or every few months," Williams explains. "That's a major advantage for using digital print to keep the runs short and their inventory low as well."

Williams says the automated system OPM uses allows the company to turn titles around in a matter of hours. "We probably have about 20,000 titles in our content management system in the ARP program, and ... every morning we'll receive an order [from Pearson, for example], and they'll get put through a filter that opens ... and checks the files to the specifications to verify that the order is correct. [The filter] will drop the files into [the appropriate] 'hot directory' on the digital press, whether it be our [Xerox] iGen or our web presses."

Williams says the front-end for reprints is completely automated and the success of the program has caused OPM to test using the automated front-end system to produce original titles. "[Everything] that's done traditionally on the front-end is bypassed, [and] within 15 seconds of receiving the order, it goes right into the hot directories on the press, provided it passes all of our tests. If it doesn't, the order goes right to our prep department with a note in the system that says it failed because of this, that or the other [thing]."

As with all industries, the goal is to get faster and more efficient each year, and the publishing industry is no different. As digital technologies improve in quality and efficiency, the benefits will continue to be reflected in publishers' bottom lines.

—Warren Chiara

 

 

2006 BookTech Expo


CONFERENCE:
Monday-Wednesday
March 20-22, 2006

EXPO:
Tuesday-Wednesday
March 21-22, 2006

EXHIBIT HALL HOURS:
March 21, 2006
10 am – 6 pm
March 22, 2006
10 am – 3 pm

LOCATION:
Hilton, New York, NYC

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Attendees will learn how to profit in three key areas:

BOOK BUSINESS

  • Excel in Strategy, Business and Marketing Planning
  •  Build an International Brand in a Multimedia Market
  •  Position Your Company To Acquire–-or To Be Acquired
  •  Automate and Integrate Processes To Do More with Fewer People
  • Make E-Books Profitable for Your Business

 

MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

  •  Reach Readers Through Nontraditional Means
  •  Implement Successful Multi-channel Marketing
  •  Maximize Sales and Licensing to Trade, Library, International and Niche Markets
  • Implement Proactive Practices in Distribution and Fulfillment
  •  Prepare for your Future in a Multimedia World

 

MANUFACTURING, PRODUCTION & WORKFLOW

  •  Tap Your Content's Full Potential (XML Made Simple and Profitable)
  •  Explore Global Sourcing
  •  Manage the Changing Role of the Book Production Executive
  •  Profit From Industry Standards and Best Practices
  • Design for Success (and Sales!)

 

LATEST NEWS:

  •  Consumer Reports' Senior VP to Deliver Keynote Address
  •  Consumers Will Spend More for Publications Using Recycled Paper
  •  Conference for Book Publishing Executives Facing New Challenges
  •  Book Business to be New Name for BookTech Magazine

 


 

Keynote Address

John Sateja
Senior Vice President for Information Products

http://www.consumerreports.org
 

Tuesday, March 21, 2006
9:00 a.m. - 9:55 a.m.
Hilton, New York City, New York

Free to all pre-registered attendees
Exhibit Hall opens immediately following Keynote Address

John Sateja
Senior Vice President for Information Products
Consumer Reports, consumerreports.org
John Sateja is the Senior Vice President for Information Products for Consumer Reports, the publishing arm of Consumers Union - an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers.
Mr. Sateja oversees the Publishing, Editorial, Technical, and Survey Research Divisions of the organization and has ultimate responsibility for all information products at CU, including Consumer Reports magazine, and ConsumerReports.org, the world's largest publication-based subscription web site, as well as several other web sites, newsletters, books, special interest publications, a syndicated television news service, and a mobile phone application. Consumer Reports has over 7 million combined paid subscribers to its various information products.


 

BookTechMag.com