Novel ideas bring book print home

摘要

With cut-price printing being offered in the Far East, UK printers are having to provide value-added services and make digital investments in order to attract the business of publishers. The UK book publishing sector is in rude health at the moment. Despite the growing popularity of handheld digital reading devices, figures released by the Publishers' Association showed that book sales jumped 7.7% year-on-year for the period January to September 2007, with a 6.3% increase in terms of value. But this strong sales showing doesn't necessarily mean good news for the UK's dwindling band of book printers. A large (and growing) percentage of books destined for the UK are now printed overseas, due to the low prices that can be achieved abroad. A quick glimpse at the visitor list of the upcoming London Book Fair, which will be held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in April, provides conclusive evidence of this trend: the number of foreign book printers far outweighs those from the UK.