Many years ago, in the distant past, even before Willie Nelson had a pony tail, I was working for an advertising agency and had a client who wanted to publish a book. His book was called It’s Your Money, Earn or Burn. Actually, I wrote the title, but that is beside the point. The information in the book is way out of date now, but at the time was cutting edge.

He, my client, and a partner had a business finding and promoting tax sheltered investments. Since then congress has closed most shelters and left many tax payers high and dry. The rules surrounding  acceptable tax shelters from those disallowed were somewhat discombobulated and difficult to decipher. Imagine that–tax regulations being difficult to understand–who wodda thought?

Willie Nelson

For example there was the famous case of country singer Willie Nelson who followed the advice of Price Waterhouse, one of the top 10 accounting firms in the country. The government disallowed his sheltered investments and the unpaid taxes and fines forced Willie Nelson into bankruptcy.

Get this, the government wouldn’t tell you in advance if a shelter would be allowed or not. You had to assume it would be, then wait for their audit, which could take years. If you guessed wrong–WHAM you paid dearly.

My client’s idea was to write a book simplifying tax shelters for people and leading them away from uncertain ones into those proven. It was an excellent idea, but marketing and distribution became a problem. The Internet didn’t exist in those days so it was difficult to connect with the very small percentage of Americans who were potential targets for his message, but that didn’t really matter.

Why, you might ask.

The very day books were delivered; he extracted a copy, proudly marched down the hall to the offices of another firm, and gave the book to the owner. The owner looked at the cover, turned it over and saw my client’s photo and bio on the back. Volia, instant credibility.

As a direct result of using his book as a calling card, my client secured a contract that paid him more than all of the costs of producing the book. All actual book sales were gravy.

Ask yourself if instant credibility would benefit you. Are there doors currently closed that might open if you used a book to jimmy the lock (metaphorically speaking, that is)? How do you crash through the glass ceiling? Try throwing your book at it. A book can give you more status than any other factor. These people would definitely improve their chances for advancement, better name recognition, and higher earnings if they had a book:

• Public Speakers
• Corporate Trainers
• Presenters
• Sales Representatives
• Teachers
• Executives

Note: Remember that writing a book is only the first step. At that point you aren’t even half-way done. To decide how you will market your book check into The Author Platform. It’s a comprehensive program to teach you how to use the Internet effectively.

First what is POD? This is really confusing. There are iPod’s for music, pod casts for recording, pea pods, pod people from the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Printing on Demand (pod).

Since I’m a print broker and this blog concerns itself with printing, publishing, and [other] observations you could guess that the pod I’m concerned about is Printing on Demand. By the way, that’s a darned good phrase. Whoever came up with it should write political slogans, you know, the kind of things that sound good but have no real substance. After all, if you wanted something printed why not have it done on demand?

I DEMAND PRINTING NOW!

“My good sir, I demand my printing.” Wha? What does it mean? The phrase by itself is meaningless, but it has impact. It lets the customer feel that they are in charge by being able to demand it. How often if life do we get to demand anything? Demands usually cause trouble, but here’s the printer giving you permission to DEMAND something. That’s refreshing, don’t you think?

First, printing on demand is a misnomer. It is not a printing method at all. The method is called digital. Think of POD like the term quick print. Quick printing is offset printing utilizing faster turnarounds, smaller runs, and cheaper methods, like using paper plates instead of metal. There is no printing process called Quick Print. And there isn’t a printing press called an “on demand.”

Digital printing burst onto the printing scene just a few years ago. The computer industry spawned it, and in fact, the printing you do on your office laser jet is digital printing. The difference between the commercial digital “press” and your office printer boils down primarily to speed and sophistication.

So what’s the big deal? Oh my friend, it is a very big deal because Printing on Demand is revolutionizing the field of publishing. Until it came around, it wasn’t economically feasible to print just a few books. To prepare an offset press for printing requires several steps that we call “make-ready” in the biz. The time and materials, such as plates,  and file prep, have front-end costs. With POD, many of those front-end costs don’t exist. if your electronic file is right, the setup is virtually done. Now is the beginning of the golden age of short-run publishing.

If the price is better why isn’t all printing POD? Because, it isn’t always better. For all the hoopla, POD has a serious weakness. It is great at micro print runs, like quantities between one and five-hundred, but can’t keep up with offset printing at around one-thousand. If you wish to print say 2,000 books, offset printing will offer a much better price, but if you only want 50, POD beats offset, hands down.

What’s the future of Printing on Demand? Who knows? I suspect that someone, somewhere soon will figure out a way to make digital printing more economical for longer runs and offset presses will quickly disappear like dinosaurs. That day isn’t here yet. For the time being I recommend digital printing for short runs and offset printing for larger.  Here’s a pretty simple guide: 500 or less = digital, 1,000 or more = offset, between 500 and 1,000, get a bid.

P.S. If you have self-published a book and want to learn how to totally master the power of Internet marketing check out The Author Platform.

14,400 hits, 94 countries, 7 months

I find it fascinating that this modern Internet age has brought both its opportunities and challenges. For example, I began writing this blog in January of this year. So far, I’ve had 14,400 hits in over 94 countries. I’m not telling you this to brag, but to express amazement that this Salt Lake City, Utah lifetime printing broker who has only been two foreign countries in his life, Mexico and Canada, has through the Internet been able to reach out to the entire world.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Now, my progress is not spectacular. I’m not an Internet shooting star. What I am is a person sitting at my desk on the lower east slope of the Wasatch Front in my eighty-year-old home overlooking the Salt Lake Valley. I’m a publicly-educated, middle-class guy, raised in a middle-class family, without any particular social advantages. My only real leg up is that I have a better-than-average capability to see the forest for the trees and a strong work ethic. With these abilities, I’ve managed to make a lower-upper-middle-class income over the past twenty years by selling my knowledge of printing and offering my services to help customers get their printed projects delivered on-time, at competitive prices, at improved quality levels.

What I’m trying to say is that I really haven’t achieved any more than millions of other Americans in similar circumstances.

Writing the Great American Novel

So what is it that this unspectacular, pretty average guy brings to the table that  people throughout the world might want to know? Obviously, my understanding of printing and how to get things done efficiently has proven to have value. It has been that knowledge that paid my bills for 20 years. What else? I wrote a novel and that experience brought me to the edge of my knowledge chasm.

Reaching my knowledge chasm

I looked down and realized that I had no idea of how to cross to the other side. In the real world a printed book makes a poor bridge across a wide gulf. In the mind, however, a book can be anything. It can give you wings.

Could I produce a book? You bet. I could do that in my sleep. Did I know what to do with it once it was created? No way.

Those Who Sort the Avalanche

That’s when I discovered some interesting facts. I believed that writing a book was unique. Wrong, some 80% of adults would like to write a book. Of that 80%, many, like me, actually do it. I also believed that publishers would be anxious to get their hands on my special novel. Wrong again. I learned that most publishers aren’t interested in a manuscript that hasn’t been presented to them by well-connected agents, so I contacted a lot of agents. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. They seemed oblivious to the particular genius of my book, then I discovered that both agents and publishers face daily avalanches of manuscripts. Far more than they could ever get through. How could anyone deal with this mass of paper? They take short cuts and make primary decisions on arbitrary things. Oops a misspelling–you’re out. Darn the manuscript was bound when the instructions said unbound–you’re out too. And so on. I was told that less than 4% of submitted manuscripts ever become books. Getting a book traditionally published isn’t an up hill battle, it is a vertical climb without a rope. I didn’t like the odds and began to seriously consider the concept of self-publishing.

Pre-build the Audience

That’s where I am now. I am learning everything I can as fast as I can about self-publishing and marketing. This blog, example gives me an opportunity to introduce myself to the world. So far this year, as I said earlier, over 14,000 people have checked in. By the end of the year, could that number double? What about the year after that? At some point, and I’m not sure when that will be yet, I will feel ready to invest in producing my book and offering it to my readers. My reasoning is that if people like my blog they will likely like other things I write.

Free, Free, Free

Again, I’m not a shooting star. I’m just a regular guy who has the ability to express myself fairly well in the medium of the written word. I have hopes and dreams just like any other person. I’m thrilled with the response to Talking Through My Hat–may it continue to grow. The reason I wrote my story here is to give others hope too. The Internet provides a platform to talk to the entire world. If you aspire to be an author, and apparently, 80% do, write a blog. If you don’t know how to get started look into The Author Platform by following this link. Talk to people and tell them who you are. Let them get to know you. It’s free or nearly free. It’s the First Amendment to the US Constitution in action. Free Speech for Free how could you get more democratic than that?

P.S.If you already have a self-published book and would like to enter it into a no-fee contest with winner chosen by reader votes go to Wake Up Celebrity Author on The Author Platform. The winner becomes the Barnes & Noble. com Best-Seller. Cool.

Talk about trying to catch the train after it has left the station, the big publishing houses are just now looking into Internet and network marketing.  The Internet hit the publishing industry like a runaway freight and it wasn’t truly respected until upstarts like Amazon, and Google were seen riding off into the sunset lifting their glasses of champagne high into the air.

Even now Amazon is leading the book selling revolution with electronic books. What are the traditional guys doing? Mostly moaning about how book sales are down (is that true Amazon?), and gnashing their teeth about how foot traffic into bookstores has decreased.

This is why I say if you go the traditional route your chances of success are very slim.  I’ve read that a new title will get a whole 30 days of shelf exposure before being flung into the discount bin. Or even worse, having their covers ripped off for return credit and the book destroyed. You have to make a big splash early and fast to survive.

Chew on this thought–what if you published your own book and you could take the time it needs to build its audience? What if you controlled the presentation, marketing, and distribution? AND, instead of getting a 10% royalty earned fifteen times as much? This is the essence of self-publishing.

I’m not saying that everyone is ready, willing and able to do what it takes to be a self-publisher, but what most don’t know is that it is easier than you might imagine. You can build yourself up and become an industry thought leader in six months without even leaving home. Blogging makes it possible. The Internet makes almost anything possible. I know–I’m doing it. I started a blog last January (it’s July now) and I’ve had nearly 11,000 hits so far, and my monthly totals are going up, up, and up.

Why am I doing this? Exposure. Name recognition. I haven’t even published my books yet, but before I do I’m laying the groundwork. I’m networking and making world-wide connections daily. That’s so cool I can hardly stand it. If you scroll down the right side of my blog you will come to a yellow map of the world. Click on it and see how far and wide my words have gone.  I even have a language translator so that they can read what I’ve written in their own tongue. Technology–don’t ya’ love it?

Social Networking (web2.0) is flipping the whole book marketing system upside down. It used to be that you would sell books and then people would come to know you. Now people can get to know you and then you sell books. Which method would you rather use?

I’ve been following T.A.P. (The Author Platform) to learn the ropes of blogging and social networking.  Without this guidance I would be lost. TAP very clearly shows the path to follow and gives very valuable tidbits of information along the way. I can heartily endorse it because I use it. Oh, and by-the-way there’s a No Risk 15 day FREE trial too. What could be sweeter? Just click here for more information.

What do I get out of it? I get a little slice of the action, it’s true, but more than that I get the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve helped my fellow self-publishers, which is the same reason I have for creating The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors (click here for more information). I believe that we all benefit if we strive to raise the bar. We can do that by producing better self-published books, and selling them smarter than the big guys.

I, Bill Ruesch, have a confession to make. Although I’ve been in and around printing for some 35 years, book publishing is comparably new to me. You see, I did something that most Americans (somewhere around 80% wish they would do) I wrote a book. Actually I wrote four, one non-fiction, two poetry, and a novel, but that is beside the point. My novel would be my break through book. It  is a children’s fantasy story set in the fictional 1950′s small Florida town of Burns. It’s called The Whistlin’ Salamander. The thing is, I didn’t know what to do next.

Does that seem odd to you? I don’t mean to imply that I don’t know how to get a book printed. I could do that in my sleep. What I didn’t know was how to get it published. So, I turned to the Internet and bought several books on the subject.  I found tons of information on the business from landing an agent, to wooing a publisher. Publishers, for the most part, I was advised, won’t even look at a manuscript that hasn’t been presented by an agent, so I tried, and tried, to find an agent.

I learned about query letters. I came up with what I believed was a dandy, and made sure it was letter perfect. Agents, I read, have zero tolerance for grammar or spelling errors. I found out that different agents required different numbers of pages to sample your manuscript, and that I had to scrupulously follow every instruction or risk immediate rejection. I was very certain that they would love my letter and the submitted pages would be hailed. In my daydreams agents competed to sign me. That was the fantasy. The reality–not so much. Not only didn’t anyone bite, they didn’t even nibble.

What next, I thought?

Aha! An old friend Karen Christoffersen, I recalled, had worked with Richard Paul Evans author of the best-selling Christmas Box. Maybe Karen could help me. I called Karen and she told me that they were working on a program to teach self-publishers everything they needed to know through a practical hands-on method. At the completion, authors would receive fifty copies of their bookstore-worthy book printed, designed, edited, and proofread. That sounded like a good idea, but I already knew how to get all of the production things done. What I needed to know was how to sell my book. The great-agent-chase convinced me that traditional publishing wasn’t ready for me yet.

Karen introduced me to Phil Davis the owner of ZDocs a digital printing company specializing in short-run books. Phil, being the savvy entrepreneur that he is, had created a course to teach authors how to use the Internet to establish or increase credibility, and to sell books. He named the course T.A.P.The Author Platform. I told Phil about my quandary and he gracefully allowed me to study TAP with the proviso that I would report back to him anything I didn’t understand. Hey, I could do that. Through The Author Platform I learned the importance of creating a blog. Viola, that’s what you are reading now. I learned about social networking and you can find me on Facebook , Linkedin and Twitter, I found out that through social networking you can reach thousands of people with your sales message in less time than it takes for one person to walk into a bookstore, pickup your book, and look at the jacket.

I’ve been practicing the principles Phil teaches in TAP.  I now know that self-promotional activities are challenging. They take time, they take energy, and they require all of your creativity. How well does it work? In just a few months I’ve become connected with amazing people all over the world that I could never have met in 10 lifetimes otherwise. My network gets stronger everyday. The more I learn the more I realize there must be thousands of people in the same boat as I was, authors stuck  somewhere along the path between writing a book to successfully selling it. My need became the incentive to develop The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors. You can read the manifesto, which is just a fancy way of saying vision and purpose by clicking here.

I’ve heard sad stories of garages full of self-published books that don’t sell because the authors don’t know what to do once they have them. I would heartily recommend The Author Platform as an excellent way to begin. It costs a little money, but compared to the cost of just storing unsold books, it’s a pittance. Knowledge truly is powerful.

I’m not sure that authors reading my blog entry titled Are Self-Publishing Authors Saps? really caught what I was trying to say.  So I’m going to take another crack at driving the point home. Unless you are science textbook writer you probably aren’t into mathematics, but I will have to use a little 3rd grade math here, so stay with me. If you are considering self-publishing, you probably have a day job. According to the census the average American earns around $40 K per year. Suppose you paid less than five bucks each for a nice trade soft-cover book and could sell it for around twenty dollars? That would give you $15 profit per book. To replace your salaried income would require that you sell a tad over 51 books per week.

Let’s be honest here. No major publisher will be interested in a book that  sells only 51 copies per week, but if 51 books a week replaced your salary wouldn’t that be great? What would happen if you sold 100 books, or 200? Again, these aren’t numbers that will impress a big time publisher. They wouldn’t consider it longer than the time it takes to flick a fly off their foreheads, but what could it mean to you? Think about it.

This is the hidden secret: you don’t have to be a best selling author to make a decent living as a writer, but:

1. You do have to put in the time. You will soon learn that writing the book was the easy part. Marketing and promoting the book will consume all you have to give.
2. You have to be willing to take the risk. You will incur costs getting your book ready to print, not to mention the printing costs themselves.
3. You have to learn the ropes. You probably aren’t going to sell your 51 books a week standing on a street corner hawking them like newspapers. You have to learn from the real pros, and therein is a rub. I hate to tell you this, but the Internet is crawling with wolves and knaves. Anyone with a tincture of information and some copy writing skill is trying to pass themselves off as your savior, the answer to all of your problems. If you follow their advice, the promised great riches will indeed appear–they’ll appear in their pockets–and disappear out of yours. Knowledge is the shield you need to protect you.
4. You have to have a marketable product. It doesn’t matter what route you take. If the public isn’t interested in your book it won’t sell well no matter what you do. Take a good hard look at your book. Try to stand away from the emotion of your work and look at it for what it truly is. Everyone thinks that their’s is the most beautiful baby in the room, but love blinds. Listen to your critics. Weigh their advice carefully, but always remember that critics are often wrong. Their opinion is just an opinion. Ultimately the choice is yours to proceed or not.

Writers write because they have to. Did you get that? They have to. But a writer without readers is a cow without an udder. Producing the milk is one thing, but if there isn’t a way to dispense it, the readers go thirsty, and the cow bloats and dies. I don’t necessarily mean a literal death, but the death of the writer’s talent, a potentially promising career, and a unique voice.

You, the author, have something to say. You have some information to impart, or a story to tell, or maybe some humorous material. Whatever it is, you wouldn’t have started writing if you didn’t feel that people needed to hear from you. It could be that your particular audience isn’t very large, but are they large enough to sustain steady sales of your book? You may never interest a traditional publisher, but you could, and should aim at creating an adequate income to support your writing career. Who knows, if you are financially able to keep writing, and keep publishing, that illusive best seller might just come popping out sometime. Wouldn’t that be great?

Oh, by the way, don’t forget to keep up with The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors. With mutual cooperation we will soon know which of the services available have merit and which to avoid.

I hope you have been reading my information on The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors. If not, you may want to stop here and click on the manifesto. Today’s publishing reality is that approximately 4% of manuscripts submitted to publishers ever become books. If you have written a book you need to face the truth. The odds of getting your book published through traditional methods are slim to none.

Recently a self-publishing author of my acquaintance inked a deal with a major publishing company for some very large bucks, maybe the largest in history for a new author. How did he do it? I’ll tell you.

• He is very well connected. He was one of the founders of The Franklin planners. His expertise was in training. This work brought him face-to-face with the biggest names in success and motivational circles Og Mandino, and the family of Victor Frankel. He was also able to borrow credibility from the likes of Spencer Johnson author of Who Moved My Cheese and co-author of The One Minute Manager; John Assaraf author of The Answer; Teacher in the Secret; Stephen M.R. Covey author of  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; and Richard Paul Evans author of The Christmas Box.
• He brilliantly, if I do say myself, chose me to expedite the printing of his book. We worked together and created a showpiece book that in the words of one NY publisher, “Would stand up against the best in the industry.” What value is there in handing a prospective publisher a completed, well-crafted book instead of a dog-eared manuscript? You tell me.
• His friends introduced him to a successful agent who believed in the potential of the book, plus the author is a very personable man and excellent salesman. You won’t get far in any enterprise of worth if you can’t effectively self-promote. If you expect your writing to save you by itself, you are mistaken. Why was Mark Twain one of the best selling American authors of all time? Was it the quality of his writing alone? No, I don’t believe it. The flamboyance of the man helped his career immeasurably. Think of other examples. Best selling authors have always had a hook, even the poet Emily Dickinson had her spinster sheltered life to engage readers. The back story is important. Find yours and promote it.
• The agent held an auction. She didn’t beg the book from publisher to publisher hoping to find one. She put it up on the action block and invited publishers to compete for it, and compete they did.

To duplicate his success would be very difficult. You’d have to have the connections and the support of the best minds in your field, but does a self-publisher have to sell millions of books to make money? No. In fact, you don’t have to sell very many books at all to make money. If you can get a book published for let’s say $5, and you can sell it for $19.95, you have a profit of $14.95 per book. One thousand books could bring you $15,000, and five thousand books would net $74,750. To sell five thousand books you are looking at less than 100 per week. How hard could it be to sell 100 books a week? If you market it right, go to book signings, use social Internet sites, and promote it with purpose, 100 books should be a snap. How about 200 or 300? Think about it.

If you have a Facebook account you can join The Red Hen Association group to keep abreast of the progress. Red Hen is also on Twitter under redhenassoc. As soon as our website is launched and we have established an opt-in program I’ll be announcing it. Membership will be free. Saftey in numbers will be invaluable. Please hop on board, we need you.

A good friend bought my lunch (isn’t that the definition of a good friend one who buys your lunch?) and over pasta he mentioned the book TRIBES  by Seth Godin. It’s a small book with a big message. It addresses the changing social and business constructs and envisions a future already here and now, where power and influence are shifting from traditional hierarchies to groups united by common beliefs. The development of the Internet has facilitated this shift in a big way. Leadership is more defined by passion and faith than by wallet. For example in the last US presidential election Barak Obama raised almost 25% more in campaign contributions than Hillary Clinton, and John McCain combined and it flooded in from the Internet. Who would have thought that a relatively new face in Washington could pull together more financing than those two warhorses, an ex-president’s wife and a revered war hero? Why? Because of passion. Because of belief. The people wanted change and were willing to follow a leader who appeared able to create the change.

I’ve written a lot in my blogs about changes. The changes I’ve addressed mostly concern the printing industry, but change is happening on every front, in every field of endeavor. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines of the publishing business, observing, and occasionally commenting (link). Now, it appears, that I’ve been given the opportunity to lead a tribe of self-publishing authors. That was what the lunch was all about. Self-publishing, in my opinion, is on the verge of eclipsing traditional publishing. And with my background in writing, marketing, and printing I am the logical choice to contribute to this movement. I didn’t choose it, but by my preparation, it chose me. That’s another point that Seth makes is that Tribe leaders generally don’t go looking for leadership, instead they see a need and are compelled to fill it. It’s the leader’s faith and passion that attracts their followers.

Mr. Godin discusses the old factory model. Factory workers were hired by owners, who paid them to do a job. The jobs were generally routine and required bosses to make sure everyone stayed in line and did things exactly the way the boss wanted them done. Much like slaves on a galley ship. In this new world run by tribes, we join, or create tribes, because we are drawn to the ideal. We want to make a difference. We think that the purpose of the tribe is valuable, important, and worth giving of our time and effort. The tribe causes the change to happen. If this occurred on the factory floor it would be chaiotic. The smooth production of products would be interrupted. Participating workers would be disaplined and might be in danger of forfeiting their jobs.

I have another  friend who is fond of quoting Ghandhi, “Be the change you want to see [in the world].” The most monumental changes always begin with one person, one person with a vision.

Again the concept isn’t really new. The founding fathers of the United States of America were drawn together because of a mutual belief in freedom and self rule. The leaders stepped forward and the people followed. What’s new is the Internet. Tribes can be formed at lightening speed. Twitter, for example, provides a platform for a succinct idea of 140 words or less, to potentially reach millions of readers within seconds. Can you imagine what Paul Revere would have thought? Riding through the countryside, by horseback, required a commitment of hours and days. Too bad he didn’t have a laptop computer or even a cell phone.

What? You say that you don’t like this new world? You think that 140 character messages lack depth? Too bad for you. The Tribes rule and will only get stronger. Get on board or be left behind.

Many years ago there were three young ambitious friends. They met while working for a small start-up business newspaper. One went on to get a Masters in Marketing. Another created a newsletter business. And the third became a printing sales rep.

Time passed and they lost track of one another. The one with the Marketing Masters Degree jumped  into direct marketing and began to create a name for himself. He was invited back to his home town to start direct division for the largest advertising agency in the city. The newsletter guy struggled but kept afloat. The printing rep found out how to make a prosperous living by securing good customers, and taking good care of them. He did well.

All three had different business philosophies. Mr. Marketer believed in charging top dollar for his services. The newsletter guru believed in being the lowest priced, and the print rep felt the real answer was somewhere in-between. Being the highest priced would drive some customers away, but being the lowest would create disrespect. When it’s all about the lowest price, someone will come along and find a way to shave off a penny or two. Price is a very shaky foundation to build on.

Fast forward a few more years. The newsletter man lost his business and moved away somewhere  to the Northwestern United States. The direct marketing guy teamed with another well-respected direct marketing entrepreneur and discovered  that he could charge even more than he previously thought was over-the-top for his services. And the print rep steadily built his customer base seeing  year-by-year increases.

Eventually, the Marketing fellow, sold out his business to his partner and began an affiliate Internet business. He caught the wave at the beginning and has been very successful. The print rep became a self-employed printing broker and began making more money than he had ever seen before, not as much as his friend, but pretty comfortable nonetheless.

Today, the newsletter guy has been off the radar for too many years. Hopefully he is doing well. The Internet affiliate master has a big office with many people working for him that do mysterious things on the Internet that even he doesn’t pretend to understand. He drops in from time-to-time just to satisfy himself that all is well and count his big bucks. “It’s a tough job,” he acknowledges, “but somebody has to do it.”

The printing broker is still doing well, but has definitely seen a drop in business because of the Internet. He is concerned about the future of the printing industry and his place in it. Maybe a little late he decided to enter the fast paced world of the Internet. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. He’s now on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. He’s learning terms like SEO, Links, Widgets, and Plugins. He’s writing blogs, books, and developing training materials to help printers, customers, and prospective print brokers become more successful in their businesses. In short, he’s reinventing his career at a time, he thinks, when he should be resting in a golden hammock.

What’s the moral of this story? If you bargain with life for a penny life will pay no more. There’s a temptation during tight times to cut prices. If you own a company your salesmen will all whine that, “Our prices are too high–we can’t compete.” Don’t give in to this cry, because it is very difficult to raise them again after you have established a low water mark. If you compete on being the lowest price you may as well start making your bankruptcy plans now.

What about the middle road? The middle of the road has its dangers too. That’s where the traffic is the highest. It is very difficult to establish your own identity when you are in a flock of me-too’s. Long-term success depends on splitting off from the pack and becoming your own person, or company. Be unique and find a way to charge more for your services than the going rates.  Sock some of it away so you’ll have extra dollars to take advantages of opportunities that may come your way. Maybe you too can catch the next big wave and beat me to that golden hammock.

It’s not “the economy, stupid” it’s the market. Maybe the phrase should be it’s the market, stupid. Printing companies have been dropping like autumn leaves with no immediate end in sight. According to the NAPL, the future is looking “dim” (my word, not theirs). They expect that a minimum of 4,000 printers to as many as 10,000 will shut down over the next 10 years. Over the last 4 years we saw a decline of 4,800 plants with approximately 150,000 employees. Since 1994 we experienced a loss of over 11,000 plants.

What does all of this mean? It means that the current state of the economy, while rough, isn’t the real reason for the decline in the industry. That’s why I say it’s the market, stupid! Thanks to the Internet,the methods we have used in the past to communicate with one another are withering away. For example:

Newspapers: Major metropolitan newspapers have hit very hard times. Some have already closed shop and many more are about to. It doesn’t take a very clear crystal ball to see that those that continue to exist will be very different from the newspapers of yesteryear. Why? Craig’s List, and other free online classified services eroded the base revenues for the papers. Who would pay for something they can get free, and that has larger reach? Also, every newspaper now publishes their content online. You can do more on a web page than a print page–it’s more flexible. For example you can beef up your story with graphics and movies  on a web page. It’s also timely. Hot news can be displayed on the website within minutes, instead of waiting hours for the next edition to hit the streets. We have no patience.

Magazines: Reuters reports that, “Newsstand and retail sales of U.S. magazines fell 11 percent in the second half of 2008, with celebrity and women’s titles taking a hit as supermarket and drugstore shoppers cut back on spending.” Furthermore, “Fifty percent of all magazines are sold in supermarkets, and obviously those types of places took a major hit.” If the decline in single copy magazine sales is because of the economy, will we see a rebound when the recession ends? And more importantly, when will it end? Again looking through my rather murky crystal ball, I predict many titles disappearing, and those standing will see sharp decreases in readership. Printers relying on magazine printing will be hard hit.

Books: Booksellers report decreases, with the exception of Amazon Media who appears to be up. Amazon is invested deeply in electronics. The Kindle reader entirely eliminates the need for printing. Amazon has also benefited from third party sales (see my For Your Consideration Page on this blog). It is estimated that 1 in 3 books sold at Amazon is actually sold by a third party. Smarter marketing is bringing them more business. Borders reported a loss and announced they are trying to sell their international operations and may sell the whole chain.

Direct Mail Marketing: I was once told by Peter Harrison, a direct marketing expert who is now running Affiliate Crew an internet company, that “Everything that goes in the mail must be printed.” What happens when mail volume goes down? Think about it, banks and other financial organizations have gone paperless. You don’t mail in your bills anymore, you authorize payment on-line. Envelope printers have suffered because of this. Forms printers have also felt the effects. What about other direct mail campaigns? The US Postal Service keeps increasing rates as more and more direct mail companies discover other marketing avenues. The ones left in the game will  bear ever heavier a postage burdens. Once the cost of postage reaches the proverbial camel’s back, the direct mail business will be through. Kaput. What will the post office have to do then, personal letters? Even with my cloudy crystal ball it’s as easy as seeing the housing boom collapse. Really, who didn’t see it coming with overinflated prices, and interest rates at 1%?

Catalogs: I had trouble finding some figures for catalog printing, but I can tell you that the catalogs are pushing web sales more and more. If you think about it they face similar challenges to newspapers. You can just do more on-line to show off your product than you can in print. Why not video the item, particularly clothing, so you can see front, back, and side? Once holographic technology is here the public will insist on 3 dimensional views. It’s just around the corner.

Wedding Invitations & Announcements: I’ll admit that invitations and announcements have never accounted for a big slice of the printing pie, but those printers specializing in them have been hit hard. Why? It’s because people have access to paper options, graphic design programs, and digital printing. They create their own invitations with their own style and creativity.

NAPL also reports that only [are the] larger plants growing in number. Those printers without deep pockets will be swallowed by the others. It’s the law of the jungle. The downside is that more print industry employees will find themselves unemployed. What are their options in the new economy?

Like the dawning of the Industrial Age big changes are happening, but at a much faster pace. What will it be like when clouds in my dirty crystal ball clear? I just don’t know–do you?