Cliffhanger

JZ has got it down!

rborton — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:39:56 +0000

Making print books relevant in an increasingly “e” world is a challenge for our industry. I came across this marketing campaign for JZ’s recent title Decoded and I was really blown away. Talk about using social media to energize print sales… awesome!

Disclaimer: I am not endorsing “BING” as a search engine.

The sweet smell of books . . .

rborton — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:11:15 +0000

I came across this really neat art project in New York magazine and thought that people who read this BLOG or spend time with Thomson-Shore would get a kick out of it. What a fun idea!

Read the comments as those are as entertaining as the “smelling of the books”

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2011/03/07/smelling-the-books#comments

You can’t do this with a Kindle!!

School is Out!

rborton — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:15:29 +0000

School is out and what does this mean?

For my household is spells disaster for my wife in the form of idle teenagers who live in the country. Of course I explain to them how “When I grew up we spent the whole day playing outside…. Go outside!” Can you see the eye rolls immediately evoked from my 15 year old?

So, we made a deal… for each book she reads this summer I have agreed to a modest sum of compensation from which she can purchase any number of things that a teenage girl might have interest in ….lip gloss, clothes, RED hair dye!

The catch… she must write a summary report and post it on a blog. So, take a look and see what she is reading. It’s not a replacement for Oprah’s list yet but some interesting titles are in the lineup.

http://sffbr.blogspot.com/

2 books down…. I think I see a new bottle of nail polish in her future.

BLOG UPDATE:

My daughter, rightfully so, has taken issue with my portrayal of her in my last posting. She clarified that in no way does she need compensation to read books. She loves books and regardless of my monetary motivation she would read throughout the summer.

Touché!

Having said that I certainly will hold up my end of the deal to give her some motivation to read, read, and read.

I told her that I would be more than happy to clarify her love of books. I am more than delighted with a young adult being passionate about reading when some are proclaiming the death of reading within young people.

http://sffbr.blogspot.com/

InkJet Update

rborton — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:54:18 +0000

Inkjet update for those who are watching this development in our industry. After talks (and testing) with all major suppliers of inkjet technologies I have gain some confidence in a few significant opinions:

Initial capital costs from all inkjet suppliers is insane.
Inkjet (quality) is ready for SOME markets not all.
None of the current inkjet appearance comes close to offset quality however text only line-work is reasonable.
Operating costs for ongoing inkjet are far from developed and those using it are not yet seeing the cost benefits.
We are 2-4 years away from a high quality, cost competitive inkjet solution.

Clearly in time, inkjet will become a fantastic technology for printing books however for our customers at Thomson-Shore; we will not sacrifice quality in favor of changing for the sake of change. We will continue to watch this technology closely and keep you informed at least from our perspective.

Inkjet! Inkjet. Inkjet?

rborton — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:26:21 +0000

Inkjet, inkjet, inkjet! Seems as inkjet is the only thing to talk about in the book printing community. I am as anxious as anyone is to see inkjet develop into the “golden technology” that everyone is predicting and in time I’m sure it will. At the moment however I am not ready to sign on the inkjet dotted line. Most if not all of the major digital print companies have or are announcing inkjet solutions and some have great promise however the quality still lacks relative to offset printing. Just in the last week I have spoken to numerous digital print manufacturers who admit the technology has a long way to go both in terms of economic justification and in product quality. What’s more, the true benefit to the publishing community is still unclear. Certainly a publisher can produce fewer copies with inkjet but I’m not sure that problem isn’t already solved. We produce single copy books every day using current digital print technology and the books look great. We will continue to research and investigate inkjet developments; in fact I am flying out to a manufacturer this week to see their newest inkjet press. I’m hopeful to be astonished at the developments but what I suspect I will see is very average quality at an unknown price point with a ton of complexity relative to binding options. Rest assured we will invest when we can translate the technology into a tangible benefit to our publishers at a quality level we can all be proud of. Will we invest this year? I’ll let you know when I get back from my trip this week.

So many books . . . so little time.

rborton — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:56:32 +0000

So many books… so little time. I ordered another book this morning. I didn’t need it as I have stacks of them waiting to be consumed at home. This one jumped out at me as a story I would love to read. Much like the others it will arrive, I will inspect it for workmanship… read a bit… and then place it on the currently growing stack, waiting for a Saturday in my future to begin the journey waiting within.

Creative Ideas for Keeping Book Making Costs Down

rborton — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:44:53 +0000

Our material partners are sending signals and unfortunately setting the table for price increases in 2011. The paper mills have traditionally reduced capacity to keep paper prices high and have indicated potential increases in 2011. Cotton pricing world-wide is exploding (risen by 84% since July) and cotton products will be more expensive in 2011. The impact to cloth used on hard cover books is unknown at the moment. We continue to look for ways to reduce the total cost to our publishers. We all have to get creative and work together in 2011 to produce great books at a great price. We have lots of ideas to start the conversation.

End of Days for Bookstores?

rborton — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:45:20 +0000

Just as I was preparing to crawl out of the warm cocoon of my car into the 11 degree Ann Arbor morning today I heard NPR mention their upcoming series on the future of the book which was about to begin in 1 minute… I took the opportunity to stay warm for a bit longer while listening to part #1 entitled “End of Days for Bookstores?”

Listen on-line at: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=3&islist=true&id=3&d=12-14-2010

And stay tuned tomorrow for what sounds like another interesting pontification….

Books as Sport

rborton — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:41:46 +0000

We had our first basketball game of the season last night. Thomson-Shore has played in the local Ann Arbor league for years and although we play with all our heart, we often come up short on the score board. Everyone loves to win but to be honest we have a blast even when we loose. For me I take great enjoyment in playing a sport with the same people I work with day in and day out to get books done. We have press operators, sales people, accountants, and CSR’s on the team, all working together. Often we are faced with similar challenges at work as in a sports game; we are blessed to have customers who challenge us to complete their beautiful books faster than ever before. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort and some tricks but we get it done and we love every second just like we do on the Basket Ball court (regardless of the score).

What is a bookophile?

rborton — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:14:37 +0000

We really are blessed to work in the book publishing industry. The people in this industry and to be specific in the book segment of printing and publishing are such fun. We work with amazing authors and publishers who are always so sincere and pleasant. We have the benefit of working with personalities so diverse but also connected by an amazing culture of bookophiles. At Thomson-Shore we absolutely love when our customers come to visit; whether it is for a press inspection, proof review, pick up a job, or just to stop in and say “hi”. Believe me, I have worked in education, finance, and other segments of printing and “books is where it’s at” for interesting, quirky and wonderfully intelligent people.