Ingram brings Print-On-Demand to Australia

Ingram Content launched their print-on-demand biz Lightning Source in Australia today. It’s no small thing either and will dramatically impact how indie publishers run their national supply chain (for those who choose to play ball).

As retail real estate declines (both at street level and on store shelves) indie publishers and authors will inevitably rely more on selling books through marketing channels instead of hoping consumers buy books by randomly stumbling upon them at retail. The importance of maintaining stock in-store becomes less important.

On a side note, I do wonder whether the establishment of operations in the Australian market has as much to do with fulfilment of global online bookseller orders in the Asia Pacific region as does servicing the local industry? That’s one for Ingram’s prexy Skip Prichard.