Forging A Future-Looking Supply Chain For Publishing

The next time you sit down to read a book, remember to thank the links in publishing’s supply chain.

Book Industry Study Group membership includes publishers and libraries as well as manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. Together, they form the links in the industry’s supply chain – the network of organizations and individuals responsible for creation, production, and distribution of a product.

The next time you sit down to read a book, remember to thank all of them.

Brian O’Leary, BISG executive director, explains why an initiative to forge a shared vision for the future of supply chain communication in publishing is needed.

The supply chain for publishing, especially in the digital age, isn’t static, but is in constant motion and evolution, O’Leary tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. He was candid about how the state of supply chain communication in publishing today.

“Well, it’s broken. It was built for the 1970s and 1980s. It was good then at supporting one-way communication and there were fewer business models,” O’Leary admits.

“What’s happened particularly with the advent of digital content and digital business models, most notably with the launch of the Kindle in 2007, is that the number of different business models has exploded. You can still buy a book, but you can also buy an ebook, which is really more of a license. Libraries buy books today on a variety of different terms that didn’t even exist 30 or 40 years ago.

“We’re trying to find ways to support the more complex business models that are now used to sell and license books, and we’re also trying to find ways to take costs out of the system.”