PW: Trafford Moves to In-House Print On-Demand

Trafford Publishing, which publishes print-on-demand titles for self-published authors, will now print all its titles in house, according to CEO and publisher Bruce Batchelor. The company, based in Victoria, British Columbia, brought on Tony Thibeau this month as the new print manager.

"Moving the print-on-demand manufacturing side in house was an important step for us," Batchelor said. "We moved to larger facilities earlier this year so we could consolidate Trafford's publishing and printing services under one roof.... Managing our own print shop allows us to pass along lower production costs to self-publishing authors," he added. Previously, Trafford subcontracted the printing of their on-demand books to Hillside Printing where Thibeau worked.

Not all Trafford books will be printed in Victoria--Batchelor expects an increasing number to be printed on-demand and on-location in retail bookstores. Trafford signed a distribution agreement in March with Sprout Inc. of Atlanta, Ga., which is installing books-on-demand mini-print installations in selected Borders, Follett and J.A. Majors bookstores in the U.S.

On-demand book titles bought through those booksellers will be printed on-site by Sprout's books-on-demand equipment, while the Victoria print-on-demand facility will print orders for Trafford titles coming in via other online booksellers, such as Chapters.ca, Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.