Podiprint

Podiprint is a Spanish distributor and printer of books on demand, working for publishers and bookstores. Its home page states its aim as creating new sales for "editoriales y librerías" by "conectando el metadato directamente con el punto de venta para imprimir solo cuando se haya realizado la venta," connecting a title's metadata directly to the point of sale so that a book is printed only once it has been sold. Alongside that, it offers publishers digital printing for conventional distribution, sized as closely as possible to real demand. Podiprint is a registered brand of Innovación y Cualificación SL, whose legal notice gives an address in Antequera (Málaga).

What a publisher gets

The home page lays the offer out in three parts.

Printing on demand. Books are printed from a single copy, in "Tiradas cortas, medias y largas," short, medium and long runs, with "Reimpresiones en 5 días," reprints in 5 days. The pitch is that a publisher can cut its first print run to the minimum and reprint whenever it needs to, so the catalog stays available: "Sin stock, sin devolución, sin agotados y con posicionamiento online en librerías," no stock, no returns, no out-of-print titles, and online visibility in bookstores.

Distribution. Podiprint connects a publisher's titles with the main Spanish-language bookstores "de 12 países," in 12 countries. The home page lists what comes with it: 100% availability in bookstores, direct orders from bookstores, real-time sales tracking and settlements in euros. For Latin America it works with Bibliomanager, which it calls "nuestro partner y distribuidor principal para la comercialización, distribución e impresión de libros bajo demanda en países de habla hispana," its main partner for selling, distributing and printing books on demand in Spanish-speaking countries.

Technical connections. Podiprint says it integrates print on demand directly into a customer's own systems, with custom development, online store solutions and webservice communication. "Conecta tus tienda online y ERP a nuestra planta para automatizar pedidos," the home page says: connect your online store and ERP to the plant to automate orders. It will also build an international online store for a publisher to sell without stock, and the menu lists a white-label store ("Tienda marca blanca").

Where it prints and ships

The print-on-demand page names the markets: the service can be contracted "para España en Península y en Islas Canarias, México, Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Perú y Uruguay, desde un ejemplar, reimpresiones exprés y múltiples destinos," for mainland Spain and the Canary Islands, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, from one copy, with express reprints and multiple destinations. Podiprint's own blog adds that its international partner network lets even small independent publishers cross the Atlantic while saving shipping costs, because the books are produced in the destination market.

Production in Spain runs through the company's own plant. The funding notices on its pages describe the equipment: grants from the Andalusian innovation agency IDEA, co-financed 80% by the European Regional Development Fund, for inkjet digital book printing machinery, a sewing machine and digital press, a line cutting paper from the reel into sheets with a sheet-fed inkjet printing unit and a shrink-wrapper, better binding, guillotining and cover folding, and prepress software. The print-on-demand page also claims more than 30 years of experience behind the business.

Formats and ordering tools

"Nos ajustamos a la naturaleza de tus libros, imprimiendo bajo demanda libros en tapa dura, con solapa, grapado y un largo etcétera," the print-on-demand page says: hardcover, books with flaps, stapled books and a long list of other formats, all on demand. The page adds that every paper choice and "cada centímetro de solapa," every centimeter of a flap, matters to the publisher, and that the company keeps widening the range of finishes it can print on demand. Quotes are requested through a form ("Solicitar presupuesto").

The day-to-day work happens in Bibliomanager, which the print-on-demand page describes as one of the most advanced tools on the market for handling quotes, orders, document delivery, administration and invoicing. It offers multi-user online quotes around the clock on any device with cloud storage; management of the catalog, orders, invoicing and logistics to several delivery points from one set of up-to-date documents; and real-time tracking of production and sales, with email alerts on status changes and a history kept per title and per order.

Results it points to

The home page cites Boulevard as a success it helped drive, "+100.000 ejemplares vendidos," and a headline figure of "150.000 Ejemplares vendidos bajo demanda con Podiprint," 150,000 copies sold on demand. It quotes testimonials from the director of the Madrid Book Fair and from Ingram Content Group, whose representative writes of being impressed by "the Podiprint distribution network within Spanish speaking countries." A project note says the work was financed by Spain's Directorate General for Books and Reading at the Ministry of Culture and Sport. The news list on the print-on-demand page includes a case study of the publisher Editorial Graó and its "estrategia 100% bajo demanda," a fully on-demand strategy, and a free white paper on print on demand.

The same blog article that describes the audience sums up the model as "primero vender, después producir," sell first, produce afterwards. A publisher carries no production cost until a copy is sold, whether that is 1 copy or many, and a bookstore that orders through the system is never left holding unsold stock that has to be returned to the publisher.

Who it can serve

Podiprint's own blog, in an article on dropshipping suppliers, is explicit about the audience: "Podiprint solo trabaja con editoriales y librerías," Podiprint only works with publishers and bookstores, so a writer should ask their publisher rather than contact the company directly, and readers buy through a bookstore that uses the system. The contact form on the home page lets you pick between publisher, sales channel and writer.

It suits Spanish-language publishers with a backlist or a catalog they want to keep in print without warehousing it, independent presses that want reach in Latin America without shipping stock across the Atlantic, and bookstores that want to order titles on demand. Publishers with their own online store or ERP get the integration route. Prices are quoted per project rather than listed, so a publisher starts by describing the project through the form.

It is not built for a self-publishing author working alone or for a seller of merchandise; the product is books, and the customer is the book trade.