Books on Demand

This article is about the German company Books on Demand GmbH. On the subject of “books on order” see Book-on-Demand .

BoD - Books on Demand GmbH
legal form	GmbH
founding	2001
Seat	Norderstedt , Germany
management	Gerd Robertz, Management Spokesman , Yogesh Torani
Number of employees	170
Branch	media
Website	www.bod.de

The Books on Demand GmbH ( BoD ) is a self-publishing platform , the publication services for publishers and self-publications offers. The company is headquartered in Norderstedt near Hamburg and is considered the European market leader. It offers its services in Germany , France , Finland , Denmark , Sweden , Austria and Switzerland .

owner

Books on Demand GmbH has been a subsidiary of Libri GmbH since 2001 . This, in turn, is since 1993 a subsidiary of Athena IP Vermögensverwaltung GmbH & Co KG, Hamburg, which the ag maxingvest family heart belongs (known by Tchibo and Beiersdorf ).

Company history

year
1997	The book wholesaler Libri developed the idea of ​​“Books on Demand” and an initial marketing concept.
1998	The first BoD title, The Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , appears in July - an annotated version as paperback .
1999	The thousandth BoD title is published in December. In June, BoD received the 10th Computerworld Smithsonian Award in the Manufacturing category . This award is given to companies that implement visions and play a leading role in the innovative use of information technology.
2001	On January 1st, the “BoD project” becomes Books on Demand GmbH, a subsidiary of Libri GmbH .
2002	BoD introduces the digital color book on demand and thus sets standards in the field of just-in-time book production .
2003	At the book fair in Leipzig, BoD is presenting color facsimile prints for the first time and introducing a new equipment variant: bound books with laminated covers, with straight or round book spines and bookmarks. Color book printing is being expanded to include hardcover editions.
2004	On July 1st, BoD and Libri are introducing the option of remission.
2005	For the Leipzig Book Fair in March, BoD publishes Edition BoD, a book series with selected new publications. BoD enters the Danish market on March 1st (www.bod.dk).
2006	BoD brings the five millionth book to the book trade. At the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, BoD is launching the myBoD Internet portal, which publishers and authors can use to process and manage their book projects online. Vito von Eichborn is the new publisher of Edition BoD and presents the first three titles in June. At the same time, the new audio book offer audioBoD will be presented. In May, Lucy reached number 13 on the paperback bestseller list of Gong magazine with c by Markolf H. Niemz as a direct entry . The second BoD bestseller follows in September: The 7 sins of founding by Reinhard Rossmann, Daniel Schandl and Thomas Fuchs reach number 17 on manager magazin’s business bestseller list . In April, the Federal Government honored BoD as a “Selected Location” as part of the Germany - Land of Ideas campaign .
2007	BoD enters the Finnish market in May (www.bod.fi). The connection to the book trade is made through a cooperation with the Finnish book wholesaler Kirjavälitys Oy.
2008	At the beginning of March, BoD expands its business to France, the focus is on the French website www.bod.fr.
2010	At the beginning of May, BoD inaugurates its new printing center in Norderstedt.
2013	Since 2013, the company has been publishing regular studies on the development of the European self-publishing market in cooperation with the University of Applied Management in Erding.
2015	In October, BoD starts the self-publishing platform together with the Random House publishing group : TWENTYSIX - Der Self-Publishing Verlag .
2017	In January BoD starts the platform PubliQation - Academic Publishing , which is aimed at universities, libraries, institutes and members of the scientific community and enables the independent publication of scientific content. According to its own information, the company now uses more than 35,000 authors who have published over 65,000 books and more than 45,000 e-books, as well as over 2,000 publishers. More than 28 million books have been printed since it was founded. All printed books have also been FSC ® certified for several years .

Business model

View of the BoD printing center in Norderstedt near Hamburg.

The business model is based on the self-publication of e-books and the print-on-demand idea: instead of pre-financing and producing a fixed edition, the content is digitized. The book is only printed on order - on demand. BoD offers the printing and delivery of books and, as a system service provider, also covers sales. Thanks to the direct connection to the main bar assortments in the book trade ( Libri , KNV , Umbreit ), all titles stored at BoD are available nationwide in stationary bookshops and in over 1,000 online shops. Customers include private individuals and more than 2,000 publishers who have titles produced for their own range. Via interfaces to various publisher deliveries , it is also possible to deliver books as drop shipments directly from production in the name of the publisher's deliveries to the customer.

Use by authors

Customers can use the company's website to self-publish books in various configurations, including a. in the form of a hard cover and / or paperback and / or e-books online. Customers decide for themselves about the content, form and time of publication of their titles and determine the retail price and thus their fee or profit margin per copy sold. Additional services such as personal advice, editing or cover design can be booked for an extra fee.

For BoD's possible clientele → see the sections under the reasoning in the article self-publication .

Examples of self-published bestsellers

Although the publication process used was actually developed for very small editions, some titles made it onto recognized bestseller lists:

• Sarah Saxx: King of Chicago - In love with a millionaire ; The romance novel reached number 1 on the Bild bestseller list in January 2017
• Markolf H. Niemz : Lucy with c ; In May 2006, the popular science novel was ranked 13th on the paperback bestseller list of Gong magazine as a new entry .
• Reinhard Rossmann, Daniel Schandl and Thomas Fuchs: The 7 sins in founding ; A few months later, the guide for business start-ups, told in fairy tale form, came 17th on Manager Magazin’s business bestseller list .
• Jennifer Cranen: I don't want you to cry ; The Cancer Diary made it onto Spiegel Online's paperback bestseller list in November 2008 .

Other typical fields of application

• Deposit copies of scientific texts such as studies, seminar papers, diploma or doctoral theses
• Operating instructions, training documents, commemorative publications and conference proceedings

Edition BoD

Vito von Eichborn , founder of Eichborn Verlag (and today works as a freelance journalist), was editor for Edition BoD from 2006 to 2013 . From the new publications by the authors, he selected a new title for the edition every month based on quality and originality criteria. The aim of the edition was to exemplify which extraordinary publications are possible in self-publishing.

Use by publishers

According to the company, the services are used by medium-sized publishers as well as international publishing groups. In addition to science and non- fiction publishers such as Springer and De Gruyter , titles are also produced for fiction publishers such as Suhrkamp- Verlag.

Typical fields of application

• First editions with small print runs and / or high print run risk
• Reprints
• Reprint of out of print titles
• Slowly rotating permanent items
• Backlist title
• Regular updates
• Personalized content

Advantages for publishers

• Use of the long-tail principle with a positive effect on company profits
• Increase in profitability, as there are no pre-production financing or storage or handling costs
• Variety of titles and thereby sharpening of the publisher's profile
• Avoiding scrapping and waste
• Increase in efficiency through drop shipment with fully electronic connection to publisher deliveries
• Investment in author loyalty and securing title rights
• Target group-specific marketing with individual reading and test requirements for authors, journalists, etc. a.

Books on Demand GmbH is a member of the German Book Trade Association .

Awards

• 1999: Computerworld Smithsonian Award
• 2006: Germany - Land of Ideas for the innovative idea of ​​only printing books after they have been ordered
• 2006: Golden Pixel Award in the “Book Projects” category for the BoD book commissions published by the Zurich University of Art and Design (HGKZ) .
• 2011: Querdenker Award presented for the innovative publication concept that gives everyone the chance to print their own book and publish it as an e-book.

literature

• Tim Gerber: Report - Books on Demand. Book 2.0 . In: c't, 3/2008, pp. 86-87, Online (fee required) ( Memento from February 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
• Sven Stillich, Lara Strathus: My own book , online in Stern on February 24, 2008, from issue 08/2008

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Books on Demand website: Press brochure  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Clemens von Frentz: Books on Demand: New location inaugurated on druck-medien.net on May 6, 2010; Retrieved June 3, 2015
3. ^ Books on Demand website: Studies
4. ↑ Full control, recognition, money - BoD study on self-publishers in Germany. In: Börsenblatt.de. October 10, 2013, accessed August 5, 2016 . 
5. ↑ BoD study on professionalization among self-publishers. In: Börsenblatt.de. January 20, 2015, accessed May 8, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Every fourth bookseller carries titles by self-publishers - BoD study 2016. In: Börsenblatt.de. March 14, 2016, accessed August 5, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Alliance of market leaders - Books on Demand and Random House start self-publishing offer. In: buchreport.de. October 12, 2015, accessed August 22, 2018 . 
8. ↑ TWENTYSIX website: TWENTYSIX - Der Self-Publishing-Verlag
9. ↑ BoD launches offer for academic publishing - PubliQation should get research moving. In: boersenblatt.net. January 18, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017 . 
10. ↑ PubliQation website: PubliQation - Academic Publishing
11. ^ ^{A b} Books on Demand website: The company
12. ↑ Books on Demand website: About BoD
13. ↑ Vito von Eichborn's new book series at Books on Demand: “The new is created on the edges”. In: Buchmarkt.de. June 1, 2006, accessed August 5, 2016 . 

Web links

• German website from BoD