Publisher Profile: African Books Collective
African Books Collective (ABC) is a world wide marketing and distribution outlet for more than 1,500 titles from Africa, including scholarly publications, literature and children’s books in 56 subject disciplines. Founded in the 1980s, the non-profit organization was founded by a group of 17 African publishers and is based in Oxford, England. The organization works to support publishers throughout Africa, helping them more widely distribute titles around the globe through access to funding, technology and other resources that are out of reach for all but the largest African Publishers.
When ABC first began operations they worked with publishers to import books to the UK, where they were warehoused and distributed based on demand, which was made possible by donor funding. ABC managed the distribution of titles for African publishers it represents and distributes funds back to them as books are sold, while publishers were responsible for printing and shipping books to the UK.
While this model worked well in the early years, despite many challenges, the organizations goal was to become self-sufficient. With the threat of losing funding at the end of 2006, ABC knew dramatic change in operations was required if the organization was to continue to accomplish its mission. When ABC learned of the print on demand model offered by Lightning Source in 1998, they could see it was the wave of the future. The model would help them overcome some of their challenges.
Partnering with Lightning Source, ABC conducted a pilot program with a Nigerian Publisher from July of 2001 through March of 2002. The pilot incorporated 100 titles and was a success. With ABC as intermediary, there was more opportunity for success with Lightning Source.
ABC began converting titles to print on demand as they could afford to do so. By the end of 2006, the organization had converted about 400 titles to print on demand to supply Publisher Direct orders, but only 75 titles were available to the wholesale channel. While Publisher Direct orders had been the primary focus, ABC realized the opportunity that lie in getting more titles into the US and UK wholesale channels.
By the end of 2007, in their partnership with Lightning Source, the organization stepped up the conversion activity and had more than 1000 titles in the system, all available to US and UK Publisher Direct and wholesale channel; and the gamble was paying big dividends. Short-run Publisher Direct orders grew 121% and wholesale print on demand orders grew by a factor of almost 15. ABC was able to increase net sales income after remittances to publishers by 70%, which was vital to becoming self-sufficient.
In 2008 ABC had nearly 1,500 titles in the system, with US and UK Publisher Direct orders for print on demand units reaching nearly 18,000 and wholesale orders in the same market growing to almost 10,000 units.
Print on demand and partnering with Lightning Source has been such an overwhelming success for ABC that they are basically running a zero-inventory business with no returns and generated a surplus for the first time ever in 2007 as a result of moving to the print on demand model.
The benefits from this have been huge, ABC is selling more books and gaining significant visibility in targeted markets. As the model gains more traction, ABC plans to increase the percentages paid to African publishers, contributing even more to their economic well-being. The success of this will no doubt have a long reaching impact on distribution of books and revenue, but it will also impact the authors, their books, and more importantly the readers, who now have access to these titles.