By acquiring ProPrint, the highest-audited circulation title servicing the Australasian print and graphics art industry, Haymarket Media Group has strengthened its global print and packaging portfolio. This purchase makes them the world’s pre-eminent print and packaging publisher and brings almost unlimited resources to ProPrint and gives its readers all sorts of new content. In addition to this title, Haymarket also owns PrintWeek, Printing World, Druck and Medien, and Packaging News among many others.

The print edition of ProPrint, published monthly, will be redesigned and its website overhauled with a local online editor able to draw on rich content from their international print portfolio. The first issue will be in June and will incorporate the PrintWeek brand values. Haymarket plans to coordinate their efforts both editorially and commercially, thereby extending their international footprint. The people who run ProPrint are excited by the acquisition as they would be going to a good home with a solid heritage in serving the print industry.

For some book publishers much of the decision-making process for designing book covers is based on instinct and not on consumer testing or scientific method. However, imagery, fonts, type sizes and color palette all work together to convey the contents of the book. For example, one can date a book’s cover by its typeface. If the book is written by a well-known author, their name will be displayed prominently with colorful bold type.

Romance novels tend to use colors like soft greens, happy yellows, and violet with imagery of a woman and man in a passionate embrace. A Tom Clancy military thriller will always feature his name in large, bold typeface accompanied by imagery of a large combat vehicle. Fantasy novels tend to be dominated with images of wizards or someone wielding a sword. The typeface is often Gaelic-looking.

Industry insiders point out that the airport is no longer the place where people purchase a book on impulse based on the cover design. Oprah Winfrey and other television influences have helped expand the definition of what constitutes a “mass market book.”

In April 2008, one of the world’s largest English-language book publishers, Harper-Collins, announced the launch of a new imprint that will publish books on a “firm sale” basis. It will not accept returns from retailers who were previously able to send back up to 40% of books ordered with no penalty. In addition, this new imprint will pay little to no advances to authors. They will now receive a share of profits, if any.

In the past, book retail publishers focused on sales-in and this resulted in over-ordering and wasteful returns. Positive sales projections had a good impact on order volume for book manufacturers but had a bad impact with buyers who focused on unit price. The cost of a returned book is approximately 40-45p and this is entirely for transportation. In addition, there are expenses for production, pulping, and warehouse costs which are costlier than the original price. As a result, publishers are trying to reduce returns making a 40% return on any title rare.

However, there are still few examples of books purchased on a no-return policy because retailers adhere to managing returns by good buying habits which decreases the number of returns.