CPI UK has revealed plans to offer a new global book manufacturing service to its customers.

The company, part of Europe’s largest print group, has forged an alliance with book printers in the US, Australia and Asia in order to meet what it sees as an unfulfilled need from publishers for a global manufacturing network.

In an article in today’s Bookseller magazine, CPI argues that the book market has seen a trend towards globalisation, yet increasingly publishers are looking for ways to reduce the time and cost of shipping. CPI’s new global service aims to provide the solution.

Together, we've got the whole world covered: CPI reveal plans for a global book manufacturing service in today's Bookseller magazine

CPI’s global print solution has been developed in partnership with Edwards Brothers in the US, Griffin Press in Australia and Markono in Singapore. Each of the companies involved is recognised as the market leader in its own territory. The companies have come together to provide a service which will allow publishers to manufacture books near the end user rather than at home – with savings for the publisher as well as a faster service for the end user.

The idea is a simple one; one order, one invoice, one file – but that file is available globally for local production. The model allows simultaneous global manufacture, delivery and therefore publication. Other benefits for the publisher include reducing administration by dealing with one supplier for all territories, as well as enabling publishers to be more responsive to customer orders. As with print-on-demand, less of the publisher’s capital will be tied up in inventory, taking the risk out of holding stock.

But CPI Sales Director Alison Kaye is keen to stress that the alliance is not just about print-on-demand. “What we are offering is a complete, global, print solution for our customers”, said Kaye. “Give us your digital file, and we can produce that in any format, any where – from one to one million copies. Our offer is unique.”

Read the Bookseller here.

“Who’s the **** in the hi vis vest?!” Earlier today, CPI Bookmarque welcomed Peter Silverton, author of Filthy English: The How, Why, When & What of Everyday Swearing - probably the most authoritative compendium of offensive words in the English language since Roger Mellie’s Profanisaurus. Always keen to show publishers and authors around its Croydon factory, CPI Bookmarque hosted one of its more unusual factory tours as the author watched his new book coming off the binding line.

(Left to right) Sarah Wasley from Granta, the author Peter Silverton and Senior Sales Manager Kevin Martin hold book blocks of the author's latest work.

Filthy English is billed on the back cover as, ‘a consistently enjoyable treatise on swearing … a generous buffet of facts surrounding our linguistic depravities’ (Herald); the front cover design is a veritable smorgasbord of typographically beautiful four letter words, printed and debossed by CPI White Quill, with a printed reverse, to give the effect of traditional letterpress. The author is no stranger to the printing process, having worked on newspapers for much of his career; indeed his father was an engraver with The Sun.

Silverton was keen to compliment CPI on the friendliness of the staff during his visit, and took time to sign copies - inscribing one for the Bindery Manager, ‘To the ******* who bound it!’.

Accompanying the author was Granta’s Sarah Wasley and the visit was hosted by CPI Senior Sales Manager Kevin Martin.

For those working on the factory floor, the visit was unique; it was the first time they had to clean up after a publisher tour.

Filthy English by Peter Silverton is published in paperback by Portobello Books, priced £8.99

Pan Macmillan has achieved success in this year’s British Book Design and Production Awards, with a shortlisted jacket design for Bret Easton Ellis’ Imperial Bedrooms, printed by CPI White Quill.

The challenging design features a striking black and white image on a printed paper case, visible through a translucent yellow jacket. The jacket, printed with high ink coverage on Diamant Transprint, presented tricky drying properties overcome by the White Quill team to achieve the customer’s publication date. The printed paper case was also printed by White Quill, with the detail in the shadow of the striking heavily-contrasted image retained even with lamination. The 192pp Royal sized case bound book was printed and bound at CPI Mackays.

Visiting CPI White Quill’s Croydon factory today, Amelia Douglas, Production Manager at Pan Macmillan, was delighted with the results achieved by CPI and was very pleased to be shortlisted. “We knew that the inventive design by Chip Kidd was not without its challenges for the printer,” said Douglas, “but we were impressed by White Quill’s can-do attitude. The look and feel of the book makes it a very desirable object and we’re thrilled to have made it on to the British Book Awards shortlist.”

Pan Macmillan's Amelia Douglas at CPI White Quill today, holding a copy of the shortlisted Imperial Bedrooms

The British Book Design and Production Awards promote the excellence of British books and are run by the BPIF, Oxford Brookes University and The Publishers Association. Categories include Best Jacket/Cover design and Book of the Year, sponsored this year by CPI UK. The winners will receive their accolades at the annual awards ceremony, held in central London on 5th October. CPI Chief Executive Francois Golicheff will be presenting one of the awards.

Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis is published in hardback by Pan Macmillan, priced £16.99.

Read more about the British Book Awards here.

The longlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize has been announced, with an impressive eight of the 13 titles printed by CPI. The prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world.

The eight longlisted titles printed by CPI

A total of 138 books, 14 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ longlist of 13 books.

According to today’s Bookseller magazine, William Hill is offering odds of 4/1 on The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Headline) taking the prize. The book features an especially eye-catching jacket, produced at CPI White Quill, with clever use of copper foiling and embossing on coloured stock. The other favourite is Peter Carey’s Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber), also printed and bound by CPI, which is offered by Ladbrokes at 3/1.

Other longlisted titles manufactured by CPI include Rose Tremain’s Trespass and Lisa More’s February, both published under Random House’s Chatto imprint. Random House Group reaped success in the longlist with two further titles, also printed and bound by CPI: Alan Warner’s The Stars in the Bright Sky and Tom McCarthy’s C (both Cape). The latter features an innovative jacket which is printed in white on clear acetate, revealing the printed paper case beneath.

Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) and Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap (Tuskar Rock) make up the remaining CPI contribution.

The chair of judges, Andrew Motion, commented: “Here are thirteen exceptional novels - books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality … We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain.” The winner can look forward to greatly increased sales and worldwide recognition.

The 2010 shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 7 September. The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010 will be revealed on Tuesday 12 October at a dinner at London’s Guildhall and will be broadcast on the BBC Ten O’Clock News.

CPI Bookmarque has responded to a challenging schedule from Granta Books to turn around a new B format version of its prize-winning title, Nothing to Envy.

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea was awarded the 2010 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize last Thursday night (1st July), prompting a race to proof and manufacture a ‘significant run’ of a newly designed B format. Artwork was supplied the next day and the 336pp book was delivered in less than a week.

The new B format of Nothing to Envy: from artwork to delivery in less than a week

Barbara Demick’s book follows the stories of six North Korean citizens living in Chongin, under the state’s totalitarian regime. The prize was announced at the Royal Institute for British Architects (RIBA) in central London by Evan Davies, presenter of BBC Radio Four’s Today.

Sarah Wasley, Production Director at Granta, said, “A huge thanks to everyone for getting Nothing to Envy through so quickly. Much appreciated at this end.”

The other titles shortlisted for the prize were: Alex’s Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury), Blood Knots by Luke Jennings (Atlantic Books), Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Penguin, Allen Lane), A Gambling Man by Jenny Uglow (Faber and Faber) and Catching Fire: How Cooking made us Human by Richard Wrangham (Profile Books).

Read the Bookseller article here.

Barbara Kingsolver has won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction with The Lacuna, printed by CPI.

The American author was presented with the prize by Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cornwall, at a ceremony in the Royal Festival Hall last night.

Barbara Kingsolver collects the Orange Prize for Fiction 2010 (photo courtesy of Orange Prize)

The Lacuna, published by Faber and Faber, was one of six titles on the Orange shortlist, with a remarkable five out of six shortlisted titles printed by CPI.

Croydon-based CPI Bookmarque are now braced to turn around a fast reprint of the book which the chair of judges, Daisy Goodwin, praised for its “breathtaking scale and shattering moments of poignancy”. Cover printer CPI White Quill responded immediately with a specially updated cover, finished in matt lamination, spot UV varnish and embossing. The initial order quantity was very quickly increased, with frequent reprints expected as readers clamour for the winning title.

The Prize was announced on the day that The Bookseller revealed that the bestselling Orange Prize winners have outsold the bestselling winners of the Booker prize, according to new analysis of Nielsen BookScan sales figures. The Bookseller reports that the bestselling Orange Prize winner of all time is Andrea Levy’s Small Island (Headline Review) with sales of 834,958.

CPI has responded speedily to demand for reprints of the five shortlisted titles it prints since the shortlist was announced at the London Book Fair in April. The extra media coverage and promotion from booksellers has led to a marked increase in sales for the shortlisted titles.

In particular, according to the Guardian, Rosie Alison’s The Very Thought of You, “… which had not even been reviewed by a national paper when it was chosen, could have slipped off the radar. Instead, Amazon said it made up a fifth of the sales of all six books combined over the past month.” Published by Alma Books, The Very Thought of You is also printed by CPI and features the company’s new SuperMatt lamination on its cover.

Other titles printed and bound by CPI and featured on the shortlist are: Black Water Rising (Serpent’s Tail), The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Simon and Schuster) and A Gate at the Stairs (Faber and Faber).

CPI has used the Interquest Digital Book Printing Forum to indicate an expansion of its digital web capabilities across Europe.

CPI Technology and Supply Chain Director Bernard Kieffer told delegates at today’s event, held at the Royal Society, that he was now convinced by the concept and would look to expand inkjet web to ten machines over the next five years.

Kieffer’s confidence in digital inkjet web technology follows the highly successful installation of Europe’s first HP T300 inkjet web and integrated binding line, operational since the beginning of this year.

CPI's first HP web press at Firmin-Didot, Paris

The London Interquest Forum, sponsored by CPI, followed similar events in New York and Montreal. Delegates were briefed on the findings of a new report on digital book printing, prepared by Interquest, which included a trend for shorter runs and better inventory management.

Other speakers included Robert Stabler, Direct Marketing, Transactional & Publishing Segment Manager at Hewlett-Packard EMEA.

Read the PrintWeek article here.

CPI, Europe’s largest printer of monochrome books, has ordered a second top-of-the-range Corona C12 perfect binder from Muller Martini for installation at CPI Mackays in Chatham, Kent. This will ensure that CPI Mackays has the most technologically advanced book binding system in the UK.

“CPI has chosen Muller Martini as its partner on this project because of the success of the first Corona new generation binding system installed in 2008. We aim to duplicate our success and the second system has added features to enhance and streamline our manufacturing capabilities. The Corona will bring significant new capacity and prepare us for future digital production methods. It also perfectly complements our existing equipment”, commented Ian Smith, the Chief Operating Officer at CPI’s UK book division. “CPI is committed to investing in the latest technology in order to remain the most comprehensive business partner for our UK publishing customers into the future”, he added.

Muller Martini UK Managing Director Andreas Schillinger said: “We are very proud of our successful partnership with CPI Mackays and we will make sure that the new binder provides them with even greater productivity.”

(Left to right): Bruno Muller, CEO Muller Martini; Francois Golicheff, CEO, CPI UK; Ian Smith, COO, CPI UK; Andrew Watts, General Manager Operations, CPI Mackays ; Richard Dance, Sales Executive Muller Martini UK Limited; Andreas Schillinger, Managing Director Muller Martini UK Limited

CPI Mackays recently printed the new Danielle Steele best-seller and is likely to be printing the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction (to be announced in June), since it is the chosen printer for five out of the six contenders!

The Corona C12 perfect binder offers a running speed of 12,000cph and extremely fast make-ready times, thanks to its automated set-up screens. It also comes with the latest ASIR 3 signature recognition device, which eliminates mis-collation errors. The Corona will be used to produce both hard case and soft cover books.

The CPI group prints from 1 to 1 million books across its three divisions in the UK: print on demand and short runs at CPI Antony Rowe; bespoke products at CPI Clowes and best sellers at its trade plants CPI Mackays, CPI Bookmarque and CPI Cox and Wyman.

The Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist has been announced at the London Book Fair – with an impressive five of the six contenders printed by CPI.

Shortlisted titles benefit from extra media coverage and greater promotion from booksellers. The six books in the running for the prize can expect to see increased sales, with CPI ready to respond with fast reprints.

Titles printed and bound by CPI and featuring on the shortlist are: The Very Thought of You (Alma Books), Black Water Rising (Serpent’s Tail), The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Simon and Schuster), and The Lacuna and A Gate at the Stairs (both Faber and Faber).

The winner will be announced on 9th June.

The six Orange shortlisted titles (Photo: Orange Prize)

CPI is currently welcoming visitors at the London Book Fair and showcasing its unique ‘1 to 1 million books’ offer at stand U570, Earls Court 2. This page of our website will be updated regularly throughout the event.

The London Book Fair 2010 at Earls Court

First to visit the stand was David Atkins, Production Manager with Thomas Telford Publishers. David is pictured earlier this morning with CPI Senior Sales Manager Jonathan Huddart.

David Atkins (left), Production Manager with Thomas Telford Publishers, is welcomed by Senior Sales Manager Jonathan Huddart

Marketing Communications Manager Dino Bishop with TV celebrity chef Rustie Lee

The London Book Fair is a key event in the global publishing calendar, with over 23,000 publishing professionals expected to attend from 112 countries. CPI will be hosting three days of meetings at the Fair, with 40 CPI staff and Directors involved.

Francois Golicheff, UK CE0 of CPI, looks forward to meeting with customers at the CPI stand today

CPI’s UK CEO, Francois Golicheff, has been meeting with visitors to the stand, putting across the message that CPI can manage a title’s entire lifecycle and is truly the printer of one to one million books.

CPI hosted a drinks reception for publishers on Tuesday afternoon, with guests including Random House Production Director Neil Bradford and John Blake Publishing Production Manager Moira Ashcroft.

Moira Ashcroft (left), Production Manager with John Blake Publishing, cuts the cake at the CPI drinks reception. The cake was created by Sales Manager Darren Armstrong, who even provided real ale for the event! Also pictured are Kevin Martin, Senior Sales Manager, and Alison Kaye, UK Sales Director

PA to the Directors Lisa Parley (left) and Sales Managers Darren Armstrong (centre) and Andy Howarth look forward to welcoming you to the CPI stand