‘Very scary time’ for Irish book publishers as print and paper costs soar

Irish book publishers say it is a “very scary” time for the industry, with supply chain issues and the rising cost of paper and printing putting significant pressure on profitability.

Ivan O’Brien, managing director of O’Brien Press, said the company’s costs have risen “massively”, with increases of about 50 per cent.

“As we got squeezed from every other angle, print availability at a reasonable cost was something that we could rely on, and that is now gone,” he said.

“Timelines have also extended substantially, with another couple of weeks added to the schedule for most projects. Prices will have to go up, but it is unlikely that the market will take the level of increase required for the numbers to work. It’s very scary.”

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He added: “As independent Irish publishers catering for the local market, we don’t have the market clout of the international companies, who have deeper pockets and have bulk-bought to manage their manufacturing prices.”

Mr O’Brien said while there are fewer concerns around supplies this Christmas, buyers should purchase popular titles early.

“If there is a big run on something, it’s almost certainly the case this year that when it’s gone it’s gone,” he said.

Publishers are shopping around, Mr O’Brien said, adding that O’Brien Press has been “forced to use lighter or less-expensive paper in order to hold pricing at a reasonable level”.

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Nicki Howard, director of Gill Books, which has published a wide variety of Irish books, including the best-selling Oh My God! What a Complete Aisling series, said it is experiencing cost increases ranging from 30 to 70 per cent for producing its books.

“In a nutshell, skyrocketing paper prices, raw material shortages, supply chain disruptions, Ukraine crisis and soaring energy prices have set off a perfect storm for the print industry,” she said.

Ms Howard said the “seeds of these problems” were sowed in the years of the pandemic as “sales of print books unexpectedly rose, increasing demand, while people were leaving manufacturing jobs, leading to labour shortages in the printing and papermaking businesses”.

Adding to that, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent global sanctions have created bottlenecks in the transport of goods and commodities, she said.

“In addition to a significant pressure on profitability, publishers are having to operate with much longer lead times and are building in contingencies to mitigate against one of many issues that could go wrong in the production and shipping process,” she said.

“As a result, many publishers are printing more quantities than usual for their initial print run, anticipating difficulties with reprinting should a book become very popular.”

Martin Healy, managing director of Four Courts Press, which publishes academic books, said the company has absorbed the cost increases for this year, but it is “something we will have to address in 2023″.

“Printers have been increasing prices every three months or so of late, and one of our main UK printers now adds an energy surcharge and paper surcharge to the actual invoice,” he said.

“A practical example facing us now is of a book we printed in 2019 and are now needing to reprint; the paper costs have increased by €6,000 on this single print job. Obviously, we cannot absorb a cost like that, so we are faced with trying to find alternative, less-expensive options.”

He said the publisher will have to review its general pricing levels for next year.

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“We also think that we might find more titles that we would like to publish but are no longer a viable project,” he added.

Sarah Davis-Goff, co-owner of Tramp Press, the publisher behind award-winnings books such as Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat, said the company has, in some cases, “switched out the paper we use in order that our printer could pass along savings”.

“We’ve actually printed in Poland for the last few years, which has helped us immeasurably, ensuring we’re not trying to work around Brexit red tape, and at the mercy of fluctuating sterling prices.”

However, Ms Davis-Goff said there are questions about whether publishers are being slower to bid on bigger books because of the associated print costs.

“I’m wondering if we’ll be hearing about a great return to short story collections and novellas in the coming few years,” she added.