On Jan 3, 9:06�am, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:56:14 -0500, Gene Kearns

wrote:
Quebecor? What has that got to do with anything? Their "global
presence" doesn't even include a location in the US. They don't even
make a pretext of being "ONshore!"

Um...No?

Quebecor has a plant in Michigan and Kentucky I believe.

I may have the two states wrong, but I know they have two large plants
here in the US.

However, related to this, I'm looking at one of my newest novels fresh
from Amazon - printed in Brazil.

Printing of almost everything except some periodicals and daily
newspapers is moving offshore.

You send a computer file to East Impoverished Overshirt, where a
computerized press reads the data and cranks out a book, brochure, or
what-not. All the labor for stacking, packing, shipping, etc costs $1
an hour instead of $12-15. Another significant consideration is that
in some of the ecnomically developing countries a variety of cheaply
available but dangerous inks can be used that are no longer legal in
the US or Canada. In many of these countries, there is a lot less risk
of class-action lawsuits 10-20 years down the road as workers become
sickened by exposure to a variety of chemicals or a lack of many
"expensive" safety precautions that would be mandated in the US.

Shipping costs of the finished product are higher, of course, but for
items like a novel (with perhaps a $20 cover price on a paperback)
there is enough revenue generated per unit sold to offset the
increased shipping. Newspapers need to be turned around too rapidly to
be printed offshore, although we may see more special weekly sections
turned out off the main press. Most magazines don't generate enough
per unit revenue at the point of sale to justify the higher shipping
costs associated with overseas printing, and once again there is
normally a very short window between the final assembly of the
editorial and advertising elements and the day the publication needs
to be distributed. If it takes an extra two weeks to get some crime
novel to market, no real harm done.