APPLETON — Not much intelligence has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dave McCree, chief executive officer of Lakeside Book Company. But there’s something smart about other people who, like him, worked in the e-book industry.
Book sales reached all-time highs in 2020 and 2021, expanding by 8% and 9%, respectively, according to Publishers Weekly. And that expansion meant more jobs for Wisconsin e-book makers, adding Lakeside, which has a factory in Menasha, and Worzalla. , at Stevens Point.
“The pandemic years were out of the ordinary,” said Rich Letchinger, Worzalla’s vice president of sales and marketing. “(2020) and 21 were among the e-book sales recorded in U. S. history. “
As a result, “we’ve almost doubled our sales in the last few years” at Worzalla, he said.
Overall, e-book sales fell in 2022, falling 4. 8% in the first nine months compared to 2021, according to Publishers Weekly. But it had to happen, the outlet reported, as the recent surge was “driven by exclusive cases similar to the pandemic. “and the expansion of interest in social justice titles after the killing of George Floyd. “
The e-book industry is also facing demanding situations similar to emerging production and shipping prices in 2022, as well as origin chain issues, according to Publishers Weekly.
Still, McCree and Lechinger said they expect some markets to remain strong in the coming months. According to Letchinger, the books are “very much alive and thriving,” he said.
During the pandemic, many other people were “squatting” at home and spending “less time outdoors” to prevent the spread and spread of COVID-19, McCree said. Books have become a way for other people to be entertained, he said.
People were also tired of staring at screens and their electronic devices all the time, as they worked from home and attended school virtually. Therefore, “it’s increasingly important to spend time on the physical part of a book,” according to McCree.
That came into play with the books made by Menasha’s Lakeside plant, McCree said. The approximately 350 other people who work at the plant produce training fabrics for primary and secondary schools. They don’t make the hardcover textbooks that other people would make. Perhaps historically you think that “you put your call in front of it and go from elegance to elegance,” McCree said. Instead, they create paperback books that children get new versions each year.
Lakeside is a provider of elementary education publishers, adding McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McCree said. The company, based in Warrenville, Illinois, with 16 locations in North America, also produces fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and books.
Meanwhile, Worzalla is an employee-owned e-book printer at Stevens Point that specializes in children’s e-books, cookbooks, and hardcover bestsellers for publishers such as Disney Books, Abrams, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Penguin Random House, and HarperCollins, among others.
The company is known for spawning the series “The Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” the 17th installment of which Worzalla published this fall. Worzalla’s approximately 385 workers also make the cookbooks “Pioneer Woman,” the cookbooks “Magnolia” by Joanna Gaines and “Who Was?”Series of children’s biographies.
Most of the books produced through Worzalla are “memories,” Letchinger said. For example, other people like to keep cookbooks at home, so they can “open them up and get other recipes” without problems, she said.
Worzalla also makes “some classics” and is “lucky” to be “the home of Dr. Seuss’s books,” according to Letchinger. the Hat “and just hasn’t gone away,” he said.
Letchinger agrees that other people who stay home and read about the pandemic have helped boost e-book sales. Another contributing factor, he said, is a trend on social media app TikTok called #BookTok, where other people share other popular titles.
At the same time, celebrities have begun to “think of themselves as brands” and “are looking for any and all imaginable channels to generate revenue,” Letchinger said. One way, he says, is to write e-books, especially for children. “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon wrote some, and Worzalla made a children’s e-book through actress Kristen Bell, according to Letchinger.
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While e-book sales have returned closer to the overall level in 2022, McCree said he can’t fully expect what 2023 holds. But part of what motivates the company, he said, is the type of e-books that are published.
“If the next ‘Harry Potter’ comes out, it’s going to be an incredibly strong year. We’re going to want a lot of books,” McCree said.
Sales are also boosted by election cycles, he said, as are other people planning to run to publish books. McCree said he expects the school market, in which Menasha’s school operates, to also “remain strong” next year.
Worzalla sees more demand than the company can offer lately, Leckering said.
“We’re very explicit about which consumers are strategic to have Worzalla compatibility,” he said, “but everyone would like us to do more production for them. “
Worzalla recently completed a five-year, $30 million investment at its Stevens Point site, Leckering said, which included a 50,000-square-foot extension, two new presses and machinery.
Worzalla has also upgraded a warehouse so it can also get paper shipments through rail cars, due to the nationwide shortage of truckers. Part of what made this possible, Leckering said, is that there are fewer generators in the U. S. U. S. citizens who do the paper Worzalla want to make books. As a result, Worzalla began buying larger quantities of paper from the limited suppliers available, making the railroad a cost-effective option, he said.
Like many other industries right now, Worzalla and Lakeside will also hire other people to fill the vacancies, Lechinger and McCree said.
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Looking back over the past few years, McCree said the pandemic has not only shown “that books matter,” but also “how special our workers are to keep working and making sure the product gets to market to help that demand” the pandemic.
While other people went to paint from home, many of Lakeside’s nearly 5,000 painters traveled to paint every day, proceeding to make books while following protective procedures to keep others healthy. And “they did a wonderful job,” McCree said.
“It’s a wonderful industry to worry about,” he said, “and we’re very proud of what we’re doing. “
Contact Becky Jacobs at bjacobs@gannett. com or 920-993-7117. Follow her on Twitter in @ruthyjacobs.