Lightning Source

Infobox_Company
company_name = Lightning Source Inc.
company_type = Private
foundation = 1997
location_city = LaVergne, Tennessee
location_country = USA
key_people = J. Kirby Best, CEO and President
industry = Printing Ebooks
products = Books, Wholesale & Retail Distribution
homepage = [http://www.lightningsource.com/ www.lightningsource.com]
footnotes =

Lightning Source is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries Inc., and a sister company to leading U.S. book wholesaler Ingram Book Group. They are the leading printer and distributor of print on demand books. The company was originally conceived and created in 1997 as "Lightning Print Inc." They have headquarters located in La Vergne, Tennessee, and their UK operations are based in Milton Keynes.

Lightning Source has printed over 41,000,000 books for over 5,000 publishers around the world. The Lightning Source digital library holds over 500,000 books.

Lightning Source gives the publishing community options to print books in any quantity, 1-10,000, and provides its customers access to the most comprehensive bookselling channel in the industry in both the United States and the United Kingdom including distribution partners Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Gardners, Bertrams and others.

The company lost $15 million in a patent lawsuit in 2004 relating to their appropriation of the print-on-demand business model. On 31 March 2006, the case was dismissed and all damages denied. [Allen, Scott; [http://entrepreneurs.about.com/b/a/069774.htm “Amazon, Lightning Source lose $15 million print-on-demand patent infringement suit”] at [http://www.about.com/ About.com.] ]

References

External links and further reading

* [http://www.lightningsource.com Lightning Source homepage]
* [http://www.fonerbooks.com/pod.htm Foner Books exposition of Lightning Source]
* [http://www.aaronshep.com/publishing/ Aaron Shepard's Publishing Page.] Includes info on working with Lightning Source.
* Shepard, Aaron; "Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing," Shepard Publications, 2007, ISBN 978-0-938497-43-1. Description of a publishing approach based on printing and distribution by Lightning Source.

See also

* Print on demand