On Monday, the seminar group was fortunate enough to have a Skype meeting with Paperight founder, Arthur Atwell. This innovative publishing service solves the problem of the lack of literature in the rural areas of South Africa. Paperight achieves this by using photo copying shops as a print-on-demand service, allowing customers to print sections of books which they want, whilst cutting out a lot of the logistical costs. Atwell explained that this service was particularly useful for students and that since its creation the company had sold over 1000 books in this format.
However as this company is a completely innovative venture there is nothing to compare its figures to, and therefore it is unknown if these figures relate to success or failure. In my opinion, I think that this business has firm foundations and can succeed not only with books but with other forms of media also, such as newspapers and magazines. Although I do not believe it will be an overnight success, I think that the British publishing world should take note of Paperight as I believe the high street bookstore with become a thing of the past.
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