The Nottingham-based family publishing business is currently in talks with five local authors, with a view to paying for the print run and selling the product. 

Managing director of the publishing and print businesses, Ian Collinson, set up Weathervane Press in March following the increase in demand.

He said: "The book market is a bit more resistant to the erosion that many other sectors in the print industry are feeling, and we believe it is reasonably safe.

"If the books sell well, we will look to move its production from short-run on the digital press to litho."

Collinson kicked off the process after printing I Love Samuel Taylor, which he wrote himself, and which is now on sale as a printed book and shortly in e-book form.

The company is one of a number of short run book printers offering a publishing arm to meet the growing demand for self-publishing.

Parker and Collinson was established in 1919 and has 12 staff and a £500,000 turnover. Its markets also include leaflets, brochures and annual reports.