The bold statement comes after the company announced an expanded relationship with HP to use its Indigo digital presses and digital web presses.
As part of the deal, Lulu will transition more of its color and monochrome work to Indigo and Inkjet Web presses at various third party sites around the world. Lulu currently publishes about 20,000 print-on-demand self-publishing books every month, and chief operating officer Thomas Bright suggests their part of the book world is growing thanks to both print and e-books.
Last year, Lulu customers collectively published more than 400m pages’ worth of books, mini books, photo books and calendars and Bright said, "Our Q1 numbers indicate our page volumes are ahead of our 2010 numbers by a healthy margin.
"If sales follow their historical patterns, our printed page volumes will have a predictable result. That said it will be interesting to see the effect that e-sales have on our printed page volumes."
Bright added that printed books still account for the majority of sales, just like they do in the rest of the publishing industry.
"But eBooks are our fastest growing product category - between 2007 and 2010, the number of eBooks we sold has shown a total growth of 80 percent," he told PrintWeek.
"By comparison, the number of printed copies we sold in that period increased 63%. Either way, as e-sales and better print-on-demand technologies converge, a new generation of authors is able to create and sell a book immediately and more easily than ever before."
With the HP agreement, many of Lulu’s books will now have HP's T series inkjet web press-printed book blocks paired with Indigo digital press-printed covers, the companies said in a joint press release. In addition, Lulu will continue its current use of HP Indigo presses in printing photo books, calendars and other high-value color print products.
"HP’s digital printing technology provides Lulu with a stronger publishing platform for mass customization and personalization, giving Lulu’s customers more power than ever to create and market high-quality work," Jan Riecher, general manager for HP-Americas' Graphics Solutions Business, said in a statement.
