They've already subcontracted some color separation work to a vendor in India, if I'm not mistaken. (And, of course, Grafiscan was based in Ireland.) But the more substantial costs in producing a color book are in the printing, and that only gets more expensive per-unit when a print run is so low. (And you'll note that printing for trade paperbacks hasn't been shifted to the Far East, because the cost savings just isn't there.)

Honestly, I'm sure every publishing company wants to make the most of it's assets -- and in an ideal world that would be a great deal easier (and we may be moving in that direction). But publishing remains a mass medium, and an expensive one, and it requires a certain critical mass to support it. And even with the best of intentions and the desire to serve (or exploit) every last niche of a niche audience, it has become even more difficult to cobble together enough of a constituency to make some projects worthwhile. (And even when you can, you have products that wouldn't have been imagined ten years ago, because ten years ago few people would have considered paying $25 for a 160-page hardcover to be reasonable!)

I think it's more likely the face of publishing will change significantly before most of what is optimistically proposed here will come about.

In The Back Of Beyond: My photography blog. Everything seen through the camera of my iPhone.
Last Edited By: Fin Fang Foom Aug 12 09 11:16 AM. Edited 1 times.