Print-On-Demand - A Definition and a Comparison

PRINT ON DEMAND - A Definition and a Comparison
Copyright 2005, Michael LaRocca

The purpose of this article is to consider Print-On-Demand
publishing as an alternative for the aspiring author. It has its
strengths and its weaknesses. You may wonder as you begin reading
this, but in the end I'm going to say some good things about it.

The title explains the technology. The way that literature has
traditionally been printed involves running many copies simul-
taneously in order to bring the price per copy down. Smaller
print runs, such as advertising, brochures, or concert programs,
cost more per copy because they are small print runs. Until
recently, printing a single book was all but unthinkable.

In the case of novels, the traditional print publisher begins by
printing several thousand copies. His goal is to run off the
smallest number of copies he can while getting the best possible
price per copy.

These books are then sent to bookstores, which tend to prefer
something along the lines of what has succeeded before. The
remainder sits in a warehouse somewhere. Perhaps to be shipped as
the orders come in, perhaps to be joined by any "remaindered"
copies the bookstores couldn't move.

This represents an investment on the part of that publisher,
hence his paranoia about experimenting with new formats or (more
importantly) new authors.

Print-On-Demand (POD) uses a completely different process. The
end result is, the price per copy on a small run is much lower.
How small of a run' Try one book. Zero inventory. The book is
economically produced when the reader orders it, not before.

This technology was probably invented for sales literature. Then
someone realized it might be a pretty cool way to get ARCs
(Advance Review Copies) out to the book reviewers before the book
was actually available. Finally, someone decided to get it into
the publishing mainstream.

Why is it so much cheaper to publish a single book via POD' The
reasons really aren't relevant to this article, besides which
they'd probably bore you. But if you care, the first link below
spells it all out.

 http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/pod_01.htm