One of the “newer” publishing terms floating around is Print on Demand. What is it?
First, let’s define it by looking at how a traditional publishing house produces books. When a traditional house contracts with an author, the manuscript goes through the publishing process and eventually rolls off the printing press. A traditional house prints 1000s of copies of a book to be distributed to bookstores and sold via catalogs and online websites. Those 1000s of copies are called a print run.
After a certain amount of time passes, the publisher evaluates the book’s success. They look at sales numbers and the number of copies remaining from the first print run. If the book has done extraordinarily well, a second print run is put on the schedule, sometimes later rather than sooner. If the book has performed okay, the publisher sits on the book waiting to see what happens in the future before scheduling a second print run.
Even when the author has people begging him for copies of his book, the publisher remains in control because the company owns the rights to the book and decides when to print more copies. At this point, an author has two options: Purchase the rights for the book and invest his own money in printing OR tell people that his book is sold out and he’s not sure if more copies will be printed.
Neither of those options sound promising. With Print on Demand (POD), a book is always available to a reader. How so?
While a traditional house prints 1000s of copies of a book ahead of its release to the public, a POD book is printed once the book is purchased. POD utilizes digital technology rather than offset or web press printing. (The set-up and operation of printing presses is the reasoning behind a traditional house printing 1000s of copies at one time.) Through digital technology, a book can be printed, bound, and packaged within minutes.
Companies and authors that use POD like it because it eliminates one of the difficulties of self-publishing: the logistics of storage. A self-published author no longer needs to worry about how to store 500 books. He can order 20 for himself and promote sales via his website and online bookstores.
Should an author have concerns about POD? Absolutely. Any author considering POD needs to evaluate each POD company and see exactly what they offer. Some POD companies…
- Maintain some or all of the rights to the book until the author terminates his contract with the company.
- Offer pre-made covers forcing an author to pay a significantly higher price for a nicer cover
- Allow the author to set the book price while others set the price for the author based on the POD company’s costs
- Market books they print but most place the marketing solely on the author.
Who is POD ideal for?
- Authors wanting to put their out-of-print books back on the market
- Individuals with specialty books intended for just a small number of people (for example, family genealogy books, recipe books, extremely technical / how-to company-produced books)
- Nonfiction authors
Does POD solve all of the difficulties of self-publishing? Not really. The author is still responsible for the editing costs, design, marketing, and sales. With POD, there’s also the added burden of researching and understanding the contract especially when dealing with the book’s rights.
The promising news is that traditional publishing houses are starting to recognize the trend of POD, and a few houses have added POD divisions. This allows them to contract with more authors and assume less risk. If the book doesn’t sell as well as hoped, the publishing house hasn’t invested thousands of dollars, but the book remains available to the public.
Is POD a good option? It depends on the individual author. And, there are other options out there including subsidy publishing which we will look at next week.
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