| important for prospective self-publishers to | | | | “publisher.” invites writers to send |
| understand what POD is and what it is not. | | | | in their books. promises to |
| POD stands for “print on demand,” | | | | “publish” these books, formatting |
| and is a digital printing technology enabling a | | | | the interior and designing a cover at what seems |
| publisher to print as few as two or three dozen | | | | an affordable price. These interior and cover |
| copies of a book at an affordable price, | | | | designs are formatted into standard templates. is |
| something that was never before possible by any | | | | the publisher. It assigns an ISBN to the work |
| means. This technology has had a major impact | | | | published and has a contract with author |
| on the publishing business. Because of it the | | | | specifying royalties to be paid on retail sales and |
| publisher no longer needs to print several | | | | income sharing on sales of subsidiary |
| thousand books before discovering whether on | | | | rights—if any retail sales or rights sales do |
| nor his book will sell. The phrase, however, has | | | | in fact occur. promises to make the |
| come to be used in two very different ways, and | | | | author’s book “available” in |
| it is important to distinguish between them. | | | | bookstores and other outlets. Note that this does |
| 1. POD as a means of production. Many publishers, | | | | not mean that the books will actually on the shelf. |
| of which my company is one, now utilize this | | | | It simply means that the author’s book |
| technology to print small runs of books (25 books | | | | will be listed in the Books-in-Print database, and so |
| or more) for niche market sales or to test the | | | | available for special order whenever a customer |
| market before ordering longer runs. This saves an | | | | asks for such an order. However, there is not |
| enormous amount of money on books that, for | | | | likely to be any promotion to make the reading |
| some reason, do not find their market or which | | | | public in general aware of the availability of the |
| are not well received, well reviewed, or reviewed | | | | book. Because is not selective in what it publishes, |
| at all. The vast majority of published books sadly | | | | busy reviewers are not likely to give its books |
| fall into this category. Just a year or two ago, a | | | | more than a glance, if that. |
| publisher would have to print several thousand | | | | When it does print books, uses Print-on-Demand |
| books without knowing whether or not they | | | | technology. does not own printing equipment, but |
| would ever sell. POD technology is a great boon | | | | farms their printing work out to Lightning Source. |
| my company; we can take more chances on the | | | | So how does make money? It sells printed books |
| books we publish because we have so little cash | | | | directly to its authors at discounts usually ranging |
| tied up in each one. And it is a boon for our | | | | from 19% to 50%. Let’s say that the |
| cash-flow management. When times get hard, and | | | | print version of your book retails for $19.95 and is |
| revenues dry up, we don’t have hefty | | | | sold to the author at a 40% discount, or $11.97. If |
| printing bills outstanding. A very successful POD | | | | this hypothetical book has 200 pages, the printing, |
| model, in this sense, is that of Lightning Source of | | | | at the very most, costs $3.90 Thus nets a profit |
| LaVergne, Tennessee. LSI is a POD printer and is | | | | of $8.07 on books sold to its own authors. |
| also a subsidiary of Ingram, the biggest distributor | | | | Let’s say, further, that publishes 1000 |
| of books to bookstores in the US. Lightning | | | | authors each month, each of whom orders 25 |
| Source prints books for my own company in ultra | | | | copies of his or her book for friends, relatives, |
| short runs. It also fills orders for our books which | | | | and local reviewers, then the income is substantial. |
| come in to Ingram from bookstore and online | | | | One thousand multiplied by 25 equals 25,000. This |
| customers. LSI is a printer, not a publisher. | | | | figure multiplied by $8.07 equals $201, 750. This |
| 2. POD has also been appropriated as an | | | | produces an annual income of $2,421,000. When |
| identifying feature of Internet firms that describe | | | | you consider that WePublish.Com, since it is a POD |
| themselves as “POD Publishers.” | | | | publisher, has no investment in inventory and |
| Publishing with a “POD publisher” | | | | probably no investment in printing presses, and |
| can be as bad for a self-publisher as the | | | | that the whole enterprise, once set up, can do |
| technology itself is good. Let’s take the | | | | business almost entirely in the thin air of |
| mythical company as a model POD | | | | hyperspace, the net profit is substantial. |