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Print on Demand... |
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Print on Demand is just what it sounds like, the ability to print one or a hundred books as they’re needed. Instead of publishing 25,000 to 100,000 copies and then trying to sell them all, publishers that use POD technology are now able to publish only as many books as are ordered. This saves huge amounts of money, and is revolutionizing the entire book publishing industry. To get the whole story download our free eBook, Online Publishing: Can It Work for You? A Little Background As is happening in every industry, traditional publishing companies are merging, buying up smaller companies, and consolidating their operations. Today, there are only twenty-three major houses still in existence, each facing huge overhead costs. Besides offices in New York, high-paid editors, and enormous marketing budgets, they also must print thousands upon thousands of copies of each book they produce, and accept returns from bookstores if the books don’t sell. If a house is producing 500 titles a year, they need bestsellers and authors with huge followings in order to survive. The more modest mid-list books, the ones that won’t sell a million copies, are an enormous gamble that traditional houses try to avoid taking. Print on Demand is Good for Writers In every industry there are those who produce
and those who pay for production. And
the ones with the money have always exploited the ones who produce.
In publishing, writers have always been at the mercy of
publishers, especially when they’re first starting out.
Because the publishers had the money to take a work and turn it
into a product, they had the writers right where they wanted them. |