An IBPA Webinar by Danny. O. Snow,
Contributor, Digital Book Printing for Dummies™
(New York: BISG and Wiley & Sons, 2009)
Introduction:
Print-on-Demand (POD) is a hot topic in the world of book publishing today. POD makes it possible to print real books one a time, which has profound implications for the publisher of the 21st century, as we will explain shortly.
This report is primarily for publishers. While many authors use POD to self-publish their own books, and vanity presses use it almost universally, we will focus here on the special benefits that POD affords the small to midsize press. While we also believe that even the largest publishers will use POD extensively within the next ten years, this report is geared for the smaller, independent publisher.
What POD is not:
POD is not just a remarkable new printing process. It’s also a highly efficient business model that we will explain below.
POD is not as consistent as traditional offset printing, where thousands of books are printed at once on a finely-tuned printing press. This is especially evident with photographs (halftones) but the adept publisher can improve POD halftone reproduction with special file preparation, different than prepress methods for offset printing. The gap between offset and POD printing is getting smaller every day.
POD is not ideal for getting books stocked on bookstore shelves, because most POD books are non-returnable, while (unfortunately) most bookstores still require the right to return unsold books for a full refund. However, most leading booksellers will accept orders for POD books, which are delivered promptly… often as fast as conventional books shipping from a warehouse. When ordered online, the delivery of POD books is comparable to those printed thousands at a time.
In 2010, POD is not (yet) competitive for many books with full-color interiors or hardback bindings, due to current production costs; but the higher per-unit printing cost is counter-balanced by eliminating unsold books.
As noted above, POD isn’t just for vanity publishing or self-publishing; it offers remarkable benefits to professionals too. Many respected publishers already use POD; more will follow soon.
According to major POD printer LightningSource, many well-known publishing houses have already used POD, including Bantam Doubleday Dell, Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Grove Atlantic Press, Harcourt Trade, Harper Collins, Henry Holt & Company, McGraw-Hill, NYU Press, Oxford University Press, Penguin Putnam, Random House, Scholastic Books, Simon & Schuster, St. Martins Press, and Time Warner Book Group.
And now let’s add John Wiley & Sons, publishers of the popular ‘Dummies’ books, to the list. Few lay readers will be able to tell the difference between a POD book (printed one copy at a time) versus those printed the old-fashioned way, in quantities of thousands.
POD can no longer be considered a “poor cousin” to conventional printing and business models; in fact, it’s the wave of the future for those foresighted enough to embrace change and grow with the times. If you are one of us, read on…
What POD is:
Again: POD is both a printing technology and a business model.
The core principle of the POD business model is for public demand to pull books into print, one at a time, as they are ordered. It’s the opposite of the old-fashioned publishing practice of printing thousands of books first, then trying to push them to readers. To paraphrase Andrew Pate, formerly with LightningSource and Lulu.com, “When books are pulled by demand rather than pushed by supply, the entire dynamic of book publishing changes…” in our view, for the better!
Surprisingly, the basic concept isn’t new: retailers of household goods like Walmart have used “Just-in-Time” (JIT) inventory management for decades. JIT links each store’s cash registers with a warehouse or distribution center. When a customer buys an item, a replacement is automatically ordered from the warehouse. POD simply takes JIT to the next level, both manufacturing and shipping the product as ordered by consumers.
Waste is practically eliminated - you print only as many books as you really need, with few (if any) unsold copies left over.
POD is also a printing process, using toner rather than ink to produce books one at a time, which few lay readers can discern from those printed in quantities of thousands.
On a per-unit basis, POD is much more costly than traditional printing. Offset lithography is still the best method for printing thousands at the lowest possible per-unit cost. But don’t be seduced by per-unit cost alone. To paraphrase Don DeHart, a veteran printer: “The publisher who prints 3,000 books but ends up with 1,000 unsold copies in the warehouse hasn’t saved a dime.” This will be explained in greater detail later.
Because relatively few are stocked on bookstore shelves, POD books may lose a handful of sales in a culture of instant gratification - but this is still far better than printing hundreds or even thousands of books that are never sold. Moreover, as more and more consumers buy books online and grow accustomed to waiting a few days for delivery, the difference between POD books and others is increasingly negligible.
POD is also effective for tapping niche or specialty markets outside the traditional book trade, which are nearly ten times more numerous than bookstores, easier to target, often pay more (and pay faster) than conventional booksellers.
POD allows the modern publisher to bring new books into the world without investing in a big initial press run. Then, as these fledgling books mature and prove their public appeal, the publisher can shift printing methods to meet greater demand. Today, it is increasingly possible to scale up almost seamlessly from one production method to another.
POD is also ideal for keeping backlist books in print - even in cases where public demand is modest. Imagine a venerable old book that enjoyed popularity in the past, but has now grown dated… or simply outlived its original audience. POD can give this lovable old fellow a happy retirement instead of a premature burial.
POD is equally effective for bringing titles that are already out-of-print back to life.
POD gives the smallest publishers a way to get books into major league book trade distribution channels that might be otherwise unavailable to the little guy - including UK and EU markets.
POD gives publishers a faster way to speed books to the marketplace. For example, network TV veteran Mark Butler’s Beijing Journal: A Live, Day by Day Account from Backstage at the 2008 Olympics was in print before the closing ceremonies.
Publishers can also use POD to customize books for bulk buyers, and attract readers with special needs. Think about it: you’ve already made a substantial investment in buying rights to a manuscript, editorial and book design work, to publish a mass-market paperback. The lion’s share of your work as a publisher is already done. With POD, it’s easy (and remarkably economical) to turn the paperback into a hardback, a large print edition, a coil-bound “lay-flat” workbook, an A5 or “Royal” trim size edition for UK and EU readers, etc. You’ve already published the paperback… why not give it more appeal to readers with special needs at a nominal cost?
Most important of all, because POD slashes the cost of making new books available to the reading public, the publisher’s investment and risk are dramatically reduced. This has huge implications for the savvy small to midsize publisher: lower initial expense and less risk mean that publishers can take a chance on more promising new titles. Can anyone doubt that many books born using POD will “graduate” to the bestseller lists in the years ahead? We don’t. So please keep reading… someday, you might publish one of them!
Current Trends in POD:
for Every Stage in a Book’s Life Cycle
In 2010, there are several exciting trends in POD book publishing. In this report, we will briefly discuss the pros and cons of POD in different stages of a book’s life:
Birth: “Dynamic” POD and customized books
Adulthood: Strengths and Weaknesses of POD in Trade Channels
Retirement: Converting backlist titles to POD
Reincarnation: Using POD to revive out-of-print books
Birth
The leading POD printers for the mainstream book trade normally expect publishers to submit robust production files that rarely change after publication. This helps insure speed and consistency in production. Revision is possible, but not instantaneous or free - and can sometimes interrupt public availability in conventional bookselling channels.
In 2002 and following, a new breed of POD printing started to appear. Companies such as Blurb.com, Café Press, CreateSpace, Lulu and Wordclay (to name just a few) allowed anyone to submit a book for POD printing, with a minimum of time and expense. They also permit revision, customizing or updating of books in a matter of minutes with little or no lapse of availability. We call this “dynamic” POD rather than “static” POD. A book printed this way can change literally from one copy to the next.
Static POD is ideal for selling books in mainstream bookselling markets, with greater consistency and lower printing costs. Dynamic POD is ideal for specialty markets, as a way to develop new material, and to test its public appeal.
The companies that pioneered dynamic POD are seen by many in the book world as outlets for hobbyists more than professionals: mostly self-publishing authors who lack the resources to use the static POD services that serve mainstream book trade channels. But dynamic POD can benefit real publishers in very real ways, as explained for the first time in the book POD for Dummies ® from Wiley & Sons and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG.org).
Dynamic POD is especially useful for “incubating” new books until they are ready for mainstream book trade channels, allowing the publisher to experiment with several different drafts of a fledgling book, make changes in content and design, and insure that it is fully groomed for broader public consumption.
Dynamic POD allows a publisher to prove a new book’s commercial appeal in niche or regional markets before making more substantial investments in pre-press, trade distribution, advertising, etc.
Dynamic POD allows the publisher to quickly customize a book for a bulk buyer at a nominal cost, or to modify books for readers with special needs, such as large print editions, with a minimum of time and expense.
Dynamic POD also gives publishers a way to bypass conventional wholesalers and retailers. It allows readers to order online directly from the printer, who processes the buyer’s credit card, prints and ships the book, then pays the publisher after deducting production costs and a substantial markup. Self-publishing guru Dan Poynter calls this process “disintermediation” (bypassing intermediaries) and predicts that it will become the dominant paradigm for tomorrow’s authors and publishers: more and more books will move straight from the production facility to the reader.
Adulthood
In 2009, some publishers still believe that “name” booksellers are the only way to reach a broad audience. But a landmark 2005 study by the Book Industry Study Group titled “Under the Radar” documented that sales outside traditional book trade channels now represent an annual market of at least $11.5 billion.
POD is a highly effective way for small presses to tap these lucrative “non-traditional” outlets, which are nearly ten times more numerous than bookstores, easier to target, and often pay more, pay faster and return far fewer (if any) unsold books than conventional booksellers. For example, a book about organic fertilizers may sell much better at a tree nursery or a gardening center than in a general bookstore. POD makes it easy for a publisher to supply specialty outlets with small quantities of books shipped directly from the printing facility to the outlet.
For the smallest publishers, who may not have distribution deals with leading wholesalers or distributors, POD is also useful as a gateway to major online booksellers.
But POD is not ideal for getting books stocked on bookstore shelves, because most POD books are non-returnable, while most bookstores (unfortunately) still require the right to return unsold books for a full refund. The higher per-unit printing cost of POD books makes returns especially punishing. Yet as consumers buy more and more books online with a negligible return rate, the benefits of POD increasingly outweigh the value of in-store stocking.
In 2009, POD is not (yet) competitive for many books with full-color interiors or hardback bindings, due to high production costs - but the higher per-unit printing cost is partially offset by eliminating unsold books… and POD pricing for color and case binding is steadily growing more competitive.
Retirement
Publishers can now convert backlist titles for POD production before they lapse out of print. The same production files used for offset printing can often be re-deployed for POD manufacturing with minimal modification.
Think of it this way: as a publisher, you have already completed acquisition, editorial and design work, and one or more offset press runs of a conventional book. 90% of your work as a publisher is already done! As stock is depleted, POD simply takes over as the new production method when public demand is not robust enough to justify printing and warehousing thousands more copies. This approach allows books with modest to moderate public appeal to make a “soft landing” or smooth transition into retirement, remaining available to the public long after the initial printing(s) are gone. Imagine a venerable old book that has outlived its original popularity, but still holds modest appeal: with POD, you can give this loveable old fellow a happy retirement instead of a premature burial!
Reincarnation
For centuries, aside from the revered but elusive “evergreen” title, nearly every book reached a time when supplies ran low and the publisher had to decide whether there was enough public demand to justify printing thousands more. Sadly, in the past, the answer was too often no, resulting in millions of good books lapsing out-of-print.
The problem was that printing 5,000 new copies might represent a five-year supply, plus warehousing costs, inventory taxes, and the danger that some might never sell at all.
With the advent of POD, this central dilemma was solved. In many cases an out-of-print book could be scanned (or re-mastered digitally) and profitably re-published as a POD book, even when public demand was modest.
The publisher’s investment to revive a short out-of-print title with a minimum of artwork is often less than $1,000. Even with modest profits of $2 to $4 per book (after advances and royalties, trade discounts and printing), the break-even point is usually well under 500 sales. Given that many out-of-print books have both a proven record of public appeal, and a possible “waiting list” of readers who were formerly unable to obtain copies, the POD proposition for bringing back out-of-print titles is compelling.
A case history:
In 1984, Mangan Books published Let the Tail Go with the Hide by Teresa Williams Irvin, with an introduction by Tom Lea, acclaimed western artist and author of The Wonderful Country and The Brave Bulls. “I’ve already started to read it, and am enjoying it immensely,” said Ronald Reagan in 1985. This biography of Ben F. Williams, a seminal figure in the history of the American West, was a leather-bound showpiece, with a real silver peso on the cover of each book, and sold out within a few years.
Long after the original sold out, the author continued to receive requests from teachers, students, librarians and researchers, year after year, because the book holds enduring interest in the history of the American southwest.
Unfortunately, copies of the first edition were hard to find (and very expensive, thanks to the peso on the cover!) until Unlimited Publishing LLC acquired the rights to release a POD paperback in 2001. It remains in print in 2009, at an affordable retail price of $15.99, versus a production cost of $4 to $6.
The initial investment in scanning the old mechanical paste-ups and negatives for POD printing was recovered long ago. Today, the POD edition still sells modestly but regularly, generating revenues year after year, with little additional effort or expense.
Re-cap
POD will soon make moot the term “out-of-print book,” even in cases when books are left with limited audiences at the end of their life cycles. In combination with Google’s upcoming re-release of millions of out-of-print and backlist titles online, we will soon see the day when nearly every worthwhile book is available online or in print, regardless of commercial factors.
At the beginning of a book’s life, ‘dynamic’ POD will re-shape the way publishers of the 21st century bring fledgling books into the world, groom them, and prove their commercial appeal - until they are ready to fly the nest into the wider world of books.
We also predict that the trend toward “disintermediation” (bypassing middlemen) will continue to grow in the years ahead, allowing authors and publishers to reach readers more directly. As more and more consumers buy books online, “brick-and-mortar” bookstores (and the large scale printers and mega-warehouses that supply them) will struggle. Increasingly, books will move directly from the printer to the reader.
Relieved of the wasteful economics of the traditional publishing trade (overprinting, warehousing, remaindering, returns, etc.), the POD-based book industry of the new millennium will be more efficient, more responsive to the specific interests and needs of readers, greener, and more focused on creativity rather than commercial factors alone.
