DFP Article: What is POD?

WHAT IS POD?

DEFINING POD:
The book industry definition of POD is "print-on-demand." POD is a printing process that provides new and more economical ways for publishers to distribute books to wholesale and retail customers.

Sometimes POD is defined as "product-on-demand," which encompasses all types of manufactured items. One example of a product-on-demand business is CafePress, which does custom printing on items such as mousepads, shirts, buttons, and calendars.

Unfortunately, POD is sometimes confused with self-publishing, commonly known as "vanity press" or often referred to erroneously as "publish-on-demand." Although some vanity press sites toss around the POD abbreviation, vanity press is not synonymous with print-on-demand. Vanity press is a publishing model, while POD is a printing process.

Unlike vanity press where authors pay to have books published and distributed, POD contract publishers (like Dragonfly Publishing, Inc.) pay royalties to authors and never charge for production or marketing services of any kind.

POD vs. OFF-SET PRESS:
Before the invention of POD book printing in the mid-1990's, off-set press printing ruled the publishing world. With off-set press, books are printed in volume "runs" of hundreds to thousands of copies per edition. These books are then bundled up and warehoused pending distribution.

With off-set press print-run, publishers not only bear the enormous up-front expense of volume printing, but also pay warehousing costs in addition to shipping and various distribution fees. Although per-unit book prices are usually cheaper in higher volume orders, warehousing and additional shipping fees add to the cost per copy.

POD has now evolved to the point where the total cost of printing one book at a time either meets or beats the total cost of the same book produced by off-set press print-run for warehouse distribution. Because there is less administrative work and lower overall fees associated with a POD edition, publishers save both time and money managing these titles. Therefore, POD is not only a new way to get books to retail and wholesale customers, but it is also viewed by many publishers as both more affordable and more efficient.

CAN YOU SPOT A POD BOOK?
As a general rule, POD paperbacks and hardbacks are indistinguishable from their offset press counterparts. In many instances, POD editions are superior to offset press because most are printed on higher-quality paper using full-color digital files instead of CMYK 4-layer processing.

POD books can be black/white or color interior and are available in most standard paperback and hardback bindings and trims. POD paperbacks can be perfect-bound (glued), saddle-stitched (stapled), or ring-bound. POD hardbacks can be clothbound with a standard full-color dust jacket or casebound with the cover laminated onto the board (also called case-wrap or library binding).

Most people never know which books they buy are printed POD and which are not. Every year, more of the hardbacks and paperbacks purchased from major retail booksellers (brick-n-mortar and online) are print-on-demand editions from one of several large POD printing companies.

For example, many in-stock books now sold through Amazon.com channels are printed by its POD subsidiary CreateSpace/BookSurge. The giant wholesale distributor Ingram Book Group ten years ago created its own POD division called Lightning Source. There are other POD book distributors, but those are two of the largest and most well-known.

GOING GREEN:
POD book printing and distribution is also a much "greener" manufacturing process, because it eliminates the necessity to pre-print thousands of books which may sit for months or even years gathering dust in warehouses. Since POD books are printed only when ordered by the retail or wholesale customer, this eliminates the wasteful destruction of thousands of books every year in warehouse overstock purges.

WHO BUYS POD?
Who buys POD books? The answer is everyone. POD books are purchased at wholesale discount for brick-n-mortar retail shelf stock, distributed through online retail websites, and sold wholesale to lending libraries.

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["What is Pod?" (Copyright �2009 Terri L. Branson) - No unauthorized reproduction | Posted February 24, 2009 to the Dragonfly Publishing, Inc. website http://www.dragonflypubs.com ]