![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
CNN Discovers POD
Apr. 6th, 2009 04:47 pmSo, I see that CNN has discovered Print-On-Demand. Of course, CNN has not really discovered anything new - some of us have known about self-publishing for years.
As far as the CNN article goes, it's pretty standard stuff: they have one writer who sold 300 books (above-average for the self-pubbed), one who got a major book deal, and several quotes from gleeful self-pub outfits. I do note that they stuck with reputable POD houses like Lulu and Author Solutions / iUniverse.
What they left out was critical. 80% of books are sold in brick-and-mortar book stores, and POD books can't get into book stores. Why? They are not returnable. Every book in a book store can be returned to the publisher for full credit, no questions asked.
At any rate, the CNN article was an interesting take from the mainstream media on the self-published / POD world.
As far as the CNN article goes, it's pretty standard stuff: they have one writer who sold 300 books (above-average for the self-pubbed), one who got a major book deal, and several quotes from gleeful self-pub outfits. I do note that they stuck with reputable POD houses like Lulu and Author Solutions / iUniverse.
What they left out was critical. 80% of books are sold in brick-and-mortar book stores, and POD books can't get into book stores. Why? They are not returnable. Every book in a book store can be returned to the publisher for full credit, no questions asked.
At any rate, the CNN article was an interesting take from the mainstream media on the self-published / POD world.
