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Print On Demand
Sep. 24th, 2009 01:51 pmSo, John Scalzi is having a discussion about print on demand. Apparently, Tor.com is doing Year's Best Fantasy as a POD. Now, John is correct that doing so for now means writing off bookstores. Things like Google's installation of POD machines in bookstores will change that.
But not for a long time. Like, 30 years long. First, there is a huge institutional bias towards The Way Things Are. This includes but is not limited to the idea of training bookstore employees to run the POD machine. Second, cost-per-page is a real factor right now. For example, POD costs around 4 cents / page for a trade paperback. Offset costs around 0.5 cents a page (yes, half-a-cent) for the same product. With that differential in price, the offset guy can price his book lower and take returns.
So, POD is coming - just not very fast.
But not for a long time. Like, 30 years long. First, there is a huge institutional bias towards The Way Things Are. This includes but is not limited to the idea of training bookstore employees to run the POD machine. Second, cost-per-page is a real factor right now. For example, POD costs around 4 cents / page for a trade paperback. Offset costs around 0.5 cents a page (yes, half-a-cent) for the same product. With that differential in price, the offset guy can price his book lower and take returns.
So, POD is coming - just not very fast.
