To look at this from an author perspective: if an author has a large enough marketing platform, he or she sells lots of books readily whatever the printing method used. PODs, however, are mostly utilized by authors, with or without books of real quality, who have no platform and therefore have no chance with trade publishers. Unfortunately, most such authors buy into not simply a POD printer but the various "marketing plans" that many well-known companies offer that include practices like sending out spam titled "New book!" to other would-be authors. These companies make their money not from selling many copies of their authors' books but from selling their truly worthless marketing plans to a large number of authors. Anyone who uses POD without a marketing platform is likely to sell a couple hundred copies to friends and relatives. I should add that the last time I read a statistic on it, something like 85% of books were still being sold in brick and mortar stores - but it’s true that the online percentage is growing fast.

I think change is good and inevitable. More and more publishers are looking to POD as a solution to printing slower moving titles. It is also being used to test new titles. If you are not too sure of how a title is going to perform, you do not need to invest in traditional printing; put the title in a POD program, and see how it performs. I think POD is here to stay. It can be a useful tool for publishers, if they get past their prejudices.

My book is selling in brick and mortar stores especially when I arrive to do a booksigning. But it is also offered by Lightning Source &

My book is selling in brick and mortar stores especially when I arrive to do a booksigning. But it is also offered by Lightning Source and others as a POD. I like the thought of POD because your book never goes out of print. You can have the best of both worlds. Gale Laure, Author of EVOLUTION OF A SAD WOMAN

Let's all remember that POD is more friendly to the environment, too. We have so mnay new green initiatives, fewer trees and smaller warehouses can and should be part of the plan, too. And if returns are still a necessary evil, LightningSource offers plans that include returns as well.

It's true that many worthless pieces of garbage will be published via POD -- just as it is true that many books with value will be. Even though the percentage of books published for brick and mortar is 85% -- think of the shredding, the waste, the returns -- nauseating. Furthermore, of those traditional books being published become more "celeb" oriented, let us not forget that always and forever 20% of that 80% are bestsellers, and much waste continues. Most of the time I visit bookstores, employees have no clue whatsoever about authors that I ask for. We are living in the epicenter of change. Publishing staffs have changed. There are fewer editors to work on more books, which affects quality, typos, etc, and face it, many of the folks with the broad perspective have been pushed out. Life is just different. Let's see where the POD idea goes-- it's a great one. As far as marketing (since I do that), well, that's different too and if you don't get on the web and rattle some cages,you won't reach your special interest groups. As far as getting your author on national TV shows for interview -- in the past, this was a catapult to bestsellerdom -- but now, don't count on it unless you are "somebody" with celebrity status already. Life in the industry changed and we have to change with it. www.landepr.com

From my experience as one who orders in a retail environment, I find the biggest obstacle to accepting pod is the turnaround time. Quite often - if not usually - it takes weeks for the order to arrive, and that is not acceptable for many customers. (This of course is with books that are not in high demand.) When pod fulfills its promise of immediate printing and shipment, then it will have a better chance of taking off.

Sara is correct; there is a stigma behind digital printing, but my personal feeling is that this stigma is a by-product the Print On Demand business plan - which I've personally seen thrash more than one author's writing career. However, digital printing is a godsend for our ARCs and short runs on our backlist titles. The time factor is also vital. How many times have we been caught with a sudden surge of orders only to have our beloved web-based printer come back with a four week delivery date. Yikes!

Since POD came on the scene, I've often wondered why brick and mortar retailers don't capitalize on it in order to expand their selling options. Why not include a section in the store where select POD books (not self-published) that might be risky from a marketing standpoint, are displayed the way DVD's are displayed in rental stores. Put out one copy on the shelf that can be taken by the customer to an order desk. The customer orders the book, pays for it, and it's shipped to the store, where they can pick it up when ready. Heck, bookstores already offer to order books they don't have in stock. As an author and a reader, a section like this would definitely lure me in, wondering what I might find there that doesn't always fit into more mainstream choices.

"On-Demand Titles Drive Jump in Book Output" (PW 05/28/2008) "...the output of on-demand, short run and unclassified titles soared from 21,936 in 2006 to 134,773 last year..." Many marginal titles (some which originally had print runs of less than 5,000 copies) are now back in print. If the book is pre-paid and non-returnable, bookstores can exploit this market, as these customers are most likely fanatics or collectors of a specific topic, and willing to pay extra for a previously obscure tome. Regarding shipping, a warehouse could easily install the machinery, print the order, and ship it out as fast as if there was a copy lying on the shelves. Perhaps one day, a customer will be able to walk into a Barnes & Noble, order a POD title, browse the store or have a cup of coffee, and ten minutes later the book is ready to be picked up. Of course, many of us will skip that step, and instead have an iPOD digital library of titles, readily available, easily searchable by keyword and image, perhaps with animation, html tags for footnotes, even the author reading the text. (Prediction: Stephen King will be the first mainstream author to offer his entire backlist in POD hardcover.)

POD is just what the doctor ordered for small presses who have to divide their dollars between book marketing/ author publicity/ general operational efforts. The key to POD is in its contextual use as a HYBRID

The major problem with POD and booksellers is: non-returnable.