Print-On-Demand (POD): Dream or Disappointment?
by Peter Bowerman
Part 1: What POD is and isn’t
Part 2: The POD business model
Excerpted with permission from The Well-fed Self-publisher by Peter Bowerman © 2006, Fanove Publishing. For more information, contact the author at Peter@WellFedWriter.com.
WriteDirections.com thanks Peter Bowerman, author of The Well-fed Self-publisher, for allowing it to reprint excerpts from Chapter 12: “Print-On-Demand: Dream of Disappointment?” These have been grouped into two parts.
Part 2 — The POD business model
Don’t buy the line that POD is some “revolutionary printing model that’s providing the keys to the serious publishing kingdom for all those authors heretofore locked out of the game.” It’s not. In essence, it’s simply a more technologically advanced form of “vanity publishing.” What’s that? Little more than a system in which you pay to “publish” your book and “market” it to wholesalers, retailers, and potential reviewers who, frankly, aren’t that interested. Rule of thumb: If you’re paying someone to “publish” your book, it’s not legitimate “publishing.” Period. End of discussion.
So, why aren’t the major bookstore chains and key reviewers interested in POD “published” books? Because they don’t consider them to be serious works. Bookstores shy away from POD works because they’re often of inferior quality (though that is changing). In addition, because the POD model dictates higher unit printing costs, and hence higher retail prices, it makes those books harder to sell. Add a bookstore-unfriendly return policy (i.e., usually not permitted) and you can understand why the big chains wouldn’t exactly be falling all over themselves to carry these books. Though, in reality, returnability isn’t much of an issue for most POD authors…
Pointless Upgrades
AuthorHouse, the #1 POD company, in a nod to the crucial importance of returnability to the overall distribution equation, offers their authors the option of making their books returnable. It’s an option apparently chosen by a “great number of people” (quote from a podcast discussed a few pages ahead), according to AH’s CEO, Bryan Smith. Cost for returnability (at press time): $700.
But…would an AH author drop that kind of cash if he knew he’d only sell, on average, 100-200 books (and he’d be buying nearly two-thirds of them!), essentially making returnability a moot point? It’s like turbo-charging a car with a top speed of 50 mph. What’s the point? Nonetheless, these companies play on author hope and naiveté, and capture that additional $700, despite the fact that, overwhelmingly, they’ll never even have to activate that returnability feature. I’m in the wrong business.
The Pecking Order
POD books aren’t taken seriously by the trade for the same reason “vanity press” books aren’t. It comes down to a perception of POD as being relatively “barrier-free” publishing. Let’s examine the perceived pecking order here.
TOP: Conventionally published books. Obviously, a book with any reputable publishing house’s imprimatur has jumped through many hoops before finally making the grade. Given that a traditional publisher makes no money until after making a hefty financial investment and selling lots of books, a publishing house can’t make those financial decisions cavalierly if it wants to last more than a season or two.
MIDDLE: “Conventional self-publishing,” like I do it. In this scenario, because the decision to publish resides solely with the author, by definition it skips any rigorous screening of the sort employed by a conventional publisher. Which explains why so many self-published books are mediocre.
On the plus side of this second scenario is the fact that a self-publishing author has to totally finance his or her own venture – a powerful screening process in itself, and one that implies at least a marginal grip on reality when it comes to the perceived quality of one’s own work. Few people are going to drop $9-15K+ (what it could cost to bring 5000 copies of a book’s first printing to market) unless they really believe in what they’ve written, have done the research, and know there’s a market for their book.
BOTTOM: POD “publishing” (and ebook publishing for that matter) which offers the worst of all worlds: a publishing decision left completely to the author (i.e., no real screening except for pornographic or other highly offensive content) and a relatively minimal investment on the part of that author.
So, very legitimately, key reviewers and bookstore chains ask: What’s stopping any Tom, Dick, or Harriet from getting “published”? Not much, anymore. Which, of course, is the spin being made by POD publishers to attract authors: your desire to be “published” is all that’s required, not your talent or even much of your money. Not surprisingly, desire alone is not exactly the stuff from which springs real respect. Low barrier = low respect.
POD = “Self-Publishing”?
A few years back, I read an article in my local daily paper on “self-publishing” (“Self-publishing allows writers to print, market own books,” by Don O’Briant; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 7, 2004) and in it, they cluelessly – in my humble opinion – talked about POD as “self-publishing.” Ditto with a much more substantive piece in a more high-profile venue (“How to Be Your Own Publisher,” by Sarah Glazer; The New York Times, April 23, 2005).
Both these pieces grated on me a bit. OK, more than a bit. Yes, technically, it’s self-publishing in the sense that you, yourself are deciding to publish and are no longer at the mercy of the hoity-toity publishing houses. But that’s where the similarity ends.
And it’s not just reporters for major daily papers who are confused. You know it’s bad when, arguably, THE rag for the publishing industry, Publishers Weekly, which absolutely should know better, gets it wrong, too. Check out these comments from PMA Executive Director Jan Nathan, writing in the October 2005 issue of Independent, the monthly newsletter of PMA. Note her reference to POD as a “printing process.” Again, clarifying that it’s just a technology, not the keys to the city:
“I [was] incensed by a column in PW Daily (the daily email newsletter from industry giant Publishers Weekly) that referred to a print-on-demand printer as a self-publisher, and I had called some people at PW to voice my complaint about the use of these terms. I wondered how a publication that’s supposed to be a voice of the book-publishing community could possibly equate a printer with a self-publisher. If PW doesn’t know the difference, how will everyone else realize that print-on-demand is a printing process?”
Basic Differences
From a purist’s (translation: someone who’s invested truckloads of blood, sweat, tears, time, and cash into his own self-publishing venture in order to turn a tidy profit) point of view, no, POD is not self-publishing. Especially when you consider that most everything else about the POD scenario is very different from self-publishing as I did it. A few key distinctions:
1) Royalties vs. expenses/profits
With POD, you pay less for the production (though you’re forced to operate within their parameters), but most fee-based POD publishers will have you sign a contract that pays you royalties. And those royalties are often based on net proceeds (after discounts to wholesalers, etc.), not retail price, reducing them even further. These royalty arrangements can be extremely complicated and confusing, no doubt designed (he said, cynically) to lighten the wallets of unsuspecting authors.
In my scenario, after footing the bill for all production, marketing, and promotion expenses, all proceeds were mine.
2) Process control
With POD, you relinquish a huge amount of control over production, again, having to work within pretty rigid guidelines. As mentioned, you’ll likely end up with a cheesy book cover that screams, “SELF-PUBLISHED!” And covers are crucial to the success of a book.
In addition, as discussed, you likely won’t own your ISBNs. All the three top POD players – AuthorHouse, iUniverse or Xlibris – own authors’ ISBNs, meaning that in all the databases out there, they, not you, will appear as the “publisher-of-record.”
With true self-publishing, you maintain total control over the production process: cover and interior book design, trim size, paper quality, timetable, etc. And since you bought your own ISBNs, there’s no question as to ownership and “publisher-of-record.”
3) Rights
With POD, you may be required to turn over the rights to your creation – at least for a certain period of time. POD’s Big Three, AH, Xlibris, and iUniverse, all own your “produced” files. Meaning, if you choose one of them, and they go ahead and lay out your book, and design your cover, should you decide that you want to leave them at some point, all you’ll take with you are your original text files; they’ll own your produced files. You still retain the rights to your work, but they retain the rights to the produced files. Now, wouldn’t that be a most unpleasant surprise? As always, ask the questions.
With true self-publishing, since you’re simply hiring service providers to execute various production tasks related to your books (design, editing, typesetting, printing, indexing), you retain all rights to your work, in any form.
4) Cost of books
With POD, if you want copies of your own book, you’ll pay rates that hover close to 40-50+ percent of the retail cost (another way they make the model financially viable – for themselves), which is significantly more than you’d pay for copies of your book digitally printed by a POD printer like Fidlar Doubleday (discussed earlier).
Sure, to a certain extent, you’re comparing apples with oranges in that with POD publishing, they’re laying out your book cheaply, whereas with POD printing, you have to show up with files ready to go. In addition, many POD publishers require their authors to purchase a certain number of copies of their own books at those same inflated rates (compared to typical offset or even digital printing rates).
If you want commercial success with your book, this is one of single biggest reasons not to go POD. With true self-publishing, yes, printing can take a big financial bite, but once it’s paid for, you own those books. Commercial success demands a LOT of book marketing and promotion, and that means sending out LOTS of review copies. Purchasing books from your POD “publisher” means that, even generously assuming a cost of only 40 percent of retail, a $20 book runs $8, which with packaging, press kit, and postage, puts you over $11 per package. You could go broke in a hurry. At my cost of under $2.50 a book (delivered), I’m under $6 for a package – far more do-able.
Trunk Sales
Let’s not forget personal sales of books at events, seminars, and of course, out of the trunk of your car. I always carry books in my car, and have sold a steady trickle of them over the years. At that $2.50 cost (retail $20), I can afford to be generous, sell them at a 25-50 percent discount, and still make a healthy profit. And when you can discount like that, Econ 101 dictates you’ll just sell more. With POD, you can kiss that possibility goodbye. WARNING: not having a cheap and steady supply of your own books will absolutely hobble your ongoing marketing efforts on many levels, while effectively eliminating many incremental income streams as well.
POD Rationale #3
In addition to the two main applications for POD discussed earlier (see Part 1 of this article), I’ve come to realize there’s a third – one that’s made me temper my somewhat strident anti-POD stance. Fellow writer and author Susan Stephenson sagely offered up POD as an avenue for authors who are taking the long view, and trying to build up their name in the business – book by book (and don’t have the time, money, or inclination to self-publish as I have). If an author simply can’t get a publisher to take them on, but knows that he has a voice that needs to be heard out there, POD does offer an outlet to have his work see the light of day.
Yes, for the most part, POD allows an author to get virtually anything into print, even junk – on only their say-so – and as such, drives the lack of respect that follows POD around like a black cloud.
Long-Term “Brand Building”
However, that author trying to build a strong “brand” for themselves, a book at a time, could choose to approach the crafting of his book (i.e., content, editing, design, title, etc.) with the same rigor and exacting standards we’ve discussed throughout this book, with an eye toward a creating a book indistinguishable from a conventionally published work.
Take this commitment to quality into your conversations with your POD publisher, and do all you can to ensure that your final product comes as close as possible to being that high-quality “industry grade” product. The groundwork in excellence laid today can yield dividends down the line, as one can then refer to an existing body of quality work. In that sense, POD can be a great tool for authors who view the process as a much longer journey, and don’t expect to make much money in the short term.
Just remember that the POD model usually charges extra – and often a lot extra – for any deviations from the standard templates – even if you provide, say, your own cover artwork. But, given the importance of a cover, it might be worth it.
The Cost/Price Problem
A final point about one of the key flaws of the POD model. As Xlibris’s Maturo admits, while POD technology is wonderfully flexible in that you can print any quantity, even one book, reasonably cost-effectively, the flip side of that coin is that, because quantities are almost always far smaller compared to offset printing (traditional printing press technology, typically used for large print runs), the per-unit cost for POD-printed books is significantly higher than for offset. Which can create a problem when POD books go head-to-head with competitive titles printed offset.
As Ron pointed out in his podcast with Maturo, a 256-page book (the average length of all books, incidentally) printed via POD ends up retailing for roughly $22, about 50 percent higher than an offset printed book of similar length, which comes in at about $15. And the ratios are far worse for full-color children’s books, as color POD technology lags even further behind black and white.
Bad Economics
So, we end up with this semi-surreal moment in the podcast with Xlibris’s Maturo, summa cum laude in economics, where he has to concede Ron’s point, and furthermore, that the POD model, in order to be financially viable, requires POD pricing to be based on actual production costs, not what the market will bear. And that most economically unsound business model, until fine-tuned, will, by definition, significantly impact a POD book’s ability to compete.
You’ll pay $3.49 for a loaf of small-batch ciabatta bread at your local fru-fru bakery rather than $1.49 for supermarket white bread, but you do it because you’re getting far more for your money. Would you pay 50 percent more for basically the same white loaf, but just a different brand name? Not likely. Same thing here.
Of course, all this is somewhat self-evident, if you take the 30,000 foot view. A “onesie- twosie” operation simply can’t compete, price-wise, with books printed offset, in quantities of many thousands. Unless you’re talking about distinct content that’s in high demand, and whose value is set by a buyer who simply must have it. But, if you’re talking about a book comparable to many others, it’s a whole other ballgame. Look to POD to simply “get you into print,” in a fashion, but be realistic about the outcome.
“Platform-Building”
Remember “POD Good Reason #3” mentioned earlier, for authors taking the long view? Indeed, I heard this very “platform-building” point made with a different spin on Ron’s podcast with iUniverse’s CEO Susan Driscoll.
Driscoll pointed out that “We are trying to position iUniverse as a farm team for traditional publishers. If you’re good at marketing and have a quality product, you are much more apt to get a traditional publisher’s attention once you have some sort of a track record, and we can help you do that.”
The emphasis, says Driscoll, is on educating authors as to the ins and outs of publishing in general, and the POD model in particular. Which is good to hear, since, as Driscoll readily admits, “Authors are very naïve. They have big dreams, a lot of hope, and great expectations.” Might part of that author education process be to get them to not expect to make a lot of money with POD?
If You Must Go POD…
While, obviously, I’m not a huge fan of POD, if you’re leaning in that direction, and your circumstances are a match for it, as I’ve described above, from all I’ve heard, iUniverse would be a good choice. They seem to be more upfront about acknowledging the limitations of the POD model, while highlighting where the technology can make a difference for an author. Just know that the words of a seemingly enlightened CEO and the day-to-day reality of how they run their business may be two very different things.
Interestingly enough, iUniverse is also more discriminating in terms of the quality of manuscripts they’ll accept than Xlibris and AH. Dave Maturo of Xlibris actually conceded this point, adding that both his company and AH will essentially accept anything (except, as mentioned earlier, literary sewage).
Another plus for iUniverse: Susan Driscoll, CEO of iUniverse, had 25 years of publishing industry experience before taking over the helm at iU. Meanwhile, Smith and Maturo, while both boasting impressive business resumés, had none. Nada. I’d say that counts for something. The one minus as noted earlier: iUniverse, not you, owns your ISBN.
Summing Up
When it comes to marketing your book, my feeling is this: Either do it, and really jump in with both feet, or don’t bother at all. I say this because it takes a pretty massive amount of work to market a book effectively. It’s a critical mass thing. A half-assed effort will yield results far closer to no effort than to a major one. If you decide you’re not going to bother – a perfectly honorable decision, incidentally, and far better than a toe-in-the-pool approach – POD is a decent way to go. Problem is, people think – and are sold on the idea – that POD is actually like “jumping in,” when it’s not.
Remember, 100-200 books on average, and the lion’s share bought by authors themselves. But, should that really be surprising? After all, the companies accept inferior manuscripts. They design and typeset them, not with an eye toward ultimate marketability, but with strict financial considerations in mind. Ditto the price – again determined by the financial realities of the POD model, not what the market will bear. Finally, the marketing – far and away the most important part of the success equation – is reduced to generic one-size-fits-all efforts. That’s a pretty lethal quadruple whammy.
See also
Part 1: What POD is and isn’t
Main articles index
Related Articles on blog
Peter Bowerman is the author of the writing best-sellers The Well-fed Self-publisher and The Well-fed Writer, which was a featured selection for the Book-of-the-Month Club, Writer’s Digest Book Club and Quality Paperback Book Club. He has won numerous awards for his work, including Foreword magazine’s book of the year. To learn more about the author and his seminars, visit WellFedWriter.com or email him, Peter@WellFedWriter.com.