Print-on-Demand and the Future of Publishing

I think that traditional publishing can use print-on-demand as a feature to generate additional business for groups that need customized books for small groups or book clubs. As an example, if a small group was discussing spiritual theology a book could be made that included essays or chapters from various authors the publisher has rights to, and then combine them into one book along with relevant passages from the Bible. A publisher like Thomas Nelson could start publishing “2.0″ by sorting only relevant chapters and information to a custom book for a premium fee.

Publishing: There will always be a place for expert editing, and thus a commitment between authors and publishers. (You know the old–now–joke: The great thing about desktop publishing is that anyone can write a book. That’s also the terrible thing about desktop publishing.) Authors who know their strengths and weaknesses will continue to welcome their complements.

Production: It’s another new technology. We adjust. Again. Nothing revolutionarily new on this score.

Bookselling: Perhaps the return of the bookstall (hooray!). Much less need for inventory; the display copy/copies will get a considerable workout and perhaps need to be replaced now and again. On the other hand, the need for inventory won’t vanish! We’ll always have moments when the flight is leaving shortly and we want to grab something to take along, or when we’re impulse-prone–still!–and that title, or that trade pb compared to the mass-market pb, just looks too good to pass up (time, tide, and _Twilight_ wait for no man). Or it’s something for which we’ve been searching for years (e.g. Dhorme’s commentary on Job, which I understand Nelson still owns, hint hint).

I think it means that traditional publishers have got to get very clear on what their business is. Otherwise as the tools production get easier to use, the role of the traditional publisher will vanish. What can a publisher do that an author can’t do for himself? Or, what might a publisher be able to do better than a self-publishing author? I have two ideas:

(1) Publishers can promote and market books. Publishers have access to MSM sources that most individual authors do not have. Find your best authors, the ones that deserve the attention, and get them in front of as many microphones and cameras as possible. If you can find employees who are conversant with New Media, that can help, too. But authors like Seth Godin and Tim Ferriss are way ahead of you on New Media and they are showing would-be authors/self-publishers how to use New Media to promote themselves.

(2) Publishers might be able to serve as a filter. As a heavy consumer of books, I have serious doubts about whether or not traditional publishers can do this. Most of the books published and made available for sale today are, quite frankly, terrible. They contain weak/bad theology and most of them are not very interesting. Or they start out interesting and lose energy after 2 or 3 chapters. It seems like publishers will publish anything that is relatively coherent, especially if the author has a big church or TV ministry. But what about truth and what about art? Publishers care nothing about these things, it seems to me. But they should. I’m always looking for filters; people who share my theology and my taste. But it is hard to find people who have the same theology AND the same curiosity as I do. For instance, I enjoy Donald Miller’s writing style, but his grasp of Christianity is weak. Conversely, I have the same basic theology as John MacArthur, but I think his writing is dry, simplistic, and poorly researched.

My guess is that there are people out there who will buy whatever Justin Taylor or Tim Challies or Phil Johnson recommend. They don’t have the same taste as I do, but their taste resonates with a lot of people. They are mavens (to borrow from Malcolm Gladwell). Find readers who know a good book when they read one. Hire them and turn them into filters. Let them decide who gets published and how they get marketed. Publish fewer books but better ones, ones that get all of your marketing muscle once they hit the market. Develop your own Tribe and give them more and more of what they want.

I’m impressed, Mr. Hyatt. It looks like you do still have the “chops”.

iPhoto? Try it with Aperture. More control over editing and better layout of photo books.

The so-called traditional publishing processes are undergoing massive changes in the way technology is applied. Technology means speed, accuracy, and flexibility. POD is an evolution of the production process to save, optimize, and control costs. The POD process enables speedier production using enabling technologies. It has not come to replace the traditional processes.

Such technological innovation to go mass scale requires two critical factors: (1) availability of cost-effective POD technology (which enables a publisher to massively save costs of production) and (2) consumer knowledge (you walk into a book store and pick up a book now. Imagine if you have only the covers of books or a computer that shows the books available [sort of a virtual library or collection] available. All you have to do is, if you choose a book to buy, you tell someone at the counter. In 30 minutes, the book is delivered to you or the sales person takes orders and says the book will be delivered in two days’ time at your home. The consumer now needs maturity to understand the whole process.)

Finally, for something to succeed, the outcome or result should be overwhelmingly loaded in favor of customer satisfaction, cost savings and ease of application and less investment in POD machinery. If all these combine to give the publisher an edge and if they can be deployed effectively in real time, the technology of POD will succeed. Or it will remain elitist with high cost used by a few who marvel at such options and have the money to spend.

Many predicted when Web became an option and all-pervasive, brick and motor companies will vanish. But the bubble burst when it reached saturation and now Web has a place in business and it has not replaced a brick and motor company. The same way POD’s success with depend upon its leverage value and such value benefiting all stakeholders.

@Moe: Yes, Aperture is better if you want more control and more text elements. I have done one book on this platform. However, I still prefer iPhoto for speed and ease-of-use. Bottom line: pick the right tool for the job.

This dialogue comes on the heels of last night’s church service, which addressed the computer age and believers. The bottom line was use all means possible for the Kingdom, and beware their evils.

I don’t have the savvy to answer the question at hand, since I’m still struggling to gain a strong foothold in an era which advances so quickly that nothing is new for longer than the blink of an eye. Born at the tail end of the boomers, I feel forever in the middle of two generations. I utilize and appreciate the incredible opportunity new media presents for ministry. I also see the poor and oppressed of 21st century America are less the poverty stricken than those disenfranchised by the henious sin of being out of the technology loop.

I intend if possible to keep a foot in both worlds—whether as a bridge, or (as Paul), all things to all people. I pray that those in power will remember the technology poor as they consider stewardship of the resources entrusted to them.

The really big developments in the book industry — the cloth hardcover, the mass-market paperback sold through magazine distributors, the trade paperback — have all made popular reading matter more affordable to more people.

POD will never have the same impact because it works in a different direction. It makes specialized material available to micro-markets.

Interesting, Mike. I’ve been wondering the same thing.
Perhaps this is a little verbose, but the following was an explanation on the subject (slightly modified) I wrote in answer to a debate on the future of publishing elsewhere. I’m sure you are more informed than I am, but this is what I see after cruching the bits I know:
Traditional publishers are in deep trouble because they are stuck with a business model that was adapted to a technology and a market now twenty to thirty years out of date. I am talking about RETURNS. Somewhere in the distant past, a publisher promised bookstore clients that any book that didn’t sell could be returned to the publisher for a full refund. That made sense when books were expensive and shipping was comparatively cheap, stores expected to keep books on their shelves for a year before they sold, and there were only a few hundred titles produced a year.

The new reality is that shelf space is so expensive that books are given 8 weeks to sell, and then they are out. The shipping is often more expensive than the production, so many ‘returns’ are simply pulped and a bill sent to the publishing house. The stores may order more stock than they need, because there is no risk to them; some books are shipped out and paid for by the publisher that never see the light of day. In one month, book sales were so far depressed that the ‘return’ bill sent to a major publisher by its many clients was greater than their whole year’s profit.

Now up against that inefficient model, three factors are coming at the traditional publishers like a train wreck.

The first is print-on-demand technology, which is used for a huge percentage of what is sold online. The book is produced from a digital file the day it is ordered, mailed directly to the customer, and the money shuffled electronically into all the right places. No returns, no pulping, no overhead from a brick and mortar store.

The second is audiobooks. I didn’t read my favorite writer’s last two books; I listened to them while commuting. I bought them online, downloaded them onto disks, and off you go. My friends listen while excercising, while commuting, while doing housework. This market is growing like mad, now that cell phones can play an MP3 file.

The third is books in the many electronic formats. Ebook readers are improving, and will continue to improve. Again, no printing overhead, no returns.

And out there in the near future, for those who prefer going to a real place and buying a real book, is this machine, which I predict will be coming soon to a Starbucks (or some similar shop, probably not a bookstore because they are so slow) near you.

Meanwhile, the publishers are locked together with their partners the bookstores in their current ‘dance of death’. I recently read the lament of a marketing-department head at one of the major publishers: “Nothing works anymore. Reviews don’t work, back-cover blurbs don’t work, ad campaigns don’t work.”

The publishers are trying to stay afloat, cutting their losses by taking fewer unknowns, publishing only big names with a proven fan base. It doesn’t matter whether the book is as good as the one that launched a writer’s career; they have a following and it will sell. This is known as ‘marketing platform’ and unless a writer has a large one, they will not get picked up regardless of the quality of their product.

Most self published books are awful. But I predict that in future, everyone will have to start by self-publishing and prove their book with real readers before the big publishers will dare to take them on.

I heard a lot of the same commentary when POD first came out. Mind you, I’m a novel writer, not a non-fiction writer, so I’m coming from a different perspective. Usually when people in the profession or newspaper talk about POD, they refer to non-fiction books and ignore novels.

Sure, it’s ideal for a book like a family history or small niche non-fiction. But what happened was that a lot of novelists gravitated to it because they could “finally get their chance”–for a book they couldn’t get any agents or publishers to look at.

I think the worst thing is that, for a novel writer, it made publishing look like it was “easy.” What the writers didn’t learn was what rejection would have taught–how to write a book better.

Another minus of POD books:

Most major newspapers won’t review them. Some will, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw a review of a POD, it was non-fiction, not a novel.

Bookstores also tend not to carry POD books in the store on the shelves. Again, some will, but it’s a lot harder to get it into the store. I’ve heard writers brag about sneaking a book into a bookstore and putting it on the shelf or buying fifty copies from a store, then cancelling the order.

Finally, the major writing organizations don’t count POD as professionally published. You can’t use it to become a member.

But I think the worst part of it all is that in order to eek out a few copies, the writer has to do a lot more work than he would normally. Work that should be spent writing. I have a friend of work bragging about going POD for his novel because he keeps all the profits. He has a Web site, and he’s done a lot of promotion everyone, gone to signings, etc. He’s sold maybe a 100 books. Over several years.

I think traditional publishers will be embracing POD as a new delivery method for their older lists. This means that a book really never has to go out of print. And think of the money they will save on warehousing costs. Lightning Source (owned by Igram book group)already does this on a large scale for many small and mid size publishers. Further down the road I can see book machines in Airports or busy public places that will be using POD technology. Just swipe your debit card, select the book, and in a couple of minutes you’ll have your favourite authors newest release, hot off the press.

If you saw my photos and read my prose, you would rest much easier!

Have you read Tribes by Seth Godin? He has some advice for those who have relied on providing services that came from factories! The very fact that I’m reading this on my display and you’ll print it for the world to see and no paper will be consumed says something!

By the way – I have created one of those books for my wife for our 30th Anniversary! Incredible was my reaction.

E-Book reader devices have come along way. The Sony PRS-700 is awesome. But finding good biblical Christian content is challenging. I have KJV and NIV on my e-reader, but I really want the NKJV. When is Nelson going make their books available as eBooks? If your eBooks are only available for Kindle, then you are missing a large group of readers. I was thrilled to be to purchase books from Zondervan and Symtio. Even though their offerings are slim right now, they are moving in the right direction, and making their books available in several different formats to accomodate the growing variety of eBook devices out there and coming soon!

Competition and more competition. More opportunities for writers too. Embrace it.