POD or Print on Demand is a method used by Indie Authors, small publishing firms, and even large publishing companies, which ensures the continuous supply of books printed to order.
The way it works is that when you click ‘buy now’ the books is automatically printed and shipped within days. POD is the most cost effective way to ensure a steady supply, without the need for massive warehousing of large book stocks.
Years back, publishing companies had to take a costly gamble on their print runs, and if a book flopped and did not sell, then they were left with a warehouse full of unsellable books, and the bill for printing them. Today technology has advanced so much, that new printing machines allow for a connected stream of books to be printed one copy at a time, and that saves a huge outlay for the publisher.
Print on demand has made it possible for more small independent publishing companies to exist, such as VCP. With the printers connected to large companies such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble, printing and distribution worldwide can literally be done with the click of a mouse or a push of a button, and books can be printed on any continent close to the delivery address and despatched at high speed. Without POD, companies such as Amazon would struggle, and many independent authors, would be unable to write or make a living.
The greatest thing about the whole process is that it has brought freedom to the book market, and today there are more Indie Authors than ever before, and it has allowed all those who dreamt of getting their books printed, a chance to break away from agents, and large publishing companies who can exploit the solo author.
The problem is, as we are now seeing, is large companies who sell books, are now moving into publishing themselves and using POD. For a truly independent company like VCP, that is not such a good thing, as even though our books are available to print, and can be printed and posted with three days, the larger companies would prefer we publish with them, and as we are now seeing, they give advantageous perks to their own authors, and place a lot of roadblocks in the way of true independents.
Recently we published a new story by one of our authors Robin John Morgan, his book, Abigail’s Summer, about a culture clash between a group of young nineteen years olds and the village of conservative residents, which is witty funny and very profound, has been listed as taking one to two months to deliver from a well known book retail online site.
It is the kiss of death to the book, which should be available within days, the printer certainly has that ability and has confirmed is waiting for orders. This act by a large multi national company is yet again another show of power, to force all indies into their publishing arm, and it is wrong. The odds of the book selling now are almost zero, and this large company knows that. The sad reality is they could have the book within days, and despatch it to its waiting customers, but they are so large, killing one small authors livelihood means nothing to them, they know that no customer will wait that long, and are so big they can afford to do this, because ultimately, they are trying to force this author onto their platform, something which after this he will never do.
Big business and big companies care little for the small people, and as long as they are allowed to this, it will continue. Customers need to make their voices heard and complain, and point out the book is POD and available for print, the big question is, will they?
What's happening @ VCP 