Publish on Demand or Just-in-Time Printing
I was inspired by a Publish on Demand article that appeared in the Online
section of the Observer newspaper in the spring of 2004. Having previously published a Web book with a traditional
publisher (Thompson Press) and gone through all the pain I was intrigued by the
self-publishing process. My first book, Go Web (ISBN: 1850322511) was written
right at the start of the World Wide Web boom early in 1995. It focussed on web
publishing on the Windows platform, a subject that was poorly covered at the
time with the dominance of the Unix operating system in the Internet world.
Thompson Press and I had originally planned to get the book out for the late
summer but between various edits and scepticism from died-in-the wool Unix
expert on the review panel the book finally made it on to bookshelves in early
1996. It sold around 8,000 copies and was pretty well received but didn't turn
me into the Martin Amis of the computer world.
Publish on Demand seems to respond to at least three needs. Timely turn-around
for fast changing technical information. It can take little more than a morning
from finished Word document to ready-to-order book for someone technically
proficient. It provides a platform for authors who will only have limited print
runs and it appears to be more ecologically friendly. No more books ending up in
remainder bins on the way to be pulped.
With the degree of control offered to the author also comes hard work. All those
little jobs that used to be handled by the publisher now fall on you. Ideally
you will need to find an editor who doesn't mind reading several drafts. I was
lucky to have my wife, who is a senior lecturer in English at a Paris
University, to read my tome. Formatting the book isn't too hard as long as you
are prepared to stick with the templates offered by the publisher. Cover design
is also an area perhaps best left to a competent amateur. Things still took
longer than expected. I started work in mid-August, writing some 160 pages in a
couple of months. This was in-between organising a house move and giving regular
bottles, nappy changes, baths etc. to our baby son. The book went through three
drafts with hundreds of minor corrections and was finally published on the 20th
of January.
The biggest worry for prospective purchasers is quality although with some of
the truly awful books that get published through traditional channels this is
maybe less of a concern. Publish on demand encourages authors to make a review
chapter available. Promotion is also up to the author who doesn’t have access to
the marketing muscle of a publishing house. In truth this is worth less than it
seems. Unless you are writing for one of the brands such as the “Dummies Guides”
you get little more than your work stuck on the shelves of bookstores and a few
copies sent out to interested magazines in the hope they might write a review.
Publish on Demand books are normally only available from the publisher. For an
additional fee they can be assigned an ISBN and placed in one of the major book
distributor’s catalogues such as Ingrams. This at least means that surfers on
sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble will be able to purchase the book.
However, except through special order, they will not make it onto the shelves of
the local bookstore. Guerrilla marketing tactics must be used instead.
It seems somewhat paradoxical that 10 years after the Web hit the mainsteam and
with the arrival of high-speed Internet access and the rise of the Weblog we
still feel for “dead tree” publishing. Still at least a book is biodegradable,
unlike the tons of junk PCs currently shipped around the world to China for
recycling.
The ABC of SEO (Search Engine Optimization Strategies) is published through
Lulu.com.
The Long Tail
A couple of articles in The Economist and Wired have focussed on the
economics of the "long tail". Basically in many areas, films, records,
books etc. there are a few articles that sell in millions but this tails off
very rapidly into a "long tail' of items that sell in small numbers.
Exploiting these niche products is currently a hot topic amongst economists.
A shop does not have sufficient shelf space or turnover to justify stocking
items in this tail. However an Internet based store may have a wide enough
market to exploit one of the niches. Given zero weight products such as digital
media or Print on Demand books and a viable business can be built.
http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3936129
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html
See Also
Lulu.com ISBN Plus Timeline
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