4 Benefits of Print-On-Demand Book Publishing

Print-on-demand book publishing (POD) is a method of printing using digital technology to print books in quantities as required, even going down to printing a single copy as per requirements. Rather than printing a large quantity of books using traditional methods, books are printed “on demand” as needed, to fulfil orders as they are received. You might be wondering, what could be the advantages of printing fewer copies, and printing them more frequently? Well, read on to find out about 4 benefits of print-on-demand book publishing:

1. Cost Efficient

Although the cost per unit in POD is higher, the upfront cost of printing is greatly reduced. With POD, you do not have to invest all your savings and hope that your book will be a bestseller; instead, you just pay for the amount of copies that are required. As a self-publisher, once the book is set up for POD, you receive more profits from each copy sold. Besides the obvious monetary advantages, there is an added advantage relating to the print quality. The quality of the printing, the paper and the binding are hardly different from a book printed in the traditional manner. This ensures that you don’t lose out on quality while saving your money. No up-front investment is required in printing a large number of copies, as is the case with traditional printing of books.

2. Speed and Storage

Another important factor which sets POD high on the list of publishing methods is you no longer need to store a huge number of books. There is no need to store numerous copies of your books at home. Also in addition, you as an author can retain all rights to your work instead of giving up rights to the publisher. Couple the reduced storage space required with lightning-fast turnaround time for printing each copy, which is typically close to one week, POD is a completely viable and good alternative to publish your books, without losing out on time or money. In fact, you gain more than you lose!

3. Environmently Friendly

In addition, POD is more environmentally friendly because there is no need to dispose of unsold books (just in case!) from a large print. There is also no need to transport books in bulk from printers to storage facilities, or to the markets, which is a norm with the traditionally printed books, thereby reducing the emissions and fuel consumption required in the transportation. This, in turn, helps in conserving the environment, though in a very small way. If you are concerned about your contribution to environmental pollution, POD is your own little way of giving something back to the environment.

4. Order as Required

Finally, one of the most important advantages that print-on-demand book publishing offers is that you can order books in quantities as small as one. And since each copy is printed separately, each of them can also be customized, as per requirements. For example, manuscripts can be updated if needed, for new copies, because all the copies are not printed in one go. You, as an author, have total control over your work, from start to finish.

Image credit: Waag Society on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Pranay.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Pranay Kanagat is a freelance writer who has a love for writing on various subjects. In particular, he enjoys creative writing. He is also studying for an Engineering degree.[/author_info] [/author]