What is Print-On-Demand (POD) in Book Publishing?
Print-On-demand (POD) is a kind of printing which consists of printing copies of a book or any material only on request. It is a business process in which book copies are only printed when a company receives an order for them. It uses a technology that allows prints of single or small quantities.
Print on demand option makes it possible for you to pay for what you sell. This means you operate at little to no capital risk. You also do not need to handle inventory space or shipping, which means you can focus on how to boost sales and grow your business. Experienced freelancers can also be hired to do quite a lot of tasks especially in the area of looking for clients, processing orders, following up with clients, promoting books, among others. Sarmins (2018) summarizes the advantages of POD as follows: It has low startup cost; It is quick to set up, especially with evolving web design technology with themes, guides, plugins, and templates available and easy to use; there’s no need for inventory space; it is easy to experiment with product designs since there is little to no risk involved; there is access to international markets; it provides opportunity to build up your own unique brand.
The POD publishing technique also has few disadvantages. Among them are as follows (Sarmins, 2018); (i). You need a reliable and trustworthy supplier (online platform such as Shopify) who maintains high production and order fulfillment standards at all times. This is because you do not have control over the production process. (ii). Since there is low entry barrier, it means anyone can easily join the business, meaning that you need to build up your brand and market your store well because of fierce competition. You might need an expert freelance marketer. (iii). Finding a profitable niche (book genre to focus on) might take time. You might need an expert to learn the ins and outs of the POD business. (iv). There might be added cost with domain registration, plugins, payment gateway, and paid ads. Though these features cost extra, they also give you a competitive advantage. You can hire a freelancer to develop your website and oversee these operations while you take the monitoring position.
