Michael Hyatt posted some interesting ideas about print on demand. It could be arriving at a book store near you, though I’m not sure what that will mean for readers, consumers, writers, publishers, agents.
I can tell you who won’t be effected by such machines: editors.
No matter how quickly consumers and retailers can print books, no matter how wonderful their covers, without good words and sentences and stories and information, a book won’t sell.
It also won’t sell without good marketing strategy and good design.
If you can stomach the world’s most tedious promotional video, it’s kind of interesting to see what this machine can do.
So two questions for you: What concerns would you have about purchasing a print on demand book? What concerns would you have about publishing one?
18 comments ↓
I’ve been reading that book Grapevine and am more convinced than ever that quality is what sustains sales. Though I suppose a product/book could go a long way at first on its title and marketing strategy. (I can think of a few that have done that!)
LL, I wish I could believe that quality sustains sales. Maybe you can help me understand what that means. My experience says that marketing sells books. And apart from marketing, most books don’t sell, no matter how good they are.
Another problem is that a whopping lot of people in our culture don’t know what a good book is, don’t know what good writing is, and don’t really care to know.
The print on demand thing is interesting. Right now the price of these books is sky-high. I have a friend who did this. His paperback book is $39.
Oh, Mark, I thought it was you who got me reading Grapevine. Maybe it was Al.
Anyway, RLP, Grapevine talks about the short window of time that most books are marketed. Five weeks! Yet some books like Packer’s Knowing God have been around for years. That’s not marketing, I think, so much as quality. From a focused angle, as Mark implies. Maybe to a very clear audience too.
When I first wrote Stone Crossings, my publisher said it needed to be less like a collection of essays (for the reasons Mark notes I suppose). That’s why I had to work so hard to get the personal narrative fuller, deeper. And why I eventually focused the book around the concept of grace. Funny how we can write a book one way and have it be problematic, or we can give it a quarter turn (maybe half in some cases!) and have it be a candidate for success. RLP, what is your book? Curious.
My book is a collection of essays from the first two years of my blog - Real Live Preacher. I was actually contacted by Eerdmans to do the book, which was flattering and I now understand somewhat unusual.
http://eerdmans.com/shop/product.asp?p_key=9780802828101
Marcus, I don’t think I’d be interested in POD at all, though I can see it for the “out of print” books Hyatt talked about.
When he talked about asking at the desk for a book and them printing one up, I thought, How many books to I pick up just to browse before I actually find something I decide to purchase. Will they print up the browse copies too?
But maybe if a story has enough computers so a buyer can do online browsing … I think it’s getting there, but not yet.
I’d have to see if someone can really make it work before I’d want to risk it. I’ve spent too long writing there books to risk it all on something unproven.
Becky
Interesting post today considering the quote that you hit on on my website today. Thanks for dropping in. I have resisted the urge to POD, but sometimes it seems the way to go when other publishers are not interested.
Time will tell, and marketing definitely does sell. I can not count the number of times I have picked up a book based on the marketing and hype, only to put it down in the end dissapointed.
I am starting to view books like L.L. sometimes does…basically quit buying them because I have shelves full already. It is a catch 22, I need people to buy em to be an author, but I do not want to clutter my life with more books. Ahh, such is the life of a writer.
Interesting concept. My immediate thought was the impact that could have on the environment. Although I understand Hyatt doesn’t think it will diminish a publisher’s role, the technology could be used to eliminate excessive printing.
I sort of like the notion of no longer encountering a book “out of print.” In some ways, this reminds me of advances in the film industry toward all digital productions, or even the wine industry toward screw caps. The flexibility is attractive, but would you ever truly be able to remove people’s attachment to the nostalgia of it?
Quality doesn’t sell when people don’t know about a book or can independently judge the quality of the product - that’s why marketing exists.
People don’t buy products they don’t know about.
So, what’s it like to have job security, Marcus?
Probably best suited to those books who have a limited but fanatical audience. Fascinating idea, though.
I think of POD as an interesting tool instead of publishing. Because of the digital nature of photo-taking today, I’m probably going to assemble my kid’s photo albums in a POD format and any family member who wants a copy can order it. *shrug*
It’s an excellent means to produce a quality product for family or small groups. However, trying to reach “the world” with POD has to be a challenging proposition. All hail the guts of those who try.
Becky, I’m not sure how it will work out in stores. Yesterday I was wondering how many individual books can one of these machines produce per hour. If you watch the video clip, it sure doesn’t look like a speedy process.
Carl, marketing definitely sells, but I’m not sure it pays. I’ve seen some pretty hefty marketing budgets for books that never earned out. As for the book purchasing addiction, I’m shameless. I just love to get new books.
spaghettipie, I thought about the environment too. But I was thinking the waste could actually be greater. I’m guessing a large press is a lot more efficient about energy, ink, paper, etc. than a one-off machine.
ESI, you’re right. Quality isn’t enough. Job security is pretty nice. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m gloating or anything. Before anyone envies me too much, you might check into the average salaries for a young editor. (Not that I’m going to start whining again! I shot that guy, remember.)
Karen, good you hear from you! My wife and I are thinking about using POD for all of our picture albums from here on out. Would you believe it costs the same as printing the pictures individually and putting them in a generic album? (Not to mention the insane costs of scrap booking if you try to go that route.)
Thanks for the comments, y’all!
In the 80’s I worked for a typesetter. That business was changed by desktop publishing. These days, anybody can create a nice document on their home computer and take it to Kinko’s.
Then I moved into publishing. Don’t tell me I am going to get shoved out of this industry, too. (sniffle)
I’m kidding; we’re talking apples and oranges because it’s one thing to replace the old Mergenthaler typesetter, but a bit more complicated to compensate for the editorial, publicity, marketing, sales, distribution, etc., expertise of a publisher.
Craver, I agree completely. Job security for editors, marketers, and publishers. Printers may have some problems in a few years, I suppose. But you can’t automate publishing.
Sorry, but I have reservations about the tie-in between good writing and good sales. That formula would more likely work on a small scale, but I think it really takes the genius of marketing and promotion to get noticeable quantities of a book to the sales counter.
Craver, agreed. How about keeping it at the sales counter? Do you think quality counts?
Yes, absolutely. For me, quality counts. All I’m saying is that the words may not be the primary factor, and sometimes not a factor at all in how well a book sells. I have sat with stores’ book-buyers who casually flipped through a new season’s pitch-book, saying, “No. No. I’ll take six of these. One of those. No. Pass. Okay, what kind of specials you got?” They filtered what their customers would be exposed to, based on the covers. Their store’s layout and customer service has a lot to do with how much traffic they will generate. Now, if I wrote a book, would they squeeze one copy, spine-out with its genre or would they stack it face-out near the door or register? Would the book-buyer even buy one copy? Has the subject matter already been beaten to death?
Quality counts for one’s integrity, and poor quality can certainly hurt sales. But unfortunately, quality alone cannot sell a book.
Craver and L.L., I agree with both of you. The trick is defining quality. What makes a book good? What makes a book something that will still sell fifty years from now?
I’d say, it’s the words, the ideas, the story, the information. All of that can be packaged well to help the book take off.
The quality of writing is not the only factor in whether a book will sell. But I think it is the most important factors in determining how long a book will sell.
Also, I suppose the title is a bit of a misnomer. Good writing is much more than good sentences.
I think it may have many applications. I recently received a package from a design firm I frequently use (they do cover designs, direct response, etc.). Inside was a beautiful four color book– 100 pages with a soft cover. It highlighted their many designs and photographs over the years. It was done through on-demand printing. So while I see authors taking advantage of such technology, I can also see on-demand for specialized advertising. Interesting stuff.