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POD People
Jeremy Robinson

The POD in the title is an abbreviation of ‘Print On Demand’, a technology that is revolutionising the book printing industry around the world.

The availability in recent years of high quality desktop publishing software, linked to the development of the internet has provided the means to generate good quality ‘print ready’ material which can be transferred anywhere in the world.

The problem for many would-be publishers and authors has been the printing and distribution process. The internet has to a large degree addressed the later, and the emergence of online book retailers such as Amazon has made the widespread accessibility of books possible without recourse to stocking in physical book stores.

Until recently however the physical process of getting books into print has continued to provide an obstacle. Traditional publishers, driven by economic constraints and the need for guaranteed volume sales have increasingly concentrated on books of proven formula, hence the plethora of cookbooks and celebrity memoirs, in the UK.

So called Vanity publishers have always provided the means for short production runs, but at considerable expense to the author.

All this has changed with the advent of print-on-demand  technology which allows for the economic production of very small print runs, or even the production of single copies to order.

In a sense this is nothing new. Motor manufacturers for example have produced cars to order for some years, but the impact on publishing is potentially dramatic.

There are benefits for traditional publishers who adopt the technology. For example their back catalogue of slow moving books can be kept in print long after it would otherwise have ceased to be viable. But just as technology has transformed other traditional areas such as banking, the POD process is set to transform publishing allowing much easier access for new would-be authors and publishers.

This book, written by a POD author, does not focus on the technology, but shares the experience of using the process from an authors perspective, describing the lessons learned. Jeremy Robinson uses his experience in publishing his previous book as an example, and unashamedly promotes that book at every opportunity.

If you’ve ever dreamed of being in print, then this book might convince you that it’s more achievable then you thought possible, and provide a good start point from which to begin.

Steve Unwin

February 2007

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