Print On Demand:
Vanity Publishing's Sickly Sister

For aspiring authors, hope springs eternal. Could Print On Demand be the answer to your publishing dreams?

Not likely...

Here's the story.

Self-publishing has gotten a bad name

And rightfully so. Any "publishing house" that makes more money off its writers than its readers isn't doing aspiring professionals any good.

There's a reason people call it vanity publishing.

(If the whole self-publishing concept is new to you, you may want to read my page on the subject before returning to this one.)

So the question becomes whether Print On Demand is significantly different.

It can be

Firstly, Print On Demand (POD) refers to digital technology. Rather than use traditional offset presses, the PODs use glorified inkjets. This means they can print out one copy of a book just as easily as 1000.

Traditional self-publishing presses need to print in quantity in order to be cost-effective.

So the appeal of Print On Demand is that you can hedge your bets by ordering relatively few copies of your book or children's book.

In other words, you can hold down costs in the event of failure. Which isn't a bad idea, considering that commercial failure is almost always the inevitable result in any variation of self-publishing.

Of course, there are people willing to personally publish a children's book just for the joy of having that book in print!

If you're one of those people, and you like the sound of Print On Demand, more power to you. But this page probably isn't for you. Here's one you might like more:

How To Decide If Print On Demand Publishing Is Right For You

POD providers will tell you this ISN'T self-publishing

There's a little truth to that. In traditional self-publishing, the author is on his/her own in all ways other than the printing of the book.

In contrast, the Print On Demand outfits tend to provide packages (differing by company) that offer certain of the services provided by true publishing houses. They might promise:

• Editing
• Proofreading
• Various design services
• Distribution

They'll probably even save you the trouble of securing an ISBN number.

But these services are most often cursory, bare bones efforts. Because the fact remains, they make their money off of you for the most part, not off of book buyers.

That's because booksellers consider Print On Demand offerers to be the total equivalent of Self-Publishing outfits in the most important regard:

They are considered as a whole to be completely unselective. In other words, having a POD label attached to your book is like having the Bad Housekeeping Seal Of Disapproval.

Ask yourself this: Do you really want to have a stigma attached to your writing efforts?

Books don't sell themselves

This is especially true of children's books. Selling kids' books tends to be a two-step process. You need to interest the child and get payment from the parent.

And with picture books especially, buyers tend to want to take a real look at them - and through them - before purchasing.

Two reasons for that.

1. They're expensive, because it costs more to print in color
2. They're short, so it's reasonable to believe you can get a sense of the book by flipping through it.

So the question becomes, how can I get my book into bookstores? Because regardless of the promise made by your Print On Demand provider, don't think for a minute that your children's book will find itself on the shelves of bookstores nationwide.

The difficulties in distributing Print On Demand books

First, there's the stigma, already discussed. Your Print On Demand book says, "Real publishers didn't want me."

Second, there are often quality issues. Your POD book is likely not to look as good as one that was offset printed. The cover might have a tendency to curl. The glue that is used for the spine is not as good and long-lasting as traditional glue. The design will likely look amateurish.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, there are huge cost issues for the bookseller with your Print On Demand book. You see, because your book was printed in a limited run, its per unit cost is significantly higher than for a traditionally published book.

So your book is actually going to cost the bookseller more than a book that comes without the self-publishing stigma.

Add to that the fact that POD presses

1. don't offer the booksellers as high a discount off of the retail price as traditional publishers, and
2. tend to have highly restrictive - or non-existent - return terms, compared to the industry standard...

...and you can see why booksellers will be extremely hesitant to carry your book. It costs them more and promises them less!

That means, regardless of what your Print On Demand provider might imply, if you really want to move copies of your book, it's going to be almost exclusively up to you.

And guess what?

Since a Print On Demand publisher is actually the publisher (as compared to self-publishing, where you are the actual publisher) all you receive from those book sales is a royalty, rather than the totality of the net profits you'd get from self-publishing!

What about the success stories?

Yes, there are Print On Demand and Self-Publishing success stories. We know because the PODs and Self-Publishing promoters keep telling us about them! The problem is how few and far between they are...

...and how much rarer still among children's books. And for the life of me I can't find an account of a true picture book POD success story!

In fact, as of this writing, iuniverse.com, one of the largest POD publishers - the one part-owned by Barnes & Noble - doesn't even do picture books!

The grim statistics

In a 2004 New York Times article, the chief executive of Xlibris admitted that 40% of the books they sell are to the authors themselves.

In December, 2003, AuthorHouse reported publishing their 20,000th title. A month later they reported their 2,000,000th book printed (not published). Elementary math tells us then that their average title had just less than 100 copies in print (and likely many less than that sold!).

Average in all those "success stories" and you realize that the typical author does even worse!

Have I talked you out of Print On Demand?

If yes, not to worry, there are still excellent resources on this site to help you move forward in your writing career.

If I haven't talked you out of it, that's fine too. But I beg you to do your research on each of the POD publishers. Get your information in writing, and don't forget to check them out with the Better Business Bureau.

My Am I ready to publish? page is designed to help you reexamine whether your children's book is really ready to market. If you're sure that it is...

...my children's book publishers page leads you to the absolute best resource for finding the children's book publishers that are right for your book.

(You may have been shut out so far by real children's book publishers, but I'm betting you missed some.)

And of course, if you want to learn more about self-publishing children's books in general, there's a page on that too.