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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Mar 19, 2023 0:57:04 GMT
On the face of it, it is, compared to the retail price of the average book. But in reality it's quite remarkable how much a one off book can be had for, at Lulu Cost, as an example, which does not decrease greatly even if you buy twenty at a time.
The problem is, when it comes to pricing them to sell, we are competing with publishers that do an initial print run of at least 5,000. That probably brings the cost per book down to 50p, or less. If it sells well they then perhaps print 10,000, even 50,000, and so on, reducing the cost even more. So they can easily sell a 500 page paperback book for the same as it costs us just to make a POD book, and they can still make a good profit. They can still make a decent profit even giving middlemen a good discount. And they often offer Sale or return.
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Post by potet on Mar 19, 2023 11:10:02 GMT
My didactic books sell because they are POD books. Their potential readership is so small that they wouldn't be profitable for an industrial publisher. POD books represent a step forward as important as the invention of printing.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Mar 19, 2023 15:20:27 GMT
POD has put some beautiful books in my hands that perhaps would never have been published otherwise. It's also put my books in my hands.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Mar 20, 2023 1:18:18 GMT
POD is both good and bad for putting books on the market that otherwise may never have made it.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Mar 20, 2023 12:51:44 GMT
It's true there is a lot of POD garbage out there, but it is also true that there is a lot of traditionally published garbage too.
A buyer takes their chances, either way.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Mar 20, 2023 12:57:17 GMT
My didactic books sell because they are POD books. Their potential readership is so small that they wouldn't be profitable for an industrial publisher. POD books represent a step forward as important as the invention of printing.
I am aware too of a large, full color, 3-volume set of books devoted to telling the story of the development and history of a particular rifle that has a very devoted following. The price is very high for that POD, but the readership is small and I doubt that a traditional publisher would ever make a dime on it. But as a POD, the book is unique and authoritative and available.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Mar 20, 2023 13:00:36 GMT
Another delightful and useful result of the POD industry is the ability for people to create books of a personal nature. I have family members who have created lasting hardbound records of family history that will be available for generations (hopefully). Those are priceless. Once again, a traditional publisher wouldn't touch such a project. POD fills many niches.
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Post by Mag2024 on Mar 20, 2023 16:27:39 GMT
My didactic books sell because they are POD books. Their potential readership is so small that they wouldn't be profitable for an industrial publisher. POD books represent a step forward as important as the invention of printing. Yes. It has changed my life.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 20, 2023 16:57:23 GMT
It's true there is a lot of POD garbage out there, but it is also true that there is a lot of traditionally published garbage too. A buyer takes their chances, either way. Good point made. I remember one occasion buying a book by a Trad-Published author, where it was supposed to contain short stories and novellas from different series he'd worked on. Three-fourths of the book was 'amusing anecdotes' regarding industry cocktail parties or interactions on planes and so on, which to me was mostly garbage in print so the publisher could simply make more money.
POD removes the gatekeepers [agents, slush bucket weeders, editors] who not only weed out a lot of bad work but also a lot of good work.
While POD may be more costly, IngramSpark does allow the discount/return or destroy options to make it a somewhat better option.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Mar 21, 2023 0:16:17 GMT
It's true there is a lot of POD garbage out there, but it is also true that there is a lot of traditionally published garbage too. A buyer takes their chances, either way. Trad published 'garbage' is surely a matter of opinion? At least books published by a traditional publishing house have gone through the gauntlet of all the required professionals (or simply refused as being garbage) whereas many self-published books have not.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Mar 21, 2023 0:27:07 GMT
My didactic books sell because they are POD books. Their potential readership is so small that they wouldn't be profitable for an industrial publisher. POD books represent a step forward as important as the invention of printing.
I am aware too of a large, full color, 3-volume set of books devoted to telling the story of the development and history of a particular rifle that has a very devoted following. The price is very high for that POD, but the readership is small and I doubt that a traditional publisher would ever make a dime on it. But as a POD, the book is unique and authoritative and available.
Indeed. Some very niche books can be very expensive, but if people are not willing to pay that price, then such books would not exist, so people must be willing to pay the price then! It was common, and no doubt still is, for university lecturers to publish 'help notes', that a student could not do the course unless they bought them! Updated each year so they could not be passed on or sold to the next year students. Often it was just bound photocopies, but universities were the first to buy the self-contained small book on demand machines. Although some universities mass print stuff too as trad publishing houses. OUP are one.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Mar 21, 2023 0:35:03 GMT
My didactic books sell because they are POD books. Their potential readership is so small that they wouldn't be profitable for an industrial publisher. POD books represent a step forward as important as the invention of printing. Yes. It has changed my life. At least they are nowhere near as expensive as the first 'mass' printed books were! The first Gutenberg bibles cost the average earner three years wage, so I doubt that person bought one! They were only for the very very rich. But still a lot cheaper than the hand-copied ones.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Mar 21, 2023 0:36:47 GMT
It's true there is a lot of POD garbage out there, but it is also true that there is a lot of traditionally published garbage too. A buyer takes their chances, either way. Good point made. I remember one occasion buying a book by a Trad-Published author, where it was supposed to contain short stories and novellas from different series he'd worked on. Three-fourths of the book was 'amusing anecdotes' regarding industry cocktail parties or interactions on planes and so on, which to me was mostly garbage in print so the publisher could simply make more money.
POD removes the gatekeepers [agents, slush bucket weeders, editors] who not only weed out a lot of bad work but also a lot of good work.
While POD may be more costly, IngramSpark does allow the discount/return or destroy options to make it a somewhat better option.
One problem with trad publishers is they are controlled be economists and marketing people, not to mention, lawyers.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 21, 2023 15:59:22 GMT
Good point made. I remember one occasion buying a book by a Trad-Published author, where it was supposed to contain short stories and novellas from different series he'd worked on. Three-fourths of the book was 'amusing anecdotes' regarding industry cocktail parties or interactions on planes and so on, which to me was mostly garbage in print so the publisher could simply make more money.
POD removes the gatekeepers [agents, slush bucket weeders, editors] who not only weed out a lot of bad work but also a lot of good work.
While POD may be more costly, IngramSpark does allow the discount/return or destroy options to make it a somewhat better option.
One problem with trad publishers is they are controlled be economists and marketing people, not to mention, lawyers.Marketing people I can see, lawyers to a lesser extent.
Traditional Publishers each have a particular market or niche [at times several under various imprints] they cater to. They also have to deal with the average adult reading level for the countries where they operate.
The reading level for the average adult in the US is 7th to 8th grade or roughly 13-year-old to 14-year-old.
In England [per UK sources I looked up] the average adult has the reading level of a 9-year-old to 10-year-old.
The point I'm making is that Traditional Publishers cater to their audiences in order to turn a profit, and that often means cycling through formula material the audience can enjoy and comprehend. In turn it means those who read at much higher levels may quite often be dissatisfied with the available selections.
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Post by potet on Mar 21, 2023 18:18:43 GMT
Another delightful and useful result of the POD industry is the ability for people to create books of a personal nature. I have family members who have created lasting hardbound records of family history that will be available for generations (hopefully). Those are priceless. Once again, a traditional publisher wouldn't touch such a project. POD fills many niches. Paul et Berthe is the biography of my paternal grand-parents in two volumes. I took me two decades to collect all the data necessary. It's a private work only sold for the cost price to members of my family. Some refused to buy it when I told them my grand-father's father was unknown and that his mother did not acknowledge him although she accepted to bring him up. Yet, they should be proud of him because, starting from scratch, he created a dry-cleaning business in Dijon, the capital of the province of Burgundy, France, with a branch in a nearby town. The car he owned on the eve of WWII, is proof enough that he was successful, and that his family enjoyed a good life. (The privileged young man is my father.)
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