Print On Demand versus Printing

One of the more interesting debates you are bound to have is whether or not you should print your books. Some people like the control that printing gives them greater control over the books, while others like to make it as convenient as possible for customers to get their books in their paws. Because of this, the debate is going to break down along two lines: offset printing or print-on-demand. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

For our purposes, we're going to use two simple definitions: Print-on-demand (or POD) is when the book is printed whenever it is ordered. The book is ordered, printed, bound, and then sent off to the customer. Printing usually involves an offset press: The ink is applied to rollers and the book is printed, bound, and then put in a stack with the other printed books. While the process is automated, it does require some setup. While there are other options, for most purposes the process of printing books for customers will usually use one of those processes.

There are two major issues about printing that will be brought up several times, so we may as well deal with them here: First, while you can change the POD form of a book whenever you want, you can't do the same for a printed book. While the printer is more than willing to correct any issues that are their fault, each time you make changes in the book, you need to pay the setup price again. Second, there's a setup cost; this is a cost that only needs to be paid once but it is necessary to keep in mind; this is because of the method of printing and is a necessary part of the process.

Obvious Point: Throughout this essay "printed"/"print" and "POD" will be referred to as two separate modes, with the former assuming an offset press or similar method while the latter refers to the product of a print-on-demand company. This is solely to differentiate them for the purposes of this article and to simplify things a little bit; otherwise, I would need to go through some interesting semantic hoops. So keep that in mind for the remainder of this essay.

Oh, and a fun concept to add into the mix: Some people will ask if either process "scales". What they're asking is if the printing process you end up using can be applied to bigger and bigger business models; that is, if your business gets bigger, will the printing process grow with your business, or if there is a limit to how many books you can print? The answer is that yes; the printing process will scale, just at different costs (that will be explained later). However, the bottom line is that you can print however many books you want to be printed, as long as you have the money coming in.

POD has better distribution.

With Amazon being the biggest marketplace out there and 70% of all books being sold through it, you would be foolish to not take advantage of Amazon's market saturation. The easiest way to do so is through its KDP products, both printed and electronic books. But that applies to most POD sites: A printed book just doesn't have the same reach as a POD one. Since the books can be printed locally and shipped from there, it means that a printed book may be at a disadvantage when it comes to shipping costs.

You can also take better advantage of an aggregator, such as Draft2Digital. Instead of having to send books to each and every store out there, you can upload the appropriate files and then let the stores grab the books themselves as needed. If they want a better deal, they can contact you directly.

[Of course, you could print up a large number of books and then ship them to an Amazon fulfillment center. However, there are still times when a POD book can get there faster and cheaper.]

Printing is better for conventions.

If you're going to sell at a convention, you need physical books. For those going to the convention, the chance of being able to meet the author, buy a book, and then get it signed by the person who wrote it is part of the fun. While POD is great for internet sales, that doesn't help here, and there are two issues worth noting: 

1. Printing usually costs less per unit of the books overall you print. That is, even allowing for the one-time set-up cost, printing is usually cheaper than POD for purchasing several books for your own use. The books can then be shipped wherever you want them to be shipped. While this means you need to add shipping to the cost, it's still usually cheaper than ordering the books online for your own purposes.
2. You need to be relatively sure about the number of books to be printed. An overprint is more than just expensive: You need to take any books home that you don't sell. As such, either have a plan to deal with any extra books or be prepared to take home a lot of books.

POD gives you greater freedom.

With printing, you're going to have to deal with an inventory; physical books take up physical space and you're going to have to put those books somewhere. And should someone order a book from you, you're going to have to package it with an invoice, put postage on it, and then make sure it gets out the door. If you're dealing with a massive interest in your book, then you're going to have to hire someone to help deal with the situation.

Sure, you could just ship all of those books to a fulfillment center and let someone else deal with the problem, but you're still going to have to print those books off to ship them off. Now, if you were dealing with POD, there is no inventory to deal with, you don't have to package each book, and, well, you generally don't have to mess with all of that, even if there's a sudden interest in your book. Plus, you can spend that money you would have spent on printing, storage, and extra help elsewhere, like marketing.

Printing is better for crowdfunding.

Part of crowdfunding is the promise of different tiers with different gifts. While some of them are digital, such s PDFs of the book and worksheets, most of them will be physical, including a signed copy of the book itself. As there are sometimes several different physical objects, such as bookmarks, drawings, and other art, even stickers or posters, these all need to be gathered together and sent at the same time. While this can be a hassle, if you sent it as two separate packages it would lessen the impact of the entire experience.

This means that you should print off a number of books and then package them with any appropriate gifts.

As with conventions, this means using an offset press for the best possible price. It also means that, should you wait until the crowdfunding is over, you can print extra books for other reasons with any surplus as part of the same order; these extra books can be used for local bookstores, conventions, or special prizes for other events. While this does mean that you need to allow for the setup cost and price of all books in the crowdfunding goals, that should have been part of the plan from the beginning.

POD has an electronic format.

While this should be pretty obvious, this is one of the major advantages of POD. Not only can you sell these copies for almost nothing, but it also means that you have as many free copies as you would like that can be sent to reviewers, given away to garner reviews, and as freebies. If you used printed copies, the price of that could be a major cost that you have little chance of recouping; while it may be worth it to garner reviews, it does make more sense to use PDFs whenever possible.

Printing usually looks better.

This should not be seen as a slight against POD companies; a lot of books printed by POD do look pretty good; for those just looking for something to read, they work pretty well. However, using an offset press allows for better quality than even the best POD, and that quality is pretty obvious. For those looking for a superior product, this is simply the best way to go.

POD is more adaptable.

Once the book has gone to the printer for the actual printing, as opposed to a proof copy, there is no way to make any further changes, and even the changes are limited to typos and printing issues. To make even the slightest change requires that you pay the setup fee again. With a POD, however, you can usually make changes whenever you want and there is usually no fee for it. This means that you can add or subtract chapters, make minor changes, and do pretty much whatever you want as often as you would like. You cannot make changes in a printed copy without paying the setup fee.

[Note: Substantive changes, however, will create their own copyrights. From a legal perspective, if you make significant changes you have created an entirely new book, and if you registered the former work that registration will not apply to the new work. (Yes, I'm still under the caveat that I'm not a lawyer; why do you ask?)]

Printing takes longer.

For both, you need all the same files. However, with POD you just upload everything, and usually within two days, you can print your first book, which should arrive at your grubby paws within a few days to a week. A printed book, however, may take up to a couple of weeks, assuming you aren't paying for a rush job. Once you're set up you may be able to ask for a run and obtain it within a week or two; it is just a matter of scheduling the time for a print run.

This means that you need to allow for that in your scheduling; if you have a convention coming up and you want 300 books, for example, it is a good idea to allow for a couple of weeks of lead time; if you want those books for the weekend coming up, you had best be prepared to pay dearly for the privilege.

POD is cheaper, generally.

Up until now, the relative cheapness of printing has been extolled. However, for business purposes, POD is actually cheaper. The bad side of this is that the bindings may be weaker than a printed book and that overall quality is a level or two below the printed book; the POD book is just not going to last as long as its printed equivalent and you can tell the difference. However, POD means that you do not print books yourself (they are printed on-demand, after all), so that is one cost you do not need to worry about. You also don't need to maintain an inventory, package, and post yourself, and generally ignore that part of the business. As such, from a business perspective, POD is much cheaper than a printed book.

The exception to this is if you need books for personal use, such as for selling at a convention or a book launch. POD doesn't offer discounts for multiple books printed, while printing does; if you print, say, 500 books, with POD you would pay the same as if you only bought one book while printers will offer you a discount based on the number of books printed (so the same books could cost as much as half as much per unit than if you had only printed one). While some POD publishers do offer this, that's an exception at this point.

Printing provides more options.

With POD, you are limited to generally a few book size options, glossy or matte paper and covers, and full color or black & white. In some cases, you may even be limited to one or two of binding. With printing, you have access to a greater range of inks, such as metallic ones. If you want a die-cut cover (such as allowing for a bite or window), you can do that with printing. If you want fold-out covers, a section of the book that is in full-color with glossy paper versus b&w/matte for the rest of the book, or want to have a map that folds out, you're looking at printing.

In short, if you want the most possible choices, printing is the way to go.

* * * * *

While this is a somewhat simplified explanation of the two, it should do for most purposes. It should be noted that this is not an either/or situation: There will be times when you need one style even if you don't normally use it. For example, if you're headed to a convention and you want a lot of books printed, or if you want to take advantage of a particular market and you can't reach it directly. As such, focus on one method, but don't be afraid to use the other should you need to do so.

You should use whatever works for your particular situation, and sometimes there is no one-size-fits-all solution. For example, you could offer a limited edition version of the book with a die-cut cover and metallic inks by setting things up with a printer while at the same time offering a more standard version via POD. Figure out what works for your business model and go for it.