Developments

Over the past 10 years, many changes happened in the field of books (ma- 

terials), book printing and of course on the rise of eBooks. 

With the rise of digital printing we have the introduction of the term print on demand 

(POD). And that’s because it was not economical to print single copies using tradi- 

tional printing technology such as letterpress and offset printing. 

Many traditional small presses have replaced their traditional printing equip- 

ment with POD equipment or contract their printing out to POD service providers. 

Many academic publishers, including university presses, use POD services to main- 

tain a large backlist; some even use POD for all of their publications. Larger publishers 

may use POD in special circumstances, such as reprinting older titles that are out of print 

or for performing test marketing. 

Profits from print on demand publishing are on a per-sale basis, and royalties vary depending on the route by which the item is sold. Highest profits are usually generated from sales direct from the print-on-demand service’s website or by the author buying copies from the service at a discount, as the publisher, and then selling them personally. Lower royalties come from traditional “bricks and mortar” bookshops and online retailers both of which buy at high discount, although some POD companies allow the publisher or author to set their own discount level. Unless the publisher or author has fixed their discount rate, the higher the volume sold the lower the royalty becomes, as the retailer is able to buy at greater discount. 

Because the per-unit cost is typically greater with POD than with a print run of thousands of copies, it is common for POD books to be more expensive than similar books that come from conventional print runs, especially if that book is produced exclusively with POD instead of using POD as a supplemental technology between print runs.

As the publishing industry wobbles and Kindle sales jump, book romanticists cry themselves to sleep. But really, what are we shedding tears over? 

• We’re losing the throwaway paperback (airport, beachside)
• Printed encyclopedias 
• Educational Books 

We’re losing the dregs of the publishing world: disposable books. The book printed 

without consideration of form or sustainability or longevity. The book produced to 

be consumed once and then tossed. The book you bin when you’re moving and you 

need to clean out the closet. These are the first books to go. That includes other categories such as the once trustworthy Encyclopedia, which used to take a lot of space in our 

bookselves, being the ultimate knowledge source, but now it is replaced from on- 

line, daily updated Encyclopedias. Also any kind of educational books, are rapidly 

replaced from video tutorials over the internet.