What Is Print On Demand for Authors?

What is print on demand, and how does it benefit you as a self-published author?

When you’re new to the self-publishing world, there are understandably a lot of questions you need answers to, including what print on demand is and how it works, and how it benefits you as an author. It’s one of the questions we’re commonly asked. What is print-on-demand, and what are the pros and cons of POD services for self-published authors?

In the following article, we’ll look closer at the print-on-demand world of self-publishing, including why it’s been a game-changer for so many self-published authors! If you’re planning on self-publishing a book, you have two options:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Find A Printer – This option requires you, as the author, to find a printer. You then print a set amount of books and ship them to yourself. Finally, when someone buys one, you ship it to the customer. There are pros and cons to this, including the responsibility for managing quality control, storage, and the upfront costs of the books.
               2. Utilize Print-On-Demand Services – If you use a print-on-demand service, they print and ship your books as people buy them. So you don’t ever handle the book. However, you also lose control over quality, and the profit margin may be lower with POD than printing and shipping books yourself.

What Is Print On Demand (POD), and How Does It Work?

Print On Demand (POD) occurs when a customer orders your book from a self-publishing platform, such as IngramSpark or Amazon, and the platform prints and ships the book directly to them. They don’t keep a stack of your books in the warehouse, just waiting for someone to order a copy.

For this article, we’ll be focusing on the two biggest POD companies for self-published authors and where most new authors find themselves. Amazon KDP and IngramSpark Publishing. However, I will also mention that I had the Australian IngramSpark rep reach out to me by phone when I first started the company to discuss IngramSpark’s services, which were helpful and informative.

I know there are other POD options like BookBaby, Bookvault, Blurb, and Draft2Digital. I’ll cover some of these options in a future blog, so stay tuned!

Also, if you’re at the stage where you’re considering self-publishing and curious about who to self-publish with, check out this article: The Best Self-Publishing Platforms to Self-Publish Your Book!

The Benefits of Print On Demand (POD) for Self-Published Authors

Let’s look at the benefits of print-on-demand for authors:

• • • • • • There is low to zero financial outlay. This will depend on whom you choose to self-publish with and the associated setup fees.
          • You have no waste from unsold books. They print one as needed and ship it.
          • There are no warehousing, additional handling, or inventory costs.
          • Books are printed and shipped immediately, day or night, including on holidays. There’s no delay in processing and shipping the order.
          • You can evaluate a book’s popularity before investing in a more extensive print run.
          • Consumers typically don’t know whether you are self-published, since all books on Amazon are listed simply as books rather than as POD.
          • You can sell your book to a global audience without worrying about shipping.
          • If you make an edit to your book, you aren’t stuck with a bunch of old copies of your book. Miss a sentence in a book, and all of a sudden, 100 books are worthless.
          • You don’t have to worry about your books being damaged while in storage or while waiting to sell or ship to customers.

What Are the Limitations of Using POD Services?

It’s not all sunshine and roses when it comes to using print-on-demand services, and it pays to be aware of the limitations POD services have and how they affect you as an author.

• • • • • • There is often a limited range of paper, binding, and trim sizes.
          • Some finishing options will incur higher costs, which will increase printing costs and reduce your royalties.
          • You don’t control the final quality, and if someone receives a poorly printed book, you won’t know unless they contact you as the author or leave negative feedback.
          • The convenience of POD isn’t free, and you may make less money from a POD book compared to a book you print and ship yourself, depending on how much you pay for printing and shipping.

What Books Are Best Suited to Using a POD Service?

Not all books are suitable for print-on-demand. For example, if you’re self-publishing a large photo book or recipe book that contains a lot of color photos, then you would probably be better off sourcing a local printing service where you can evaluate different print options, paper types, and quality. Print on demand works best with fiction and non-fiction books, which aren’t photo-heavy. If you have a lot of images or photographs, and quality is very important, print on demand may not be the best option for you.

Print-on-demand services are best suited to novels, self-help books, motivational books, poetry books, business books, and children’s books. However, if you are using print-on-demand services for children’s books, the printing costs will be higher.

Print On Demand (POD) for Self-Published Authors | Conclusion

Hopefully, that answers all your questions about POD, including how print on demand works and how you, as an Australian author, can benefit from high-quality POD services. If you need any assistance with paperback formatting, ebook formatting, or any book design and layout to utilize print-on-demand services, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Author Services Australia.

If you have any questions about the self-publishing process, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

At Author Services Australia, we support Australian and New Zealand self-published authors and writers with a full range of affordable self-publishing services, including ghostwriting, copyediting, developmental editing, proofreading, ebook and paperback formatting, book cover design, children’s book illustrations, graphic design services, Amazon KDP Keyword and Category Research, animated book cover reveal videos, beta reading, and social media and marketing.

If you’re currently considering self-publishing, and you’re not sure which is the best self-publishing platform for you, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark Publishing, or others, check out The Best Self-Publishing Platforms to Publish Your Book! We cover the pros and cons of Australia’s most popular self-publishing platforms.