How POD Changes The Market

A way long time ago I pointed out that print-on-demand (POD) technology was not simply a replacement for traditional publishers that aspiring authors could use to get their works out and presented to an admiring public.

POD tech works on the same principle as computer tech: "Garbage In, Garbage Out."

Writers who are not yet ready for prime time can get their work out via POD publishers, but they will sell precious few copies because the work is . . . well, not yet ready for prime time.

But POD tech CAN serve as an important compliment to existing publishing houses for writers who ARE ready for prime time.

Enter JMS.

Earlier I mentioned his project of publishing all the scripts he wrote for B5. That’s something he (and his colleagues) are doing through Cafe Press, which is a POD publisher of books (and other things).

In a Usenet post, JMS explains how this technology is already changing the publishing industry:

Others have asked why I (and the B5 scripts team) are going through
Cafe Press rather than a major publisher. The answer is very simple:
over the years, I’ve had many publishers approach me about publising
the B5 scripts, but they take the same timid line WB has always taken
about the show. We had to push like hell to get the DVDs released, and
they still insisted on testing the water…putting out one disc first
(same with the VHSs) to "test the waters"….and of course now the DVDs
have grossed half a billion bucks for WB.

So when the publishers approached me, it was with the same, "Well,
let’s put out one book now, the ‘best of’ scripts, then we can think
about doing more down the road, so we can test the waters." When I
explained that i wante all of the scripts to go out, all 14 volumes,
nearly a hundred scripts…they couldn’t even fathom such a thing.
It’s never been done, not on this scale. But with Cafe Press, we CAN
do all 14 volumes.

This collection is really the Rosetta Stone of the Babylon 5
universe…and I wanted that to get out there in full, to kind of
finish the job properly. Here’s the scripts, here are the stories
behind the scripts, the arc, the production, here are the photos and
the memos, so that when it’s done…it’s really done. Again, we’re
talking here over 6,300 pages of material…14 volumes, each nearly an
inch thick…it’s just monumental.

A few other places came and said they could do it, but their plan was
to do even FEWER copies, limited edition stuff, hardcover, at a cost of
sixty to two HUNDRED bucks per copy, which I thought was just way, way
beyond the pale. The whole point of the exercise is to get this into
the hands of as many people who want it as possible. The way we’re
doing it now, for a bit over four hundred bucks, folks can get all 14
volumes, plus the 15th free, which is a heck of a lot more affordable,
given what scripts and the like sell for on Ebay.

For me, on a personal basis, it’s been an amazing process to go back in
time, through the memos, scripts and photos, and re-live those years.
Which is one of the reasons why the intros/essays have been ballooning
out in size…from 13,000 words to 15,000 to 18,000 words, not COUNTING
the other material. I’m putting it all in…all the stuff nobody ever
heard about…it’s all going in here.

And then, when it’s done, the tale will at last be told in its
entirety…the show, and the show *behind* the show.

Again, though, bear in mind that there is a ceiling on how long these
will be available at www.babylon5scripts.com so if there’s somebody who
doesn’t know about the site, you may want to let them know in time to
get in while the Cafe Press price breaks will give them maximum
benefit.

I have to be honest…I’m enjoying the hell out of this.

jms

SOURCE.

So: The major publishers aren’t on the verge of going out of business due to POD, but the dynamics of the marketplace are already changing because of it. Projects like the complete JMS B5 script series would NEVER have happened through a regular publisher, but now it is happening because the technological changes with the introduction of POD.

It’s apparently selling like crazy, too.

It’ll be interesting to see how this technology matures (and what impact it has on authors’ royalties since at that point all authors will need publishers for are things like copy editing, proofreading, and typesetting–services POD publishers are sure to offer for a fee–and marketing).

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin