A couple weeks ago, an article in LitHub by a bookseller criticized “low-quality paperbacks” produced via print-on-demand, typically used when a publisher can’t immediately fulfill orders during times of increased demand. For example, if you bought a book by the latest Nobel Prize winner in literature, Han Kang, you likely ended up with a POD copy because there wasn’t enough stock on hand right after the announcement.
POD has an important role to fulfill in the publishing industry, and the LitHub piece was critical in a way that could easily turn authors against POD as a technology or against their publisher for using it. I wrote at length about why publishers use POD over at my main site. I urge you to read it if you’re worried about POD use by your publisher—or, frankly, even if you’re not. Eventually, your book is likely to be printed using POD technology. I welcome publishers, printers, and others with production knowledge to comment and share their perspective in the comments.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
