On Demand Book Printing
With the development of printing technology, on-demand book printing has begun to flourish. Writers use it to self-publish their novels and non-fiction books, families use it for keepsake book printing and businesses use it for trade books. Since on-demand books are also assigned an ISBN number, they can even be sold in bookstores, placed in libraries and sold on websites like Amazon.com.
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Features
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On-demand book printing is exactly what it sounds like--when an order is placed, the product is printed and shipped as needed. Because of modern digital technology, this can be done at a reasonable cost, and while the profit margin may not be as wide as with a traditional publisher, it's a viable option for writers today. Many on-demand publishing houses don't even require an upfront payment from the writer.
Identification
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While books printed on demand in the past may have seemed to offer lower quality than those printed by traditional publishing houses, this is no longer true. With the development of on-demand publishing technology, books printed on demand are indistinguishable from their more traditional counterparts. The books can feature full color covers and photos inside, as well as professional binding and clean, sharp print.
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Time Frame
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Once the book copy has been received and processed by the on-demand publishing company (which can take up to 90 days), the current technology allows the company to print and bind up to 800 pages per minute. This significantly reduces the amount of time and labor spent by the publishing company, reducing the cost of the book itself. This is one reason that on-demand book printing is such a feasible option for today's writer.
History
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Prior to the development of on-demand printing technology, publishers relied solely on a method called offset printing. This involves using printing plates, one for each page-spread in the book, and a large printing press. The printing plates are stored and used for later prints of the book. Offset printing can be labor intensive and expensive, which explains why self publishing was less common ten years ago.
Benefits
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The main benefit for an author to choose on-demand book printing is that she can be instantly published at little to no cost to herself. Plus, many on-demand publishing houses offer assistance with publicizing the work. Since they take and fill orders, it's very little work for the author. The author also receives a portion of the profit, albeit much less than he would likely receive from a traditional publishing house.
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