About POD

Writers are always asking me: What do you think about Print On Demand? You know what I tell them?

   “It depends.”

   “On what?” they usually ask.

   “On you.”

   I am speaking on experience. I, myself, am a POD author. And it has worked for me. However I know people who say that POD is a waste of time and money. And it is, for them.

   You have to look at it like this: Publishing your own book is like starting your own business. There is absolutely no difference. You can’t tell me that people don’t start their own businesses everyday. And how do they do it? They tell people about it. They advertise by hanging posters and priting business cards: simple, but it’s a start.

   Your book is your product. Now go out and sale it!

   It’s true: if you aren’t willing to work hard to get your name out there, you aren’t going to succees. It’s that way in any business.

   “But what about traditional publishers?”

   What about them? You have to work hard to promote your book with a traditional publisher, too. The difference—and it’s a big difference—is that traditional publishing houses usually pay you money up-front for your manuscript. And if you go with one of the bigger houses, you never have to worry about trying to sale your book to book stores—your company handles that. If it’s quick money—and maybe even quick fame—you’re after, you want to stick with the jiants. But good luck. It is very rare for a beginning author to sale to a traditional publisher, but it has happened.

   For many writers, Print On Demand is the answer. Yet you have to be careful; there are a lot of bad oppinions about POD. For one thing almost anybody can do it. Of course, this opens doors for trash to come in. People think they can pay $800.00 to have their unedited books published and it do good. Yeah, you’ll probably sale a few copies to friends and family, but that’s it. You can’t build a career if you don’t have a firm foundation.

   Another thing is that people, so often, aren’t willing to work to make their books successful. So they automatically blame the printer.

   “POD doesn’t work.” they say. “It’s a waste of time and money.”

   Okay, then all those months you spent hunched over your keyboard was a waste of time. Go ahead and throw your imagination, your passion, out the door.

   If you truly love what you do, you’ll be willing to work hard to make it work.

  POD does work, if the author works.