|
|
|
|
|
|
| ________ | ||||
| The
Downtown Writers Network is a resource for independent writers in central
Ohio. |
A Writer's Guide to E-PublishingPart 1 -- The TechnologyPrint on Demand
Though the print-on-demand technology is still in its infancy, it has potential to change publishing in significant ways. If it succeeds, it will do away with most publishers' warehouses and revolutionize distribution. It will cut the waste of printing unwanted books and keep unsold books from winding up in landfills. It will eliminate the need for any book ever to be out-of-print. It will could allow even major publishing houses to gamble on unknown writers and experimental books that may never sell more than a few thousand copies. (More on this last point, later.) For a printer friendly version of this article, click here. Contents of this
article
|
"Print On Demand" merges
e-publishing with conventional print publication in a remarkable fashion. With
this technology, an electronic manuscript can be printed in runs from one copy
to several thousand copies. Fatbrain offers customers print-on-demand copies of
most of its business and technology titles. But the current major player in
print-on-demand is 
iUniverse publishes physical books instead of e-books, but it does this by
accepting electronic manuscripts from authors and storing them for later
print-on-demand publication. Any book that iUniverse accepts is made available
through bookstore chains such as Barnes and Noble, and through online
bookstores like amazon.com. The book also receives an ISBN number and a listing
in Books in Print. Their current charges range from $99 for basic services up
to several hundred dollars for more customized ones.