Is your publisher "print-on-demand?"

The term "print-on-demand" gets used quite a bit in this industry, and many times I'm asked if Tate Publishing is a print-on-demand publisher. The short answer is, "No, we are not a POD publisher." Here's the long answer:

In the printing industry, the term "print-on-demand" refers to the ability to print only the books you need to meet the immediate demand.  Instead of printing 1000's of copies using traditional offset presses, you use modern digital technology that allows you to cost-effectively produce just what you need—even if all you need is one book. All mainline publishers use print-on-demand technology to some degree to print their books.

However, in the book distribution world, "print-on-demand" refers to something completely different. There are many companies that provide this service, but the one I'm most familiar with is Lightning Source.  LS is a sister company of Ingram, and they provide a way to sell books before they're printed—or "print-on-demand." When using LS, all books are printed after they are purchased.  Someone orders a book from barnesandnoble.com, that one book is manufactured in the evening and shipped. A bookstore orders books for their store, those books are manufactured after the order is placed.

The LS model is an excellent model on paper, and we've even looked at using them a few times. The problem is bookstores do not like print-on-demand books and are very hesitant do any anything with a POD book. Bookstores like to order books that are returnable.  If, for whatever reason, the books don't sell, they want to be able to return them—which reduces the risk for them. But when product is manufactured after it's purchased and there's no traditional warehouse to return books back to, returning the books proves to be very difficult.  (Just ask anyone behind the counter of any bookstore what they think of POD books.) LS claims you can set up their titles to be returnable, but bookstores have been burned too many times that many of them have issued store-wide (or even chain-wide) policies against doing anything with LS or POD books.

We use a wide array of technology to produce our books. We work with offset vendors, overseas vendors and own our own digital printing facility. But even though we do utilize digital technology, again as nearly all mainline publishers do, allowing us to print books as we need them, we still put actual product in real warehouse space—something the industry likes very much and is used to.  We may only print enough books to meet the immediate demand, instead of a single, large print-run, but we supply actual books to wholesalers and distributors, ready for bookstores to purchase. When a bookstore clerk checks the availability of one of our titles, a number comes up—not "POD," which is a red-flag for the clerk. And if they want to return it, there's no problem.  It just goes back to the warehouse it came from.

When it comes to the term "print-on-demand," it doesn't matter how it's printed, it matters how it's distributed. Tate Publishing works very hard to give our authors the best market penetration it can and making sure our books are available anywhere books are sold. We don't just upload a spreadsheet to a website or two.  We work directly with Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Hastings, Amazon, CBD and others to make sure anyone can get our books anywhere they're used to buying books.