"2009
is the year that print on demand goes mainstream." – Warren Ellis
We are
living in an incredible time, both as consumers and creators. As consumers,
whatever entertainment we want, whether it's television, music, movies, games
or books, is easier and faster to get than ever before. As creators, the
barriers between us and our audience are falling faster and more easily than
ever before, the time between creation and release is shrinking, and thanks to
the Internet we can reach more people with less effort than we could as
recently as a decade ago.
Earlier
this week, I came across a post in my blog archives from September of 2002
where I said:
Remember
how so many readers have been telling me to write a book? Well, I listened.
Watch this space for details on how you can get it in about a week or so, maybe
two.
I was
talking about my book Dancing Barefoot,
which was created from material I cut out of Just A Geek.
I looked at that post and felt a little nostalgic, because that's where my
journey as a published writer and champion of indie publishing began.
In
2002, I was just another struggling actor and fledgling blogger. I figured
that, since I was having such a hard time getting work as an actor - where I
had a huge resume and a lifetime of experience - it would be nearly-impossible
to sell my books to a publisher. I did some research, figured out that I was
able to reach a few hundred thousand people with my blog, and decided to reject
the "traditional" publishing route in favor of self-publishing.
I
needed an education in self-publishing, and read two books that made all the
difference: The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing and The Self-Publishing Manual. They were both
filled with great advice, like the importance of hiring and respecting an
experienced editor, a good designer, and putting together an intelligent
marketing plan. I'm not sure what the current versions of the books say, but in
2002, they both warned authors away from using print on demand, largely because
the per-unit costs were unreasonably high, and when you held a POD book in your
hands, it really felt like you were holding a POD book in your hands.
My, my,
my, how the times have changed. The prejudice against POD persists, but
that tactile difference in quality has vanished, and after a couple of my friends used print on demand from Lulu to
release their books, I decided to give it a try myself. I wrote in my blog:
If this
works the way I think it will, it's going to be super awesome for all of us as
I release books in the future: You don't have to worry about me screwing up
your order, I don't have to invest in a thousand books at a time, you get your
book in a few days instead of a few weeks because I'm not shipping it myself,
and I can spend more time creating new stories while remaining independent.
Best of all, I'll have the time to write and release more than one or two books
a year.
Just
one month after releasing print and digital versions of my chapbook Sunken
Treasure, as well as a short audio book, my only complaint is that
I didn't use POD sooner. The whole experience has been so overwhelmingly
positive, I don't think I'll ever use a different publishing method again.
If you're a writer, you owe it to yourself to examine the self-publishing and
POD opportunities you have available to you right now, keeping in mind the
advice in those books I mentioned: if you want people to take you seriously,
you have to invest in a good editor and designer, and you have to be willing to
listen to them both. This is the fundamental difference between someone who is
a self-publisher, and someone who is a vanity publisher.
As a
creator, I have an unprecedented opportunity to use POD technology and Internet
distribution to take more chances and release more material with less risk than
ever before. Before POD, I never would have even considered a wide release of
something like Sunken Treasure; it was just too risky to invest
thousands of dollars into something that I was unsure would sell the quantity I
would need to order from a traditional printer. But with access to print on
demand technology, and using the Internet as a means to market and distribute
the book, there was no good reason not to give it a try. So far, it's
working out really well. Reviews are good, sales are good, and I've really
enjoyed every step of the process.
I know
I'm just one guy with a very small operation, and my way of doing things isn't
for everyone, but I believe that this is the future of publishing,
Last
week, there was a significant change in the institutional prejudice against
print on demand. It's not in book publishing, but in DVDs:
Warner Brothers
is putting their DVD back catalog into a POD service: Warner Bros on Monday became the first studio to open its film vault
to "made-to-order" DVDs, as it sought new revenues in a slumping DVD
market by making it possible for fans to buy decades-old films.
Warner
Bros, owned by Time Warner Inc, made an initial batch of 150 titles available
for purchase online at www.WarnerArchive.com, including 1943
comedy-romance "Mr. Lucky" starring Cary Grant and the 1962 release
"All Fall Down" with Warren Beatty and Eva Marie Saint.
The
on-demand service allows Warner Bros. to avoid the risk of manufacturing too
many copies of old or obscure titles and shipping them to retailers because
customers directly order only the titles they want to buy.
The
Warner Bros film archive has 6,800 titles. Since it entered the DVD market in
1997, the studio has released only around 1,200 of those titles from the vault.
By comparison, the company expects by the end of the year to have more than 300
titles available via the DVD-on-demand service.
I completely
agree with Warren Ellis (who, full disclosure, is a friend) that 2009 is the
year print on demand goes mainstream. It just makes so much sense; why
waste warehouse space, shelf space, and limited-investment capital on something
nobody's interested in, when it's just as easy to show them the entire menu and
let them pick out what they want? All of the elements that we need are
lined up and ready to work together: decentralized distribution online, long
tail publishing, high-quality on-demand products, and creators who
have enough direct contact with their audience to make giving huge portions of
their profits and their rights away to publishers totally unnecessary.
I hope
that Warner Bros. has success with their POD publishing, and that it encourages
other publishers, creators, and music labels to do the same, because I believe
that this is the future, whether you're an indie creator like me, or a giant
powerhouse like them.
--Wil Wheaton would love to change
the world.
