The Product - Can You Sell it? At a Profit?

Technology has significantly changed the economics of publishing. Traditional books have for years been published in hardcover and soft cover versions. Soft covers are published as "trade paperbacks" or "mass market paperbacks" The first are usually a little larger and cost more (sometimes lots), but still a cheaper way to print a book than hard cover. Mass market paperbacks are the ones on the airport racks and in the grocery stores. As implied by the title - mass produced for the masses - historically mass market paperbacks are the cheaper way to produce and read, and in the trade, usually a secondary market after the publisher feels they have milked the hard cover market as far as it will go.

Today we have two variations on these basic themes. The new product is the eBook, priced about the same as a mass market paperback, but designed to be read on a PDA or a personal computer. Lots of information on this subject on the ePublish pages. Michael Hart in 1971 started the Gutenberg Project, a program with a goal of putting the worlds famous and important texts on the Internet for free download. What a headache - and influential and growing business he created! See Orwell, George.

The second variation, this more an evolution, is trade paperbacks which can now be printed on modern digital "presses" (basically big copy machines) in small quantities, with very good quality, much cheaper than before, spawning the "print-on-demand" industry. The covers for this style book is called a "perfect bound" cover, usually slick color with a flat spine.

POD- either the independent publisher's answer to his dream - or his nightmare.