[at-l] Wingfoot's book

[rrubin@atconf.org (Robert Rubin)]

PDFs are different from print-on-demand.

Print-on-demand can mean two things. In WF's case, I think it means this: a
company called Lightning Source, a subsidiary of a big book warehousing
company, keeps a digital version of his book in their very powerful
computer. Whenever they get an order from a bookstore, they press a button
and their printer, a super-glorified Xerox machine, spits out and binds the
book. It's pretty neat, and it produces a good-quality book that's hard to
tell from the old-fashioned press-produced type. The advantage is that WF
(or any publisher) doesn't have to pay up front for 5,000 books, not
knowing how many he'll sell, and how many he'll have to take back if they
don't sell. The disadvantage is that unless Barnes & Noble is on the ball,
it won't be on their bookshelf, and a reader will have to special-order it,
the way that was described here--waiting two weeks for it to arrive. If B&N
is on the ball, they order a few copies before a customer asks for it, put
them on their shelves, and when they sell, they order another few copies.

(The other thing Print-on-demand may mean in the future is that the
bookstore actually has a glorified Xerox in the store, and you order your
book right there and watch it get printed and bound in front of you, like
one of those one-hour photo labs. Stores aren't yet doing this, because it
means investing in a lot of hardware.)

ATC is going to try the Lightning Source process for some of our older,
slower-selling books, that would otherwise go out of print. But not right
now for the ALDHA Companion, and other books that we want bookstores and
hiking stores to keep on their shelves.

BTW, the new 2001 ALDHA Thru-Hiker's Companion will be shipping from the
printer next week, and should be available from ATC by 2/12.

Robert

At 5:11 PM -0500 2/1/01, Mara Factor wrote:
>Print on demand is fairly new.  I know it's used in the computer world where
>software and its documentation change rather rapidly.  Some customers are
>satisfied with PDF format but some still like the printed stuff so it's cost
>effective for companies to just print on demand, usually farming out the
>printing process to a third party publisher.
>
>I think there are even third party printers that will take PDF format (and
>other format, too possibly) and return a nicely printed and bound book for a
>fee.  That can get computer companies out of the publishing business
>altogether.
>
>Mara
>Stitches, GAME99
>
>
>>From: Arthur Gaudet <gaudet@mediaone.net>
>>Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 15:40:17 -0500
>>
>>I'm curious about the phrase "print on demand". Is this a new way of
>>publishing a book? Can someone explain? Thanks.
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