POD vs POD

There are 2 different PODs floating around in the literary world. One POD stands for print-on-demand. The other stands for publish-on-demand. They are two different processes but rather closely related.

Print-on-demand is when a company like Lightening Source keeps a book stored electronically then prints it whenever there is a request for the book.

Publish-on-demand is when a company will publish just about anything sent to them by authors regardless of editorial standard.

How are they related? Generally, the publish-on-demand companies use a print-on-demand company to fulfill orders for books. Traditional publishers have been known to utilize print-on-demand companies but not for new releases. Traditional publishers use print-on-demand for books that people are still buying once in a while but not enough to justify printing another run of books.

My issue with publish-on-demand should be transparent. Generally publish-on-demand gets authors' hopes up then sets them up for extreme disappointment when they aren't a best-seller. I think there is a definite place for print-on-demand in the literary world so that classics are still accessible to the general public. I don't think print-on-demand will ever be able to match the cover prices of traditional publishers for new works and should be avoided for a new release.