ebook v POD (was re: piracy thread)

;-) Putting metaphors aside, I think this is a very interesting area because it will have effects on print and maybe on the attractiveness of writing at all.

I have two qualifications to Marion's position here.
First I think the future of POD rests on the new small publisher more than on the congolmerates. I base this on the growing self-assurance of these new entrepreneurs. But this is a time thing; just worth watching.

The other is that the EBM is a first generation. If research funding is going in the prospects for advance are great. That should give a five year step to version two.  Improvements are needed in print, collation and gluing! 

Put another way, it is wide open to cost reduction. But, as Marion implies, version two may not arrive for a decade or more.

Joseph

Joseph Harris - Debt Control Man
http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk
Author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms
http://twitter.com/debtcontrolman 
SAQ - SAve the cheQue

From: "Marion Gropen" 

>>>
>>> I don't see it that way. I think ebooks will wipe out POD for most
>>> trade uses. Non-trade books are a different matter entirely, of
>>> course, but they almost always are.
>>>
>>>
>>> Marion Gropen
>>>
>>
> 
> Brenna Lyons:
>> Maybe I misread you here (my apologies, if I did), but I disagree. I  
>> believe
>> affordable POD and e-books combined will replace mass market.
>>
>> The NY conglomerate system is broken.
> 
> Maybe. Maybe not. They're still pretty good at mass market publishing,  
> and at producing the high-stakes, high dollar texts and references.  
> They're also, far and away, the main users of POD printing.
> 
>> I understand that they want to keep it going, and they want to keep  
>> hard bound for the library and book club
>> markets, if nothing else, but a system like the one I suggested more  
>> than five years ago would eliminate a large portion of stripping/ 
>> returns, waste in printing, warehousing, and shipping.
> 
>> What is that system? Get POD printers, like the Espresso, in the book
>> stores.
> 
> I'm afraid that the economics just don't work very well, even for the  
> high-speed POD printers, for most books. But for the EBM and similar  
> machines, they're even worse. I know the quoted figures, but those  
> externalize a lot of expense, and end up drastically underestimating  
> the all-in cost of producing a book in that system.
> 
> The programming is easy. The actual cost of having low-capacity  
> distributed production facilities, leaving aside the excessive  
> downtime that's likely with such complex machinery, is likely to be  
> prohibitive.
> 
>  And I think it unlikely that the numbers will ever change, for a  
> variety of reasons that are a little too involved for a post in any  
> listserv.
> 
> At least, that's what I told the venture capitalists when they called  
> to ask about the potential. I see that they didn't all listen to those  
> of us on the inside of the industry, but that has been the case with a  
> lot of money folks who have bought into the book business, and later  
> bailed out at a loss. . . .
> 
> Sometimes the dinosaurs are right. Sometimes a comet wipes them out,  
> and we start over. The e-revolution may be the comet, but I'm inclined  
> to doubt it. I think it will, instead, be like a climate change that  
> opens up niches for which the proto-mammals are able to compete on a  
> more even basis.
> 
> (Whew, that's one stretchy metaphor!)
> 
> Marion Gropen
> Gropen Associates, Inc.
> By-The-Question Consulting,  Tools for Publishers, & Classes
> www.GropenAssoc.com
> Her blog: www.GropenAssoc.com/blog
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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