What I hope this technology will allow publishers to do is take bigger risks on edgier or more inventive work. Not guaranteed to sell 5,000 in the first year? Print a limited 500 copy release and see how it does at conventions and other hand-sell locations. Whether or not that will actually happen, we’ll just have to wait and see.

POD technology is also getting much better in terms of quality, to the point where it’s difficult to tell in many cases whether there was a traditional print run or whether it was a POD run. (No denying some groups still suffer from bad quality, but I tend to equate those with the vanity houses, who are not making money through book sales.)

I don’t think POD is necessarily the way to go–but I do think that it’s becoming a more viable option as smaller groups (who may, in fact, do more for their authors than a large house) embrace the technology.

And some folks with far less funding have sold more. It’s not a direct relationship between the scale of the backers bankroll and sales in the market… nor is finding a well-funded publisher a guarantee that they won’t leave you hanging.

This isn’t to say that creators shouldn’t be cautious about new publishers, mind you. Recently there’s been some very clear examples of publishers whose stated intents did not match their follow-through.

I will also be responding publicly with a press release and documented proof that Mr. Noel’s claims are false within the next 24 hours.

As far as most of these small publishers, I do think most just get swallowed up by the process. Intentions were sincere but they just caught up in many unanticipated problems. I’d say the vast majority had no goal of ripping people off. Of course, for the creator, the end result may end up the same but it seems when a publisher screws up, the label of sleaze is applied when the more correct term should be incompentence. Same result perhaps, but just took a different path to get there.

As to the issue of large publishers only looking at work by “already published” authors - I don’t believe that for a second. They are ALWAYS looking for the next big thing. It’s in their best interests to keep looking. They say that because they’re inundated with manuscripts that suck. And as Butcher has already said, make sure you don’t suck. If your work is good, really , really GOOD (ie; amazing) those big publishers WILL call you and make an offer. And when they call? Don’t just say “yes” right away. Call a lawyer. Call and agent. Call another creative professional and ask questions.

And small publishers can be great to work with too. But, like the big ones, some have better business practices than others. Do your research. Call professionals. Ask questions. And then enter into a business relationship with both eyes open.

Of course at some point you will likely get burnt out filling mail orders. But enjoy the fun of it while it lasts!

Words that couldn’t be more true. POD simply doesn’t compare to a graphic novel printed on a web or full color press. It’s beautiful, it’s a work of art, and every artist should know what it feels like to have that joy. They even smell better. Especially when you realize there are at least several thousand more copies of the same book sitting in a warehouse somewhere, just waiting to find their home on a cozy little bookshelf or in a store or library open to the public perusal. The number of copies actually in print makes a big difference in that moment of final satisfaction.

POD is fine if you plan on hand-selling all of your copies of the book, but if your ideal is to get into major distributors, POD doesn’t work simply because distributors tend not to deal in small increments. They want to purchase books at or around 50-60% off with a year to two year return policy (though with Diamond, it’s a little different since there are no returns which really makes them less of a distributor and more of a retailer to the retailers, honestly, but anyway) and a POD book simply doesn’t have the margin to make a profit off that kind of deep discount. Shipping costs alone would eat up that margin QUICK.

As far as the printing itself . . . POD has certainly been catching up in quality, though I’ve found the binding process through different POD printers a bit lacking. As far as I know, POD has become incredibly popular with the marketing and advertising crowd as a way to create cheaper, efficient promotional tools, but these remain throw-aways.

Will POD ever catch up to traditional web press in price? Maybe someday when there are printing, cutting, and binding all-in-one machines for your desktop (and there practically are if you want to spend at least a cool $10,000 and don’t mind it being the FULL size of your desktop), but that’s still a ways away.

However, when they start mass producing those digital ink books that look and feel and flip like a real book but you just plug em in and “erase” and “reload” a new book, THEN you’ll be talkin about some real advancement!