July 19, 2010

Print-On-Demand in India

Print on demand is a publishing process that allows an author to publish a book in paperback and then have a very small number of copies -- even a single copy, if necessary -- printed whenever required at a price point that is comparable to traditional offset printing.

I had first come across this technology when I had published, The Road to pSingularity, and had explained this new publishing paradigm in a post in 2007. The trouble then was that these print-on-demand publishers were based in the US and the price of the book was comparable to a US retail price which is quite high for us in India. Moreover the shipping cost was very often more than the cost of the book. Thus the whole process was not quite economically viable.

However the arrival of of print-on-demand vendors in India have altered the economics dramatically. Recently, I had the pleasure of publishing the first volume of the VGSOM Management Monograph Series through Pothi and the results were very satisfying.



A perfectly bound paperback copy of my 154 page book Information Systems for Crime Management is now available at Rs 235 only from Pothi and since the books is being shipped from Bangalore, the cost is quite affordable -- and comparable to any other online bookstore in India.

Authors writing on niche topics may use this technology to publish their works.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, like to know if there a facility avilable in India print on demand. That is to print a copy of a book if required. I do understand that in US and UK, now this facility is common. If any idea please send me a mail: kjjohny@gmail.com

nancy said...

Hello,

I'm just starting to research POD in India for a book I wrote. I've read several articles about POD coming to India and the top POD companies back then (2007-8). I'm sure it has come a long way since then and I'm wondering if any one company stands out for authors in regards to ease of set up and cover design maker, price and quality of physical book?

I live in Canada and a friend of mine from India said I might run into difficulty selling my book as a POD in India because many people don't use paypal or credit card. Does anyone have thoughts about the accuracy of that statement or how well POD has taken off for the customers buying books?

Thank you.
Nancy