The failure of Print-on-Demand publishing to flourish is more surprising and more disappointing. A PoD book is a book like any other. The technology is almost the same as electronic publishing, with the addition of a specialized printer-binder machine at the output end. True, at the moment the books are relatively expensive, but that problem can always be solved by economy of scale. Like most writers who have been around awhile, I have more titles out of print than in it, and to see them available again would be a great joy in itself. If they made me some more money the second time round, that would be nice, too.
Alas, Print-on-Demand seems to be the victim of its own success. It is so easy and so cheap that every Wannabe Tolkien here on Middle Earth is pumping out fantasy trilogies as PoD books; all the little rudyards are kipling like mad. Suppliers are overwhelmed by an avalanche of vanity-press. The trade press will not recognize PoD books as books, catalogues ignore them, and thus no one can buy them.
What's the answer? I don't know, but I'm sure there is one. The
advantages of being able to buy any book you want in a nice, new, crisp
copy are just too obvious to be denied for long. Be patient. The future is
still coming.
-- Dave Duncan