The first thing to explain to you is POD, which is short for printing on demand, which means printing on demand in Chinese. This involves a revolution in book printing in China and even in the world:
In the past, the general way to print books was to predict the market reaction after printing books. For example, the first edition printed 65,438+00,000 copies for the first time. Later, when the demand was strong and some adjustments were needed, the edition and printing batch were changed. This printing method requires that printing must be carried out in batches, and the larger the batch, the lower the relative allocation of book costs.
The problem is that books can not be digested by the market immediately after printing, which leads to the inventory of publishing houses or distribution channels, occupying the cost, and often these books will be disposed of by the second-hand book market or recycled for papermaking; Or some unpopular professional books, the initial printing volume itself is not large, once sold out, it is difficult to print again, because a small amount of printing costs will be high. In short, the pain point is that too much printing is not enough, the inventory is high, and the printing is not enough to meet the market demand.
POD was born in this situation. The general idea is that publishing houses or Internet companies buy the copyright of publishing houses' books (usually books that are out of print and unpopular at present are authorized by publishing houses), and publishing houses' books are electronically archived and printed through digital rotary machines. Because it is digital printing-similar to the printer we see, there is no plate making, so there is no limit to the number of prints. Once someone places an order on the Internet platform, the printing factory system will automatically process the order and print the corresponding quantity, which will be delivered through logistics.
This POD mode not only eliminates the inventory of book publishing, but also gives some unpopular professional books a chance to see the light of day again. Although the cost of a single book is different from the shared cost of a batch of books at present, it will definitely be the mainstream of future publishing.
Since POD printing is clearly priced, books must have corresponding copyrights, because pirated book factories can't afford digital printing in pursuit of profits.
As for why it is paperback, it is because it is difficult to fully mechanize the cover of hardcover books. Paperback double coated paper printing is easier to automate, lower in cost and more suitable for digital POD printing.