The print-on-demand revolution

Put simply, print-on-demand (POD) means you can print just one book at a time. In the past, to keep unit prices down books had to be printed in their hundreds. This was not only expensive but it also meant that if the book sold only a few copies, publishers would be left with the headache of leftover stock.

With POD there needn't be any spare copies. We'll print enough for your initial sales and then, when a new order is received, just tell us and we'll print, bind and despatch further copies for you.

This benefits not only small publishers but also the academic publisher, who can now make sure none of their books ever goes out of print. With Antony Rowe's POD technology they can print a single copy of a book whenever they want, knowing that it's already been sold.

So it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that POD has revolutionised the book printing industry. But don't take our word for it. Here's what Michael Holdsworth, the Press Business Development Director at Cambridge University Press, has to say on the subject:

"Online bookstores have expanded choice and availability almost to infinity. Ultra-short-run reprinting and print-on-demand are critical agents for these changes."