I think this is right. Some book stores in the US even have print-on-demand machines inside the shop. See https://www.ondemandbooks.com/ for more info about the printers.
Most publishers make good money on their backlists, with a slow trickle of sales across a huge number of titles. Amazon and other stores don't always want to stock these titles because they take up a lot of shelf space.
Publishers may not want to put them into book stores because they may be returned if unsold, and the return process is costly. So print-on-demand (POD) makes sense for both parties.
Amazon has been running a pretty big POD operation for years for its Kindle Direct Publishing arm, so they have the infrastructure to print books for others as well. And yes, depending on the machine, the covers may not look quite as nice as the covers from offset printers.
> I think this is right. Some book stores in the US even have print-on-demand machines inside the shop. See https://www.ondemandbooks.com/ for more info about the printers.
diamondap -- I see that you're an author yourself, do you know much about how the industry functions on the publisher side? I'm trying to learn more about the space (both out of personal curiosity as I've been working on a book myself and because the more I learn the more I'm interested in building something in the industry).
If you're willing to chat, happy to ping you through your website!
Edit: I see on your personal website you also have a publishing co, would love to get your insight
Most publishers make good money on their backlists, with a slow trickle of sales across a huge number of titles. Amazon and other stores don't always want to stock these titles because they take up a lot of shelf space.
Publishers may not want to put them into book stores because they may be returned if unsold, and the return process is costly. So print-on-demand (POD) makes sense for both parties.
Amazon has been running a pretty big POD operation for years for its Kindle Direct Publishing arm, so they have the infrastructure to print books for others as well. And yes, depending on the machine, the covers may not look quite as nice as the covers from offset printers.