I also am appalled at ads in books. I mean, really. If I can get unlimited, ad-free webspace for $6.95 a month, I had sure as hell be able to get an ad-free book for three times that amount. It isn’t like TV, where shows depend on their sponsors for survival. It’s just another way to get more money out of a product at the consumer’s expense. Not a new practice, to say the least, but irritating just the same.

You could have a whole bookshop this way: a mix of POD and ebooks, with browsing copies on shelves, kiosks for downloading ebooks in your preferred format and a counter to order print copies at (and a cafe to wait for them in, with eBook readers attached to the tables with sample chapters and freebies to promote new releases… I may have given this some thought). There’s a danger you’d end up with something Argos-esque, which is a catalogue store in the UK (and the subject of many jokes) and rather impersonal. You’d need to have the right atmosphere to pull it off, and it probably wouldn’t work until eReaders were considerably more common than they are today.

In some respects, I think equating POD with better quality isn’t necessarily the best way to go. If you’re offering a custom service or rare books, the price is going to be driven up anyway. POD isn’t going to take off if it costs twice as much as a mass-market paperback, not unless someone /really/ wants that books. If your standard POD book is fairly cheaply made (better quality could be by request) then it might motivate traditional publishers to raise their quality again, so customers will stay loyal.

Dave

1. The Nike example – I've actually bought customized Nikes for my dd. The difference with this example: the Nikes were great shoes to begin with – I wasn't paying for upgraded soles, better material, stronger laces.

2. What is annoying about this proposal – 10 or so years ago, paperbacks, imo, were pretty decent. They're now made more cheaply, with all the flaws you mentioned, and we need to pay more … seems unfair.

3. I personally might buy into a model where you could re-name a book – some of the Harlequin sheik, billionaire, love-child titles don't do the contents of the book justice. Not to mention some covers!

4. What I might be interested in: buying a new bound copy of a long OOP book. That sounds interesting – and great presen idea too.

I remember a discussion on usenet about rebinding books in leather but it was more about which books should be rebound from a financial, collecting, condition standpoint rather than a desire for a personal collection. I doubt if I would buy specially bound books for myself– I am one of those people who enjoy shelves of multicolored, multisized, even rather tattered at times, books, but I might buy them as gifts– I give my brother POD local history books.

For mass market & trade size books I have both cloth & vinyl covers that were very inexpensive and several for my hardcovers to either disguise or protect the original cover.

POD for out of print books; I’m so there!
Same for ebooks that aren’t already in paper.

I love M.S. Corley’s “classic Penguin Books” redesigned covers — if you haven’t seen the rest of the Potter covers, you should! http://mscorley.blogspot.com/2009/02/harry-potter-redesign.html Also, his Narnia covers are fabulous. http://mscorley.blogspot.com/2009/05/narnia-redesign.html He has done some others as well. I just love his style, and I would snap up either of those series as gifts in a heartbeat — so far, the publishers don’t seem interested in them for the mainstream, however.

Would I pay more to get my choice of cover art on a book? Not on everything I read, but on keepers, probably yes.

These books, the ones you’re describing — for the most part — are printed on cheap paper and the covers leave a lot to be desired. So we should pay extra when say 10 years ago, we could get a decent book from the get-go?

I do have one business model that might fly: allow readers to rename some of the Harlequin sheik/billionaire/hidden love child titles — maybe throw in a new cover too. I bet there would be some sales!

The only model that appeals to me is the option of bound version of e-version OOP books. That could interest me.

Instead, I’d be super excited to have the option for POD out of print books and unavailable ANYWHERE, even as ebooks. Zilpha Keatley Snyder did this with some of her older books through iUniverse, and the covers aren’t even too bad. I’d jump at the chance to get a nice new copy of, say, Elephi, the cat with the high I.Q..

I wonder if publishers would be happier to do POD instead of ebooks? I’d love them to do both, but maybe POD is less scary then an altogether electronic version. No idea.

Another aspect of this that I find intriguing is that I could design my own covers. As everyone knows, writers have little to no input on their covers. As a writer and a visual artist, I would be thrilled to have an opportunity to present my work exactly as I see it. I’d imagine that “writers’ covers” might become a standard option at the POD kiosk.

But then again, book signings do nothing for me. I already know the author can write, I don’t need their signature.

Basically, they hope that POD will help their tiny bookstore compete with Amazon by letting them print out books from a database as people want them. Not only that, but I think it’ll be a nice counterpart to the popularity of ebooks. If ebooks ever start cutting into print run profitability, paper book readers could just get a book printed by a POD machine. Publisher and author get their money while the reader gets her book.

I think POD is going to play a large part in the future of publishing.

I don’t quite understand the POD technology or rather, the value of it. An one-off copy with customised cover, flyleaf, text and so on seems an expensive idea. I wonder who reaps financial benefits from POD the most?

For those individuals who are afraid to read a romance, I could create a beautiful hardcover conversion package. Replace the man titty with something more avant garde and even the most reluctant reader won't know what hit them.

Nice idea! I’m sorry, but I deeply loathe some covers of my favourite romance novels. I think I’m one of very few rom readers who dislike traditional romance covers, such as half-naked men covers. I was dead keen on reading Laura Kinsale’s latest book, due out soon, and the recently-unveiled cover put me off somewhat, just like the covers of her other books did, damn it. (The original cover of Flowers From the Storm, anyone?) I’m trying to pretend I didn’t see it so I can get excited for her new release again. And yes, a book cover does affect the imagery of the story. Can’t help it. (I really envy readers who rarely let covers affect them.)

If the POD technology isn’t expensive as I think it is, I’d leap in – just to change the covers. Pathetic of me, but I think it’ll be worth it.