Yes, it’s easier and faster to get a book to print today — than ever before. And, yes, there are some books which shouldn’t be printed. But, who’s to make that decision?

Some of the books likely included in your stats are books printed at places such as Lulu, where new authors publish books about family, or create a cookbook because they can. These are not books even meant for mass distribution. They are not necessarily going unread – they are being read by the small group of people for whom they were created.

Also, an area new authors who choose self-publishing and print-on-demand struggle with is marketing their book. They go into the process without a clear thought of how they are going to present their completed project to the audience it’s intended for.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. Bad books are nothing new. The ‘quality’ of printing using POD is dependent upon the publisher using POD and the amount of time, effort and investment the author wishes to make to the project – we aspire to very high quality. The quality of printing using traditional houses depends on… how much they think they will make on the book. Their ‘bad’ eggs are just as bad as anything coming out of a POD house.

In the end, with the new technology today, with user-generated content like this blog, the world of publishing is wide open for success. Like any other endeavor, it takes work.

jb says: Thanks for the comment, Yvonne. I’m in no way anti-POD and intend to use the new technology myself.

jb says: Hi Elysabeth. Looks like we’re going to have to hone our critical skills more and more in the future. There were always people around willing to sell us rubbish, but sometimes it feels like there are more of them than ever.