With many of the trials and errors experienced with the printing and distribution of books over the years, it became apparent that much of the cost in selling books, or making a book acceptable to a bookseller, was taken up in postage costs. Selling books overseas became prohibitively expensive. There had to be a better way.
I had the fortune of attending a conference held near Sydney by the Christian Booksellers Association of Australia (CBAA) where I learned of Print-on-Demand (POD) being a cost-effective way of getting books to buyers from around the world at an affordable price.
Books that Festoon Publishing agrees to publish now go through a process of: establishing market distribution, retail pricing, cover style, paper quality, book trim size, and other parameters at the setup stage. Once the book has been edited and proof-read, a trial copy is printed for a final check before it is released for around-the-world distribution and sales. This means that a book that is ordered in England, say, will be printed in England, thus saving shipping costs from Australia.
Another advantage of POD sales and distribution is that it gives the author a chance to ‘test the market’ to see if their book is going to be well received or not. The alternative was to print large quantities (for a reduced item cost) and then see how many people and booksellers willing to purchase their product. POD is a win-win method for buyer, printer, publisher and author.
