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What are the Benefits of on-Demand Publishing?

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  • Written By: Tara Barnett
  • Edited By: Jenn Walker
  • Last Modified Date: 10 September 2017
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The benefits of on-demand publishing are numerous, but these benefits are often outweighed by stigma in many publishing markets. With on-demand publishing, there is very little waste when it comes to printing, and there is no need to keep a stock of items. For businesses, on-demand publishing involves very little risk, and for individual authors, this type of publishing allows for a quick and independent startup. One of interesting benefits of this type of publishing is that it allows for the content to stay up to date more easily because changes can be made to the document whenever it is printed rather than when an entire batch is made. Overall, publish on-demand strategies for books and other types of printed media allow for all the advantages of traditionally released books without any of the waste or risk.

Among the many benefits of on-demand publishing, accessibility is likely the most contested. On the one hand, this type of business model allows authors of works that would otherwise go unpublished, such as books with niche markets, to put their work into print. On the other hand, many people believe that books that are published without the backing of a traditional commercial publisher are less worthy than those that follow traditional models. As such, accessibility can be both a blessing and a curse. As technology advances and the publishing industry changes, however, the negative stigma is becoming less and less pervasive.

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The true benefits of on-demand publishing are material and financial in nature. This type of publishing involves little or no waste from a material perspective because no books are printed that are not already sold. Books do not usually need to be stored anywhere other than a computer, which means that the operating space for the printer is quite small. This in turn trickles down to help the author, who can get started with little initial cost and who can often expect to make profits based on precisely how many copies of the book sell.

On-demand publishing balances the ease and cost of digital materials with the practicality of printed materials. To provide the maximum number of options to users, businesses often offer both digital and on-demand printed versions of materials. In terms of quality, businesses usually do not give up much in terms of design or materials when choosing on-demand printing, though this does depend on the printer. While this technology is often abused to take advantage of hopeful writers, in its most basic form, it is a highly environmentally and economically friendly model of publishing.

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