Of Apples, Oranges and Eggs

I've probably mentioned it's hot. In Texas in August, the heat is all we talk about. It was 106 yesterday.

Last night, I was moving sprinklers around the yard, trying to hit all the spots that don't get enough water. I went prancing out at 10:30 PM in the dark and took a header--landing facedown on my driveway. Today I look like a six-year-old: bandages on my knees and elbows and on what I think might be a broken toe. That'll teach me.

This afternoon, I read a post on a loop I belong to that was extremely frustrating. The writer, who seemed to be trying to defend self-publishing (I couldn't actually tell because his post was all over the map), compared "traditional publishing" to "POD" by pointing to Lightning Source, a division of the Ingram Book Group.

Talk about comparing apples to oranges to eggs. The only thing apples, oranges and eggs have in common is that all three can be eaten. The only thing traditional publishing, POD and Lightning Source have in common is that all are linked in some way to the publishing industry.

Let's start with traditional (print) publishing. To make things easier, think about it in terms of a business model for being published whereby a writer sells her work to a publisher. Now, you CAN compare traditional publishing to subsidy publishing, which is a different business model. In subsidy publishing, the "publisher" sells its services to the writer. The difference between the two is the direction in which the money flows. In one, the money flows to the writer and, in the other, money flows from the writer. But you cannot compare either business model to POD (print-on-demand).

POD is a digital technology used to print books in the same way that offset printing is a technology to print books. POD is more akin to a dictionary as a tool that publishers might choose to use than it is a business model. Any publisher (traditional, electronic or subsidy) might choose to use POD technology. For print publishers, it saves having to do large old-style print runs that require warehousing thousands of books. For e-publishers, it allows the printing of an especially popular e-book. For subsidy publishers, it permits doing a small run of fifty books for an author who will describe himself as self-published.

POD is not a business model. Are there companies that specialize in using POD technology? Absolutely. Lightning Source, BookSurge and Lulu are three of them. Let's look at Lightning Source next.

Lightning Source Inc. is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries Inc.

Ingram, as most people familiar with the publishing business know, is the world's largest wholesale distributor of books. Ingram is so large that, when Barnes & Noble proposed to buy it back in 1998, the Federal Trade Commission threatened an antitrust suit and forced B&N to withdraw its offer. The FTC reportedly had concerns because Ingram was responsible for as much as two-thirds of books shipped by wholesalers. Ingram also served B&N's competitors (Borders and especially Amazon.com). The FTC had concerns that the merger might impact growth of Internet book sales if Amazon's "main competitor also owned their primary supplier." (New York Times)

According to Lightning Sources's own site, the division "provides a comprehensive suite of demand-driven publishing solutions for publishers . . . Lightning Source stores books and other information electronically and delivers them 'on demand' in either traditional printed format or as e-Books in response to orders from booksellers, librarians, and publishers."

In other words, Lightning Source is a digital distributor in the same way that Ingram--its parent company--is a print book, audio book, DVD and CD distributor. Both Ingram and Lightning Source are part of the chain of distribution between the publisher and the bookstore/retail outlet. Neither is a business model. Neither is a publisher. Lightning Source DOES use POD technology.

Like I said: apples, oranges and eggs.